[The] smoothness with which ["The House of the Prophet"] proceeds from start to finish is very nearly slick. The important plot developments occur in elegantly spoken little tête-à-têtes whose surprising frankness serves the dual purpose of titillating the reader … and of bringing each scene to a quick and electric climax. What Mr. Auchincloss's technique seems to reflect is a closed little society that functions according to agreed-upon rules, wherein people know their own minds and get things done with the merest flick of their tongues.

As usual, this makes for pleasant, easy reading. But one is tempted to complain that in "The House of the Prophet," Mr. Auchincloss's technique is distinctly ill-suited to his subject. After all, Felix Leitner, the novel's protagonist, does not really live in a world in which the rules have been made up in advance….

[What] we must keep in mind...