Last of the Old Guard

The American master Louis Auchincloss offers an intimate look
behind the closed doors of a prominent New York law firm.

Nearing the end of his days, Adrian Suydam, half the partnership of
the law firm of Suydam & Saunders, reflects on his lifelong friendship
and business relationship with Ernest Saunders, a tragic and complicated
man incapable of properly loving anyone. In this perceptive novel,
set against the backdrop of old New York, Auchincloss exposes the temptations and vicissitudes that thrust his characters toward unforeseen fates.

Drawing on his career as a wills-and-trusts attorney, Auchincloss
elegantly brings to life a stratum of society that few have seen. Through
interwoven tales of family members, clients, and such notables as Teddy
Roosevelt and the Astors, readers get an insider's look at a secretive
world. Touching, comical, and erudite, Last of the Old Guard is both a
revealing history of a high-profile law firm and an intimate portrait of a
poignant friendship between two men.