In a review that appeared in the September 2006 issue of The Atlantic, Elizabeth Judd deemed The Emperor’s Children an “excellent read” and “a cheeky exposé of the pundit class in all its privileged splendor.” “Claire Messud turns the grappling for ideological supremacy among two generations of intellectuals into a riveting comedy of manners,” Judd wrote. “Thirty-year-old Marina, the brainy, ravishing only child of a celebrated journalist, returns to her Upper West Side home to complete a possibly worthless book on the cultural implications of children’s fashion. There she falls for an iconoclastic editor who dismisses her beloved father as ‘a tiny, pointless man roaring behind a curtain.’ ” With The Emperor’s Children, Messud has evoked comparisons to Tom Wolfe, Edith Wharton, and Henry James. The book’s large social canvas, array of interesting characters, and penetrating psychological insights make this a Big Novel in the classic sense, one that has already been a conversation generator, among not only the chattering classes it depicts but also among discerning readers across the country.

To read Elizabeth Judd’s full review of this novel, click here.