The Group

Penguin Books Ltd, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England Penguin Books Pty Ltd, Ringwood, Victoria, Australia First published in the U.S.A. 1963 Published in Great Britain byWeidenfeld and Nicolson 1963 Published in Penguin Books for sale outside the United Kingdom 1964 Reprinted 1965 This edition published 1966

Copyright © Mary McCarthy, 1954, 1963

Made and printed in Great Britain by Cox and Wyman Ltd, London, Reading and Fakenham

Set in Monotype Fournier

Some of the material in this book appeared originally, in somewhat different form, in the New Yorker, Partisan Review, and in Avon Book of Modern Writing, No. 5

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise disposedof without the publisher’s consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published