Book Description
This is the author’s first novel, which relates the experiences of a young bohemian intellectual. The six episodes create a fascinating portrait of a New York social circle of the 1930s. McCarthy’s bold insight and virtuoso style won her immediate recognition as one of the most accomplished, versatile, and penetrating writers in americanca.



The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature
First novel by Mary Mccarthy. Originally published as six separate short stories, the novel appeared in 1942. Protagonist Margaret Sargent, a young student at a women's college, "a princess among the trolls," is based upon the author herself. The stories are barely disguised and acutely observed accounts of the author's own years as a young New Yorker and describe the failure of a marriage, random love affairs, and a passing flirtation with Trotskyism. Margaret's search for personal identity and her need for honesty and for distinguishing appearance from reality are the themes of the stories.


About the Author
Mary McCarthy (1912-1989) was a short-story writer, bestselling novelist, essayist, and critic. A member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters, she was the author of The Group, Memoirs of a Catholic Girlhood, The Stones of Florence, and Birds of America, among other books. Mary McCarthy's first novel, The Company She Keeps, was originally published in 1942.

ANNOTATION

A reissue of the author's first novel, which relates the experiences of a girl in her twenties and on her own in New York.

FROM THE PUBLISHER