Mary McCarthy's most celebrated novel portrays the lives, and aspirations of eight Vassar graduates. "The group" meet in New York following commencement to attend the wedding of one of their members and reconvene seven years later at her funeral. The woman are complicated, compelling, vivid, and, above all, determined not to become stuffy and frightened like "Mother and Dad" but to lead fulfilling, emancipated lives.

A classic of contemporary fiction, The Group is a dazzlingly outspoken novel, written with the trenchant, sardonic edge that is the hallmark of Mary McCarthy's prose.