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The Group - Campus Novel
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The Group

description The Group Overview

The Group is a 1963 novel by Mary McCarthy that follows a group of eight women who graduate from Vassar College in 1933 and pursue their lives in New York City over the subsequent decades. The novel was a bestseller upon publication and is noted for its frank depiction of women's experiences with careers, sexuality, marriage, and social expectations during the Depression and World War II eras. McCarthy drew on her own Vassar education in writing the novel.

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Who are the women in Mary McCarthy's The Group?

The novel follows eight women who graduate from Vassar College in the class of 1933. Their lives then move in different directions as they face marriage, work, sex, motherhood, and changing ideas about women's independence.

When was The Group published?

Mary McCarthy's The Group was published in 1963. It became a bestseller and attracted attention for its frank treatment of women's private lives.

Is The Group based on Mary McCarthy's own Vassar experience?

The book draws on the Vassar world that McCarthy knew, although it is a work of fiction. The eight central characters are fictional graduates whose lives unfold in New York after college.

Was The Group adapted into a film?

Yes. Sidney Lumet directed a 1966 film adaptation starring Candice Bergen, Joan Hackett, and Elizabeth Hartman, among others.

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