Diary of a Yuppie by Louis Auchincloss
"Diary of a Yuppie" by Louis Auchincloss is a first-person narrative that explores the life of Robert Service, a young lawyer navigating the competitive world of corporate law in the late 1970s. The novel begins in 1979, showcasing Service's seemingly successful life, including a happy marriage and a promising career. However, it soon delves into the moral complexities of his actions and the personal relationships affected by his ambition and ethical compromises. Service's professional journey is marked by manipulative tactics and a disregard for traditional values, particularly as he conspires to break away from his mentor's firm with the intent of establishing his own. His relationships, particularly with his wife Alice and a lover, Sylvia Sands, reflect the tensions between personal desire and professional ambition. Throughout the story, Service justifies his unscrupulous decisions by claiming they are a necessary response to the inherent selfishness of humanity. Ultimately, he resolves to superficially change his behavior to regain Alice's affection, highlighting a central theme of the narrative: the conflict between superficial success and genuine moral integrity. "Diary of a Yuppie" thus offers a critical perspective on the excesses of modern ambition and the personal costs of a life driven by self-interest.
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Diary of a Yuppie by Louis Auchincloss
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1986
Type of work: Novel
The Work
Diary of a Yuppie is a candid first-person account of a crucial period in a young lawyer’s life. The book is presented as a private journal but is unlike most such works in that it is surprisingly free of confessions of guilt or even expressions of regret. To Robert Service, the title character, the end always justifies the means.
The novel begins in 1979. At thirty-two, Service is happily married to Alice, a beautiful, intelligent woman whom he met at Columbia University, and they have two daughters. Service specializes in corporate takeovers, and he has done so well that at the beginning of the next year, he expects to be made a partner in his firm. With this achievement, he will have outdone his father, who never became a partner but settled instead for an inferior position. The respect that Service might otherwise have bestowed on his real father has gone to Branders Blakelock, a highly respected member of the firm and the young man’s mentor and sponsor.
However, from Service’s vantage point, Blakelock no longer deserves his respect or even his loyalty when, by criticizing the younger man’s tactics, he proves to have what Service considers nineteenth century values. To Service, that criticism justifies his conspiring with Glenn Deane, another unscrupulous lawyer, and Peter Stubbs, a gifted and wealthy young man, to steal the most capable young men from their present firm and start their own. After Blakelock informs her as to what Service has done, Alice is so appalled that she moves out. Service cannot understand why she disapproves of his actions. He misses her, however, and is determined to do anything to get her back.
Six months later, the new firm has seventeen partners and thirty-nine associates. However, Service’s conspirator Deane has gathered a little court around him that threatens Service’s power. Again, Service strikes, but by expelling Deane from the firm, he infuriates Alice, who had been about to return to her husband.
Although Service had always prided himself on his fidelity, he now becomes involved with another woman, Sylvia Sands, a professional fund-raiser, who proves to be both as clever and as unscrupulous as Service. At first, Service is dazzled by the circles in which she moves, but before long, he realizes that she is controlling both his social life and his professional commitments. When she tries to force him to divorce Alice and marry her, he breaks off the affair. Alice takes Service back, just as he is, and he resolves to act more like the man Alice wants him to be. When she turns out to be pregnant, he is ecstatic, for to him that is proof that the gods are truly on his side.
Throughout the novel, Service justifies every unethical act on the grounds that, because every human being is selfish and greedy, he is merely acting in self-defense. It is significant, then, that in the end he promises to “act” differently, not to “be” different. Moreover, since he will no longer be keeping a journal, he will not even have to contemplate what he truly is. Clearly, Auchincloss means Robert Service to represent modern man at his worst: a creature who glories in his freedom from all constraints, a creature without a soul.
Bibliography
Bryer, Jackson R. Louis Auchincloss and His Critics: A Bibliographical Record. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1977.
Dahl, Christopher C. Louis Auchincloss. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1986.
Gelderman, Carol. Louis Auchincloss: A Writer’s Life. New York: Crown, 1993.
Parsell, David B. Louis Auchincloss. Boston: Twayne, 1988.
Piket, Vincent. Louis Auchincloss: The Growth of a Novelist. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991.
Tuttleton, James W. “Louis Auchincloss at 80.” New Criterion 16, no. 2 (October 1, 1997): 32-36.
Tuttleton, James W. “Louis Auchincloss: The Image of Lost Elegance and Virtue.” In A Fine Silver Thread: Essays on American Writing and Criticism. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1998.
Vidal, Gore. “The Great World and Louis Auchincloss.” In United States. New York: Random House, 1993.