But Goldman officials told me the firm never acted as a principal on any of those trades, and Mr. Smith doesn’t provide any specific examples where it did. Moreover, they noted, Mr. Smith sold United States equities and derivatives while he was in London, not European ones, so he would have had no direct knowledge of European options trading.

Mr. Smith also faults Goldman for constantly changing its views on the outlook for European banks, requiring clients to keep trading and presumably generating more commissions for the firm. “No thinking client could believe that conditions on the ground could change that frequently. It was so obviously misleading and disingenuous,” he writes. But Goldman officials said that anyone immersed in the European debt crisis and government responses at the time would understand that conditions changed frequently, and it was Goldman’s obligation to keep clients informed.

As for muppets — a mildly derogatory term common in British slang — Goldman officials said they had conducted an exhaustive search after Mr. Smith resigned. They said they found only one such reference to a client, and it was about educating the client, a midsize European bank, not taking advantage of it.

The mere mention of Mr. Smith invokes passionate reactions at Goldman, but much of the initial anger seems to have dissipated. People I spoke to who had been close to him felt hurt, wronged and saddened by a broadside from someone they considered a friend and colleague, dedicated to the firm and its values, who was hard-working, reliable and humble. He seemed, they said, the last person to attack the firm and its culture.

One of Mr. Smith’s fellow interns said, “I thought he loved the firm and its culture.” The former intern, now a managing director, said he helped organize a going-away party for him at SPiN, a Manhattan club with 17 Ping-Pong tables. (Mr. Smith was a table tennis champion in his native South Africa.) “In his book he makes every element of our intern program seem demeaning,” the former intern said. “It was intense and stressful, but it was fun. And we learned so much.” He showed me a yearbook he had saved from that summer with several photos of a beaming Mr. Smith.

The Goldman officials I spoke to all asked not to be named because they didn’t want to be drawn into a public debate about the book.

A partner who said he acted in many ways as Mr. Smith’s mentor and was in regular contact with him until shortly before he left, said: “He never raised any issue with me. I had no inkling. I thought he’d settled in in London and was doing fine. I know he was disappointed he hadn’t been made a managing director yet, but he just wasn’t ready. For some people it’s a sprint, but it took me 18 years to make managing director and 20 years to make partner. I told him to keep at it and good things will happen. Serve clients and they’ll serve you. Give them good ideas. London was a great opportunity for him, and I thought he was excited.”