2 Novels by Mary McCarthy
Requirements: ePUB Reader, 1 MB; 2.8 MB
Overview: Mary Therese McCarthy (June 21, 1912 – October 25, 1989) was an American author, critic and political activist. Her debut novel, The Company She Keeps, received critical acclaim as a succès de scandale, depicting the social milieu of New York intellectuals of the late 1930s with unreserved frankness. After building a reputation as a satirist and critic, McCarthy enjoyed popular success when her 1963 novel The Group remained on the New York Times Best Seller list for almost two years. Her work is noted for its precise prose and its complex mixture of autobiography and fiction.
Genre: Fiction > Classics, Contemporary, Satirical
The Oasis Vivian Gornick(Introduction): A vicious and brilliant satire of human vanity from the author of the classic bestseller The Group..
Long out of print, Mary McCarthy’s second novel is a bitingly funny satire set in the early years of the Cold War about a group of writers, editors, and intellectuals who retreat to rural New England to found a hilltop utopia. With this group loosely divided into two factions—purists, led by the libertarian editor Macdougal Macdermott, and the realists, skeptics led by the smug Will Taub—the situation is ripe not only for disaster but for comedy, as reality clashes with their dreams of a perfect society.
Though written as a roman à clef, McCarthy barely disguised her characters, including using her former lover Philip Rahv, founder of Partisan Review, as the model for Will Taub. As a result, the novel caused an absolute explosion of outrage among the literary elite of the day, who clearly recognized themselves among her all-too-accurate portraits. Rahv threatened a lawsuit to stop publication. Diana Trilling, Lionel Trilling’s wife, called McCarthy a "thug." McCarthy’s friend Dwight McDonald (Macdougal Macdermott) called it "vicious, malicious, and nasty."
Never one to shy away from controversy, McCarthy’s portrait of her generation had indeed drawn blood. But the brilliance of the novel has outlasted its first detonation and can now be enjoyed for its aphoritic, fearless dissection of the vanities of human endeavor.
In an added bonus, the renowned essayist Vivian Gornick details in a moving introduction the importance of McCarthy’s intellectual and artistic bravery, and how she influenced a generation of young writers and thinkers
The Company She Keeps: 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.
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.
Download Instructions:
The Oasis: http://corneey.com/wLUiNh
http://corneey.com/wLUiNl
The Company She Keeps: http://corneey.com/wLUiNc
http://corneey.com/wLUiNW
