A collection of three novels by the author who transformed the scope and style of twentieth-century American literature—including the landmark classic The GroupIn Mary McCarthy's most famous novel, The Group (1963), she depicts the lives of eight Vassar College graduates during the 1930s as they grapple with sex, sexism, money, motherhood, and family. McCarthy's final two novels—Birds of America (1971), a coming of age tale of 19-year-old...

This smash hit and must-read classic about privileged Vassar classmates that shocked America in the sixties remains "juicy . . . witty . . . brilliant" ( Cosmopolitan ).At Vassar, they were known as "the group" —eight young women of privilege, the closest of friends, an eclectic mix of vibrant personalities. A week after graduation in 1933, they all gather for the wedding of Kay Strong, one of their own, before going their...

A college instructor embarks on a fanatical quest to save his job—and enact righteous revenge—in this brilliantly acerbic satire of university politics during the early Cold War yearsHenry Mulcahy's future is in question. An instructor of literature at Jocelyn College, an institute of higher learning renowned for its progressive approach to education, he has just received word that he will not be teaching next semester. He strongly suspects that his dismissal has be...

BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE GROUP'A jagged diamond of a book' OBSERVER'A woman of intellect and style' CELIA MCGEE, NEW YORK TIMES'Timeless, brilliant and frighteningly insightful' DAILY MAILTold through six interlinked stories, this is a dazzling, fractured portrait of 1930s New York, and of the witty, bohemian heroine at the ...

This first volume of the definitive edition of her fiction includes four novels and eight classic stories by the witty and provocative writer who defined a generationIn 1942, Mary McCarthy provoked a scandal with her electrifying debut novel, The Company She Keeps, announcing the arrival of a major new voice in American literature. A candid, thinly-veiled portrait of the late-1930s New York intellectual scene, its penetrat...

The Oasis is Mary McCarthy at her most incisive and mischievous, turning the American hunger for renewal into a razor-edged social comedy.Set in the years just after World War II, the novel follows a band of intellectuals, artists, and political dreamers who abandon New York City for a dilapidated rural compound they grandly christen "the Oasis."Their aim is nothing less than to build a new way of living - purged of capitalism, conformity, and moral compromise - th...

Strikingly relevant and shrewdly observed, Mary McCarthy's On the Contrary collects articles, talks, reviews, travel notes, a short story, and a personal reminiscence by the legendary writer and contrarian. Included is her review of Hannah Arendt's seminal book, The Human Condition, a bitingly funny take on Simone de Beauvoir's account of her visit to the United States in 1947, a candid essay addressing her experience with communism, and her no-holds-barred review of the ...

With a lack of sentimentality unusual for the genre, Venice Observed explores the history, art, architecture, religion, and cultural peculiarities of the City of Canals. Mordantly witty and legendarily wry, Mary McCarthy catalogs the impressions of such visitors to the city as Montaigne, Stendhal, Spencer, and Henry James, but paints her own wholly original depictions of the city. Her adoration of the immortal city enlivens her interest in everything from the Venetian preference f...

The news felt like a punch in the gut. I cried in disbelief as the doctor told me what they found. In the blink of an eye, my world turned upside down. My husband brought me to the Emergency Room after I experienced a seizure. The hospital staff did scans, tests, and a biopsy, and now the doctor told me I had an inoperable brain tumor. The name of my nemesis was Oligoastrocytoma, Grade 3. My husband and I used the CaringBridge website to keep family and friends informed on how I was doing....

Eloquent and assured, Mary McCarthy's The Stones of Florence beckons the reader on a brisk but sweeping tour of the birthplace of the Renaissance and the legendary home of the Medici, Dante, Machiavelli, Michelangelo, and other giants of the age. Her keen observations of this famously alluring city speak to Florence's persistent character and magnetism-and the attraction it exerted over the first major wave of American tourists to postwar Europe. These essays, which originally app...

From a nuclear North Korea and territorial disputes in the East China Sea, to global climate change and Asia-Pacific free trade agreements, Japan is at the center of some of the most challenging issues that the world faces today. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, comprising contributions from the fields of politics, sociology, history, and gender studies, this handbook creates a comprehensive and innovative overview of the field, investigating the widening variety of interests, sometim...

Change is complicated and challenging – even when it leads to positive results. But while it’s much easier to avoid change, you reach a point when change finds you. It demands your attention, and it won’t take no for an answer. Is this where you are right now? Are you ready to make a big change in your personal, professional or creative life? Do you need help getting started? Then this course is for you! Start Changing Your Life is a 15-chapter, self-guided course that centers around the i...