The House of the Prophet

The protagonist of this major new novel is a celebrated lawyer and political commentator. Felix Leit-ner's career—as advisor to presidents, brain-truster with the Justice Department, author of influential books on constitutional law and international politics, and Pulitzer-winning columnist—unfolds amid the pivotal issues and events of half a century. Its distinguishing characteristic is his unswerving commitment to intellectual truth, which often brings him to unpopular stands but which lends him, in the eyes of millions, the stature of an oracle.

To tell Felix's larger-than-life story, Louis Auchincloss returns to the mode of fictional biography that produced his masterful portrait The Rector of Justin. Like that earlier classic, The House of the Prophet reveals its subject through the eyes of both his admirers and detractors; here the several narrators include Felix's two ex-wives, his stepdaughter, and a former law partner. The biographer and principal...