THE FIRST TRILOGY three landmark British novels in one unforgettable volume

THREE CLASSIC TWENTIETH CENTURY NOVELS. ONE EXTRAORDINARY VISION OF LIFE ART, AND FAITH.

‘There seems to be more truth of human nature, a profounder understanding of the springs of action than in any novel I have read for a long time.’ L.P. Hartley

‘Mr Joyce Cary is an important and exciting writer . . . if you like rich writing full of gusto and accurate original character drawing, you will get it from The Horse’s Mouth.’ John Betjeman

‘He was a marvellous writer, fresh, funny and popping with life.’ Doris Lessing

‘A splendid writer.’ John Updike

Joyce Cary’s First Trilogy stands among the most original achievements of twentieth-century fiction. Linked by characters who recur and re-emerge in new lights, these three novels explore love, betrayal, art, politics and the elusive nature of truth.

In
Herself Surprised
, Sara Monday tells her own story — from her reckless youth and disastrous marriage to the years as housekeeper, lover, and muse of the painter Gulley Jimson. Honest, earthy, and full of contradictions, Sara emerges as one of Cary’s most vivid creations.

To Be a Pilgrim
shifts perspective to the aging schoolmaster Tom Wilcher, Sara’s former employer, whose reflections on politics, religion, and family illuminate a generation caught between tradition and modern upheaval.

Finally,
The Horse’s Mouth
gives the stage to Gulley Jimson himself — anarchic, comic, unscrupulous, and inspired. Narrating his own adventures in pursuit of beauty and survival, Jimson is one of literature’s great a visionary painter forever skirting ruin and ridicule, yet incapable of giving up the struggle to create.

Taken together, the trilogy forms a kaleidoscopic portrait of English society between the wars — by turns tragic, humorous, satirical and profound.

PRAISE FOR THE FIRST
‘Whenever I am idle I choose a Cary novel in the way that I might seek a friend's company, and it is not long before I am encouraged, inspired to write.’ Paul Theroux
‘The richest comic novel of the last ten years.’ V. S. Pritchett
‘A remarkable novel . . . beautifully done.’ Country Life
‘Acute, balanced, and at times brilliantly pure narrative, with a delicacy of insight that adorns everything he touches . . . a very live and true story.’ Times Literary Supplement
‘A book about how England has changed over the years . . . along the lines of Brideshead Revisited.’ The Modern Novel

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Well crafted, and a hoot to boot.’ Heavy T.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Uproariously funny! What a pleasure!’ mzbeastle
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘This is one of the most original and powerful novels I've read, a real classic.’ Melvyn E.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘I can't remember reading such finely written characters.’ Miss D.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘The unsung hero of the modern novel.’ Rick S.