THE COUNTRY COUSIN by Louis Auchincloss Houghton Mifflin; 239pages; $8.95
The typical Louis Auchincloss novel varies as the weather varies from year to year; some are stormier than others, some a degree or two more torrid, but there are few surprises. The Country Cousin, this year's offering, features a cast familiar to readers of his 20 previous works of fiction: the calculating but sympathetic adventuress from a deprived background; an older sponsor scornful of the conventions of New York Society; taciturn, philandering businessmen with ruddy faces; and their thwarted wives, thirsting for uninhibited affairs. No more unpleasant crowd has been assembled...