BEGLEY, Louis. About Schmidt. N. Y.: Alfred A. Knopf 1996. First edition. "Set in the Hamptons and Manhattan, infused with black humor and startling eroticism, Louis Begley's fourth novel casts a cold, pitiless eye on a class once-ascendant on the eastern seaboard as it is pushed aside by those whose fortunes are rising. 'About Schmidt' is a meditation on loneliness and on the power of romance to unlock the most impenetrable recesses of the heart; it brilliantly enlarges Begley's exploration of the tragic themes that haunt his earlier works. 8vo, cloth-backed boards, dust jacket. Fine copy in jacket a little sunned along spine