The Group
HarperCollins · Print & ebook · September 16, 1991
A Fiction pick for readers exploring The Group.
We earn from qualifying purchases.
- Who it’s for
- A sardonic, sharply observant novel about friendship and the lives its members make after college.
- Themes
- Women’s lives and independence, Friendship and loss, Social history between the world wars
- Genres
- 20th-Century Historical Fiction, Feminist Fiction, Women's Fiction
Nearest books
Matched by what the books are about, then ordered by what their readers also loved.
The AlternativesCaoilinn Hughes51% match
The Book Club for Troublesome WomenMarie Bostwick66% matchShares Feminist Fiction
The Feminine MystiqueBetty Friedan, Gail Collins51% match
The Briar ClubKate Quinn63% matchShares Women's Fiction
SistersMary S. Lovell51% match
The Book ClubMary Alice Monroe61% matchShares Women's Fiction
The New GirlsBeth Gutcheon61% matchShares Feminist Fiction
For younger readers: The War Outside, Beth Is Dead, The Peach Rebellion
Start with three books, and this one can be the first.
Members get a new edition every morning: a route out from their books to essays, research and talks, with the reason for each.
Start with this bookAbout this book
"Juicy, shocking, witty, and almost continually brilliant."—Cosmopolitan Written with a trenchant, sardonic edge, The Group is a dazzlingly outspoken novel and a captivating look at the social history of America between two world wars. Award-winning Mary McCarthy’s most celebrated novel follows the lives of eight Vassar graduates, known simply to their classmates as “the group.”
Continue reading
An eclectic mix of personalities and upbringings, they meet a week after graduation to watch Kay Strong get married. After the ceremony, the women begin their adult lives — traveling to Europe, tackling the worlds of nursing and publishing, and finding love and heartbreak in the streets of New York City. Through the years, some of the friends grow apart and some become entangled in each other's affairs, but all vow not to become like their mothers and fathers. It is only when one of them passes away that they all come back together again to mourn the loss of a friend, a confidante, and most importantly, a member of the group.
Wit Among Friends
A sardonic, sharply observant novel about friendship and the lives its members make after college.
Come here for
- Eight Vassar graduates finding their way through love, work, and changing bonds
- A lively lens on American social history between two world wars
Expect
- Trenchant wit with an edge
- Friendships that shift as the women’s lives unfold
Where it sits
| Feminist Fiction | 54% |
|---|---|
| Women's Fiction | 32% |
| 20th-Century Historical Fiction | 27% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- World War I Historical Fiction
- World War II & Holocaust
- Post–World War II Fiction
- Literary Fiction
Show all 8 publisher categories
- 20th-Century Historical Romance
- American Historical Romance
- Women's Fiction
- Friendship
- Authors
- Mary McCarthy
- Publisher
- HarperCollins
- Published
- September 16, 1991
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Women’s lives and independence · Friendship and loss · Social history between the world wars
- Reading lane
- World War I Historical Fiction