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‘Juicy, shocking, witty, and almost continually brilliant’ COSMOPOLITAN

‘A brilliant novel: honest, engaging and sharp as a tack’ SARAH WATERS

‘Lively, vivid and exceedingly entertaining’ SUNDAY TIMES

This groundbreaking novel celebrates its 60th anniversary in 2023. One of the first novels to frankly depict friendship, sex and women’s lives. It was a revelation and continues to inspire today.

WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY MONICA ALI

Mary McCarthy’s most celebrated novel portrays the lives and aspirations of eight Vassar graduates. ‘The group’ meet in New York following graduation to attend the wedding of one of their friends – and reconvene seven years later at her funeral. The women, fresh from college, vowed not to become stuffy and frightened like their parents, but to lead fulfilling, emancipated lives. Who really achieved this – and what sacrifices and compromises had to be made?

‘McCarthy’s characters confront many of the same issues as their modern counterparts: sex and contraception, career and marriage, love and lust, fidelity to one’s husband versus loyalty to one’s friends and the attempt to carve out a place for oneself unconstrained by the gender limitations of previous generations. Its continuing relevance is one of the book’s most extraordinary attributes’ ELIZABETH DAY, GUARDIAN

Publisher Review

Absorbing, funny, painful . . . I consider it a masterpiece -- Hilary Mantel Shocking, titillating, and acid-laced . . . the book still dazzles as a generational portrait, falters as fiction, and blighted McCarthy's life -- Laura Jacobs * Vanity Fair * A brilliant novel: honest, engaging and sharp as a tack -- Sarah Waters McCarthy's characters confront many of the same issues as their modern counterparts: sex and contraception, career and marriage, love and lust, fidelity to one's husband versus loyalty to one's friends and the attempt to carve out a place for oneself unconstrained by the gender limitations of previous generations. Its continuing relevance is one of the book's most extraordinary attributes -- Elizabeth Day * Guardian * Few works of literature can genuinely be termed "ahead of their time" * The Times * Juicy, shocking, witty, and almost continually brilliant * Cosmopolitan * Lively, vivid and exceedingly entertaining * Sunday Times * One of my favourite books ever -- India Knight A woman of intellect and style -- Celia McGee * New York Times * Her greatest novel . . . marvellous . . . a prophetic book which set the scene . . . for the novels of protest and liberation in the next decade * Independent * Feels like discovering a thrilling secret. Its prose shows a master stylist at work, its aesthetics are striking - all ivory-tipped cigarettes, hand-pureed pate, Vassar socialists in dungarees - and it has a surprise queer romance that twists the whole narrative into new shape. It's my new standard for a summer read: lavish, hilarious, smart and mean, like a glamorous friend you're torn between fearing and crushing on -- Mikaella Clements Scalpel-keen prose, honed on ruthless wit and insight * Observer * She is a sparkler, a very funny, very savage moralist, and a brilliant mimic * Spectator * This is the book which has aroused considerable advance speculation and well it might; it has a tremendous reader recognition . . . there cannot be much doubt that Mary McCarthy is an exceptional social satirist, with a jackdaw eye and an infallible ear * Kirkus Reviews *