Portrait in Brownstone

By: Louis Auchincloss

Narrated by: C.M. Herbert

Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

Auchincloss' tale of a New York family dynasty opens with the suicide of Geraldine Brevoort, a woman whose pride and envy fed her alcoholism and kept her alone, and leads the listener through an odyssey, told in flashbacks by Geraldine's plain yet bright cousin, Ida, and Ida's husband, Derrick - also Geraldine's lover, unbeknownst to Ida - and other family members. What unfolds is the story of the intertwining lives of families from different ethnic and social backgrounds, and the misapprehensions that result when such families are brought together through love, marriage, and adultery.

©1962 by Louis Auchincloss (P)1998 by Blackstone Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Outstanding...impressive...wonderful." (Washington Star)

Great book, dated recording

At first I didn’t think I would be able to listen to this because the quality of the recording is crackly and feels dated, but once I got into the story, I only felt it added to the charm of a story written 50 years ago and set in the first half of the 20th century.

A world of observances, observed

A now almost forgotten world of New York money, position and social observances is observed in this novel by an author now almost faded to obscurity himself.

Listening to this audio version of one of Auchincloss's most prominent works I thought of John Galsworthy and his The Forsyte Saga as being a good trans-atlantic comparison. Both authors deal with human emotions filtered by a complex construct of social obligations to which all must pay heed, before choosing rebellion or acceptance.

Auchincloss is a fine writer and, however limited his canvas, this is a fine, surprisingly involving novel with moments of powerful engagement. The recording is uneven but does not diminish the experience.

Portrait in Brownstone

I enjoyed the plot, but it was too wordy--was the editor too impressed that the Author is one of Jackie Kennedy's cousins?