Herself Surprised

By Joyce Cary
Introduction by Brad Leithauser

Herself Surprised, the first volume of Joyce Cary's remarkable First Trilogy, introduces Sara Monday, a woman at once dissolute and devout, passionate and sly. With no regrets, Sara reviews her changing fortunes, remembering the drudgery of domestic servitude, the pleasures of playing the great lady in a small provincial town, and the splendors and miseries of life as the model, muse, and mistress of the painter Gulley Jimson.

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Reviews

A master among the English novelists of his time.
— Madison Smartt Bell

Also see:

The Horse's Mouth By Joyce Cary Introduction by Brad Leithauser The Horse's Mouth, the third and most celebrated volume of Joyce Cary's First Trilogy, is perhaps the finest novel ever written about an artist.

To Be a Pilgrim By Joyce Cary Introduction by Brad Leithauser Tom Wilcher, the hero of the second volume of Joyce Cary's First Trilogy, has been at various times a political activist, a closefisted lawyer, a self-sacrificing brother, and a dirty old man. But as he faces death his unfulfilled spiritual yearnings are uppermost in his mind.

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