The Embezzler

by Louis Auchincloss

Like Francis Prescott in The Rector of Justin, Guy Prime enjoyed the distinction of having become a legend in his lifetime. But in Guy's case, the legend is one of betrayal and infamy. For the scandal of his embezzlement brought down the delicately balanced structure of the Stock Exchange. The long-honored system of self-government by mutual trust among gentlemen came to an end with the default of one of its brightest stars.The story of Guy's fall is told by the three persons most intimately Guy himself, Rex Geer, his closest friend, and Angelica, his wife. We see him first through his own eyes — embittered, oddly proud of his peculiar distinction, and entirely unrepentant — the golden boy, the Wall Street manipulator, and finally the old man determined to justify himself to the grandchildren he will never see.Rex and Angelica in turn pick up the same threads of the story, but the threads change color subtly as they pass through different hands. In the end, the reader must decide for himself which is the real Guy Prime.Louis Auchincloss brings to the financial world the same authority and understanding he brought to the worlds of the law (Powers of Attorney), the private school (The Rector of Justin), and the old families of New York (Portrait in Brownstone). Virgilia Peterson, writing in the New York Times Book Review, called The Rector of Justin "not only a passionately interesting, but a spiritually important study of the American character of, and for our time." Her words hold true for The Embezzler.

Genres: Fiction, Literature, Historical Fiction

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1966

About the author

Louis Stanton Auchincloss was an American novelist, historian, and essayist.

Among Auchincloss's best-known books are the multi-generational sagas The House of Five Talents, Portrait in Brownstone, and East Side Story. Other well-known novels include The Rector of Justin, the tale of a renowned headmaster of a school like Groton trying to deal with changing times, and The Embezzler, a look at white-collar crime. Auchincloss is known for his closely observed portraits of old New York and New England society.

Reviews

[DoctorM · Rating 4 out of 5]

Louis Auchincloss is a great American writer--- the heir of Wharton ---and scandalously under-appreciated. His novels and short stories of a dying Old New York upper class are finely-crafted, elegant, sympathetic, and ruthlessly insightful. "The Embezzler" is Auchincloss' look at the Crash of 1929 and the world of finance there in an old-guard, pre-SEC world. His central character is based on the disgraced head of the NYSE, and Auchincloss captures the views of the old guard who felt sympathy for a fallen friend as well as the voices of the New Dealers who saw a villain to be pursued. "The Embezzler" is one of the finest financial novels ever written--- as good as Trollope, as good as Stead's "House of All Nations". Very much worth reading, especially here in the aftermath of the Global Economic Meltdown of '08.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the #9 bestseller in 1966. What a surprise to find myself reading the 1966 version of Trust, Hernan Diaz’s co-winning Pulitzer Prize of 2023! Both deal with players in the banking/stock market world of New York City in the 20th century. The Embezzler was a good read, in fact a much better read than any of the earlier bestsellers by Auchincloss which I have read.

Guy Prime came of age in the 1930s, the time period of the main character in Trust. It is just after the 1929 stock market crash but Guy’s extended family did not lose that much of their wealth because that kind of wealth can be a cushion against disaster, just as it is to this day among financial giants. But Guy is from the slightly less wealthy and successful branch of a banking family. The novel tells the story of how he became an embezzler and how it affected his life and his marriage and his offspring. Another parallel to Trust was the telling of the story from three different viewpoints. I wonder if Hernan Diaz read The Embezzler as part of his research.

Banking, investing, stock markets, extreme wealth accrued from rapacious business practices, have all been around for a long, long time. It is not a morally correct sort of thing, but it has brought incredible wealth to a small proportion of the world’s population while failing to change a thing for the levels of poverty among mankind. However, the so-called middle class has seen benefits despite the losses incurred during crashes, embezzling, and Ponzi schemes, etc. Most American families that have achieved some portion of the American Dream, have investments, including my own and my partner’s families.

I have never been good at making money, for various reasons which I will not go into here, but my partner has been, and we live in relative financial security. I have conflicted feelings about that which I assuage somewhat by the way I choose to live. I also enjoy reading about this whole segment of life in fiction. In fact, I found a list of novels about Wall Street/the stock market etc, right here on Goodreads: a list of 126 such novels. I have only read 6 of those but many other novels over the past 100 years or so include the subject.

My preference would be a more equitable society and I do also read about such attempts. Utopia is another long dream some of us have had. The financial practices of Earth have led us to the crises we face now regarding climate disaster, immigration cruelties, racial tension, crime and imprisonment rates, etc, etc.

In one of his interviews, Hernan Diaz spoke of endeavoring to “change the narrative” in Trust. I like reading about the topic in novels because they tend to expose the disgusting details beneath the wealth in a way that informs me more than the news of the day does.

A List of Wall Street/stock market fiction I have read:
Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe
The Coffee Trader, David Liss
Trust, Hernan Diaz
The Sot Weed Factor, John Barth
Lake Success, Gary Shteyngart
Free Food For Millionaires, Min Jin Lee

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good. Auchincloss wrote about wealthy New York society, consciously in the tradition of Henry James and Edith Wharton and timewise picking up about where those older writers left off – the active career of the main character here runs from about World War I through the early years of FDR’s administration, as covered by memoirs of the principals of the plot written in the early 60s. Auchincloss might not have the depth of James and Wharton but for readability his prose leaves theirs in the dust.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I could assign 3.5 stars, I would. ( I remember being very impressed with The Rector of Justin which I enjoyed more and assigned 4 stars. ) Somehow, this book seemed dated and overly dramatic. I liked the manner in which he divided the book in thirds, with each of the three main characters writing their account of exactly what happened. He is a clever writer.

[L. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Three different narrators set out to bore me to tears.

They succeed. Oh, how they succeed.

[Lauren Wiseman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spoilers Contained in Review

As one of my favorite characters James Norrington would say, "It's a peculiar thing." There was a time that I wouldn't have read a book like this. It's 1930s-1960s scandal with an embezzler and his wife cheating on him with his best friend. Typical stuff.

In spite of it being "typical stuff", I really did like it. It was predictable in a way, because everything you would expect--the imprisonment, the affair, the divorce--would happen. That didn't mean it was a bad book.

It was weirdly structured, and I didn't care for the ending, exactly. I guess I would have wanted one more Guy chapter.

[Gregory · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of his best.

[Jocelyn Montalvo Cullum]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/13627185

[Showme · Rating 3 out of 5]

Inside Madoff's head.

Although written in the 1960s, and covering a period between 1900-ish and the 1930s, reading this book allowed me to imagine I was in Bernie Madoff's head, learning why he did what he did.

Mr. Auchincloss has an elegant writing style I enjoy, using a sentence structure that sometimes makes me pause to re-read, to make sure I've understood his meaning correctly.

This is a good read. The topics covered - Wall Street, intrigue, love, deceit, manipulation - remain timely.

If I were going to quibble, it would be on behalf of the character, Lucy (Rex's wife). Although she was intellectually and emotionally strong, intelligent, insightful, and loving, the author really did her wrong by allowing the main characters to universally dismiss her as "poor creature."

[Mike Harper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Almost a great book!
Auchincloss writes as beautifully as anyone, and here he tells a wonderful story. Three people - the embezzler himself, his best friend and his wife - tell the tale. They agree about the facts, but interpret them differently. The embezzler's crime is secondary to his flawed self image and his misunderstanding of his family and friends. Everything occurs against the backdrop of Wall Street and the Great Depression. All in all, a great American tale.