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The First Trilogy #1
Herself Surprised
Herself Surprised , the first volume of Joyce Cary's remarkable First Trilogy, introduces Sara Monday, a woman at once dissolute and devout, passionate and sly. With no regrets, Sara reviews her changing fortunes, remembering the drudgery of domestic servitude, the pleasures of playing the great lady in a small provincial town, and the splendors and miseries of life as the model, muse, and mistress of the painter Gulley Jimson.
300 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1941
54 people are currently reading
1207 people want to read
About the author
Joyce Cary
100 books98 followersCary now undertook his great works examining historical and social change in England during his own lifetime. The First Trilogy (1941–44) finally provided Cary with a reasonable income, and The Horse's Mouth (1944) remains his most popular novel. Cary's pamphlet "The Case for African Freedom" (1941), published by Orwell's Searchlight Books series, had attracted some interest, and the film director Thorold Dickinson asked for Cary's help in developing a wartime movie set partly in Africa. In 1943, while writing The Horse's Mouth, Cary travelled to Africa with a film crew to work on Men of Two Worlds.
Cary travelled to India in 1946 on a second film project with Dickinson, but the struggle against the British for national independence made movie-making impossible, and the project was abandoned. The Moonlight (1946), a novel about the difficulties of women, ended a long period of intense creativity for Cary. Gertrude was suffering from cancer and his output slowed for a while.
Gertrude died as A Fearful Joy (1949) was being published. Cary was now at the height of his fame and fortune. He began preparing a series of prefatory notes for the re-publication of all his works in a standard edition published by Michael Joseph.
He visited the United States, collaborated on a stage adaptation of Mister Johnson, and was offered a CBE, which he refused. Meanwhile he continued work on the three novels that make up the Second Trilogy (1952–55). In 1952, Cary had some muscle problems which were originally diagnosed as bursitis, but as more symptoms were noted over the next two years, the diagnosis was changed to that of motor neuron disease, a wasting and gradual paralysis that was terminal.
As his physical powers failed, Cary had to have a pen tied to his hand and his arm supported by a rope in order to write. Finally, he resorted to dictation until unable to speak, and then ceased writing for the first time since 1912. His last work, The Captive and the Free (1959), first volume of a projected trilogy on religion, was unfinished at his death on March 29, 1957.
Cary travelled to India in 1946 on a second film project with Dickinson, but the struggle against the British for national independence made movie-making impossible, and the project was abandoned. The Moonlight (1946), a novel about the difficulties of women, ended a long period of intense creativity for Cary. Gertrude was suffering from cancer and his output slowed for a while.
Gertrude died as A Fearful Joy (1949) was being published. Cary was now at the height of his fame and fortune. He began preparing a series of prefatory notes for the re-publication of all his works in a standard edition published by Michael Joseph.
He visited the United States, collaborated on a stage adaptation of Mister Johnson, and was offered a CBE, which he refused. Meanwhile he continued work on the three novels that make up the Second Trilogy (1952–55). In 1952, Cary had some muscle problems which were originally diagnosed as bursitis, but as more symptoms were noted over the next two years, the diagnosis was changed to that of motor neuron disease, a wasting and gradual paralysis that was terminal.
As his physical powers failed, Cary had to have a pen tied to his hand and his arm supported by a rope in order to write. Finally, he resorted to dictation until unable to speak, and then ceased writing for the first time since 1912. His last work, The Captive and the Free (1959), first volume of a projected trilogy on religion, was unfinished at his death on March 29, 1957.
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November 4, 2022
Joyce Cary could limn his unique characters in his own very imaginative and idiosyncratic style.
Herself Surprised is a story about woman’s troubled destiny and all the men in her life…
She married very young and above her social status. She was common and very naïve girl, she wished to be in high society but she was too vulgar and simple and didn’t know whom to follow and what goal in life she should pursue…
Not possessing enough willpower, she was too kind and malleable so she became just an echo of her men…
And eventually she fell a victim of her own kindness…
Some individuals are masters of their life and some are blown by the wind.
Herself Surprised is a story about woman’s troubled destiny and all the men in her life…
I was caught up and couldn’t get out. He brought me the ring that night and how could I say no then, with it around my neck? It was the ring on Monday and the registry office on Thursday and London that night and Paris on the next Tuesday. In one week from that idle word my whole state was changed as much as if I had been made over into another woman. I could not believe it myself and still it seemed to me that I was play-acting, or that the world was more like a play than I had thought.
She married very young and above her social status. She was common and very naïve girl, she wished to be in high society but she was too vulgar and simple and didn’t know whom to follow and what goal in life she should pursue…
So I sat feeling like a martyr going to the torturers and slow hard death, and all for what? There was nothing religious nor any sense in it. God knows, I thought, you’re a floating kind of woman; the tide takes you up and down like an old can.
Not possessing enough willpower, she was too kind and malleable so she became just an echo of her men…
“Look at that woman over there – she’s laughed so much that the tears are coming down her make-up. I’m told she’s a duchess too – Hickson has spent a month trying to get her.”
“What should a duchess know about pictures?” I said. “I think she’s laughable herself, old fowl dressed like chicken. I think that the exhibition is a great success.”
And eventually she fell a victim of her own kindness…
Some individuals are masters of their life and some are blown by the wind.
March 31, 2018
”A good cook will always find work, even without a character, and can get a new character in twelve months, and better herself, which, God helping me, I shall do, and keep a more watchful eye, next time, on my flesh, now I know it better.”
The Dell paperback cover. The poor lass will catch a chill.
Sara will be known by many names in her lifetime, but the one that seems to stick is Mrs. Sara Monday. She is writing her story from a prison cell, and though she admits some fault in her circumstances, she will make the case that her intentions are always almost innocent. You will also learn, as you navigate the uncertain waters of her life, that she is an unreliable narrator.
When she takes a position in a well to do household, she is just there to enjoy the work and has no designs on finding a husband, but soon Matthew Monday, the son and heir, is pursuing her relentlessly. She insists that she tries to dissuade him, but she did meet him on the back stairs a time or two, so it is no wonder that Matthew was not dissuaded.
She is not as pretty as some, nor as ugly as others. She is a well built woman, maybe heavier than what is thought to be fashionable. She is not a petite dove by any means. She knows that she has her share of flaws to overcome, so being a bit aggressive just really levels the playing field. Matthew may have thought it was his idea to marry Sara, but there is something whispering in the background of this whole situation that makes me believe that Sara may have protested her innocence as she was panting on his neck.
”So it was every night. I even made it seem welcome to please the man, for I thought, if I must give him his pleasure, it was waste not to give him all that I could.”
And that is a philosophy she follows her whole life.
Sara has a bit of a misunderstanding regarding a rich, married man in the neighborhood. It is all smoothed over, but it was a close thing, falling just short of open scandal. She didn’t mean to tickle such a desire in the man. She only wanted him to help her husband advance in society.
*Raised Eyebrow*
When Matthew decides to move an artist by the name of Gulley Jimson into the household to allow Jimson the freedom to advance his art unfettered by the distractions of bills or the want of food, I hear the first rumbles of thunder of an approaching storm. Jimson is a notorious womanizer, as are any painters worthy of the name artist. He talks Sara into letting him draw her hand or arm or face and asks to see her legs, but given that Sara is a “pious woman,” she doesn’t allow that. Putting Jimson and Sara together in the same room is like mixing sulfur, charcoal, and saltpeter together.
BOOM!
In a few years, Sara is known as Mrs. Jimson, though she is not really Mrs. Jimson, but then that is a whole other story for you to read about. Let’s just say that she and Jimson have a long relationship that spans many years and becomes one of the main reasons why she is telling her tale from behind iron bars.
After her husband dies and she has froliced around a bit with Mr. Jimson, she eventually finds herself working as a domestic again. There was a bit of a misunderstanding about some checks that were written that were not properly covered in a timely fashion. It is, as she says, a brush with the law. She takes a job working for Mr. Tom Wilcher. The agency that finds her the job cautions her that Wilcher has had a few issues. ”Mr. Wilcher had sometimes squeezed one of the maids a little or pinched her, or perhaps shown her something that he had better have kept to himself, and that he had been warned by the police, more than once.”
Goodness, that sounds like a place that a “pious” woman, like Sara Monday/Jimson, should avoid.
She takes the job.
Difficult situations sometimes create opportunities for a woman on the verge of desperate financial ruin.
Jimson continues to hound her, not so much wanting her back as wanting her to help support him. She pays him the extorted amount every week, basically to keep him away. She is happy in her new position, and Mr. Tom Wilcher, a lifetime bachelor, is, after all, very lonely.
Joyce Cary
I was putting the John Franklin Bardin book I’d just finished reading back on the shelf in my library when my eye caught the dust jacket of First Trilogyby Joyce Cary. I remembered reading something years ago that had prompted me to buy this book. I just couldn’t for the life of me remember what it was. I started reading the first few pages of the first novel and sat down on the stairs (my library is in the basement) to be more comfortable. Next thing I knew, I’d read 50 pages. The book managed to jump in front of the pile of books I have upstairs on my bedroom dresser that constitutes my MUST READ IMMEDIATELY PILE.
Gully Jimson is a character in all three books. The second book, To Be a Pilgrim, focuses on the life of Tom Wilcher, otherwise known as the maid pincher. The third book, The Horse’s Mouth is Joyce Cary’s most well regarded and most well loved book and focuses on Gully Jimson. I will definitely be reading the other two books, as well.
The interesting thing is the book has a personalized bookplate, a rather disturbing image actually, from a Cincinnati lawyer who owned his own law firm. Thank you, google. He died in 1980. Books are so portable and, during their lifetimes, sometimes move all over the countryside. They acquire a history with each new set of hands who own them. I wonder who owned this book between Mr. Strauss and myself, or did this book languish in a bookstore until I bought it over the internet? The book, if ever it was purposeless, has achieved a new purpose bringing the prose of Joyce Cary to the mind of a reader in Dodge City, Kansas.
Book plate. There is a sticker of Bertrand Smith’s Acres of Books Cincinnati on the inside cover as well.
The book is a bit bawdy, but never thunderously so. The reader is expected to read much into the sometimes cryptic or elusive facts that Sara chooses to share. There is a jauntiness to the book that brought a smile to my lips at several points. I couldn’t help liking Sara and her views of the world. She seems like the type of gal, in a different period of my life, I would have loved to share a pint with and maybe steal an afternoon of her time.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
The Dell paperback cover. The poor lass will catch a chill.
Sara will be known by many names in her lifetime, but the one that seems to stick is Mrs. Sara Monday. She is writing her story from a prison cell, and though she admits some fault in her circumstances, she will make the case that her intentions are always almost innocent. You will also learn, as you navigate the uncertain waters of her life, that she is an unreliable narrator.
When she takes a position in a well to do household, she is just there to enjoy the work and has no designs on finding a husband, but soon Matthew Monday, the son and heir, is pursuing her relentlessly. She insists that she tries to dissuade him, but she did meet him on the back stairs a time or two, so it is no wonder that Matthew was not dissuaded.
She is not as pretty as some, nor as ugly as others. She is a well built woman, maybe heavier than what is thought to be fashionable. She is not a petite dove by any means. She knows that she has her share of flaws to overcome, so being a bit aggressive just really levels the playing field. Matthew may have thought it was his idea to marry Sara, but there is something whispering in the background of this whole situation that makes me believe that Sara may have protested her innocence as she was panting on his neck.
”So it was every night. I even made it seem welcome to please the man, for I thought, if I must give him his pleasure, it was waste not to give him all that I could.”
And that is a philosophy she follows her whole life.
Sara has a bit of a misunderstanding regarding a rich, married man in the neighborhood. It is all smoothed over, but it was a close thing, falling just short of open scandal. She didn’t mean to tickle such a desire in the man. She only wanted him to help her husband advance in society.
*Raised Eyebrow*
When Matthew decides to move an artist by the name of Gulley Jimson into the household to allow Jimson the freedom to advance his art unfettered by the distractions of bills or the want of food, I hear the first rumbles of thunder of an approaching storm. Jimson is a notorious womanizer, as are any painters worthy of the name artist. He talks Sara into letting him draw her hand or arm or face and asks to see her legs, but given that Sara is a “pious woman,” she doesn’t allow that. Putting Jimson and Sara together in the same room is like mixing sulfur, charcoal, and saltpeter together.
BOOM!
In a few years, Sara is known as Mrs. Jimson, though she is not really Mrs. Jimson, but then that is a whole other story for you to read about. Let’s just say that she and Jimson have a long relationship that spans many years and becomes one of the main reasons why she is telling her tale from behind iron bars.
After her husband dies and she has froliced around a bit with Mr. Jimson, she eventually finds herself working as a domestic again. There was a bit of a misunderstanding about some checks that were written that were not properly covered in a timely fashion. It is, as she says, a brush with the law. She takes a job working for Mr. Tom Wilcher. The agency that finds her the job cautions her that Wilcher has had a few issues. ”Mr. Wilcher had sometimes squeezed one of the maids a little or pinched her, or perhaps shown her something that he had better have kept to himself, and that he had been warned by the police, more than once.”
Goodness, that sounds like a place that a “pious” woman, like Sara Monday/Jimson, should avoid.
She takes the job.
Difficult situations sometimes create opportunities for a woman on the verge of desperate financial ruin.
Jimson continues to hound her, not so much wanting her back as wanting her to help support him. She pays him the extorted amount every week, basically to keep him away. She is happy in her new position, and Mr. Tom Wilcher, a lifetime bachelor, is, after all, very lonely.
Joyce Cary
I was putting the John Franklin Bardin book I’d just finished reading back on the shelf in my library when my eye caught the dust jacket of First Trilogyby Joyce Cary. I remembered reading something years ago that had prompted me to buy this book. I just couldn’t for the life of me remember what it was. I started reading the first few pages of the first novel and sat down on the stairs (my library is in the basement) to be more comfortable. Next thing I knew, I’d read 50 pages. The book managed to jump in front of the pile of books I have upstairs on my bedroom dresser that constitutes my MUST READ IMMEDIATELY PILE.
Gully Jimson is a character in all three books. The second book, To Be a Pilgrim, focuses on the life of Tom Wilcher, otherwise known as the maid pincher. The third book, The Horse’s Mouth is Joyce Cary’s most well regarded and most well loved book and focuses on Gully Jimson. I will definitely be reading the other two books, as well.
The interesting thing is the book has a personalized bookplate, a rather disturbing image actually, from a Cincinnati lawyer who owned his own law firm. Thank you, google. He died in 1980. Books are so portable and, during their lifetimes, sometimes move all over the countryside. They acquire a history with each new set of hands who own them. I wonder who owned this book between Mr. Strauss and myself, or did this book languish in a bookstore until I bought it over the internet? The book, if ever it was purposeless, has achieved a new purpose bringing the prose of Joyce Cary to the mind of a reader in Dodge City, Kansas.
Book plate. There is a sticker of Bertrand Smith’s Acres of Books Cincinnati on the inside cover as well.
The book is a bit bawdy, but never thunderously so. The reader is expected to read much into the sometimes cryptic or elusive facts that Sara chooses to share. There is a jauntiness to the book that brought a smile to my lips at several points. I couldn’t help liking Sara and her views of the world. She seems like the type of gal, in a different period of my life, I would have loved to share a pint with and maybe steal an afternoon of her time.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
August 13, 2020
I picked this book because a GR friends really liked it. As I recall that person said to read this book first because it was part of a triptych (or maybe that person said some other word but I knew this was the first of a series). Anyhoo it forms part of a trilogy published by Harper & Row in 1958 as First Trilogy. The second and third books are To Be a Pilgrim (1942) and In the Horse’s Mouth (1944). I look forward to reading the other two with some degree of enthusiasm, but it is not marked. That is because I found this book at many times to be tedious to read. I was like…”Get to the point already!!!” or “You just waxed poetic about something for one page and you could have said it in one sentence!” The book was 275 pages. The only thing that made it somewhat manageable was that it was broken up into short chapters (86 of them!).
Why I want to read the other two novels that form part of this trilogy is that there are three points of view as to events that take place in Sara’s life, one from herself, one from Gulley Jimson, and one from Mr. W. So what I just read is Sara’s account of her life and events that took place….she is writing down this account while she is in jail for a newspaper tabloid that is paying her for her narrative….and they hope to hear tawdry stuff which they can then sell to the general public. Sort of like The National Enquirer. And by golly they will hear tawdry stuff! 😮 What I want to know is how two of the other men in her life saw those events that involved them and Sara…I think the other two books will shed light on that.
Sara’s last name is Monday because she married Matt Monday. She was working in the kitchen of his mother’s estate and he had the hots for her…I think he was in his 30s at the time and she was 19. He was unattractive but a nice man. She didn’t want to marry him but he was persistent and she ended up married to him. The title of the book is “Herself Surprised” and that is because throughout the book things happen to her and she has a role in causing those things to happen, but she has this feeling afterwards like “now how did that happen?” “So I am married to this guy that I don’t find attractive but I find to be nice? I wonder how that happened? Oh well, might as well go with the flow.” They end up with four children, and because he is rich she is living a very fine life, However he dies at a relatively early age. That’s not the end of her relationships with men — she ends up being in bed with both the artist Gulley Jimson and Mr. W. (as he is called in the book a lot but his name is Mr. Thomas Wilcher) albeit at different times in her life. She is supposed to be married to them so that all is proper and well given that she shares a bed with them, but as to whether she is married to them…I’ll have to leave it at that. You know…no spoilers from me! 😊 .
The book opens with her at trial and being sentenced to jail for stealing stuff from Mr. W. The book ends with her thinking that eventually she’ll get out of jail and will pick up her life where she left off, working in the kitchen of somebody’s estate. She feels bad for what she has done. But not that bad. She feels there were extenuating circumstances for why she did what she did. You will have to decide whether you buy what she says. I am fairly certain my opinion will be informed in part by what Gulley Jimson and Mr. W. say about her.
I am thinking that this might be similar to a novel I read a long time ago, “Happenstance”, by Carol Shields the Canadian writer (her most famous novel was “The Stone Diaries”). In Happenstance something happens and the first part of the book is the husband describing to the reader what happened and the second part of the book is the wife describing to the reader what happened, and the two descriptions are not a perfect match. So there is reality and things do happen to people but how it impacts them influences them in how they describe what happened (reality). So I want to find out how Gulley Jimson describes his life with Sara (In the Horse’s Mouth) and how Mr. W. (To Be a Pilgrim) describes his life with Sara and I have a suspicion the descriptions of reality will differ between the three.
This is Cary’s own words from the Preface to the First Trilogy:
• What I set out to do was to show three people, living each in his own world by his own ideas and relating his life and struggles, his triumphs and miseries in that world. They were to know each other and have some connection in the plot, but they would see completely different aspects of each other's character. (p. ix) What is revealed to us as we read through the three novels in order is the way in which their interrelationship is dependent on feeling.
Notes:
• This is the first time in my life I have heard of a male with a first name of “Joyce”. I went into this book thinking that a female was the author. Wrong-o.
• And I never heard of a first name of Gulley either. I would not want to be named after a gulley. Just saying.
Review:
I could only find one…from a blog site: https://www.themodernnovelblog.com/20...
About Joyce Cary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyce_Cary
Why I want to read the other two novels that form part of this trilogy is that there are three points of view as to events that take place in Sara’s life, one from herself, one from Gulley Jimson, and one from Mr. W. So what I just read is Sara’s account of her life and events that took place….she is writing down this account while she is in jail for a newspaper tabloid that is paying her for her narrative….and they hope to hear tawdry stuff which they can then sell to the general public. Sort of like The National Enquirer. And by golly they will hear tawdry stuff! 😮 What I want to know is how two of the other men in her life saw those events that involved them and Sara…I think the other two books will shed light on that.
Sara’s last name is Monday because she married Matt Monday. She was working in the kitchen of his mother’s estate and he had the hots for her…I think he was in his 30s at the time and she was 19. He was unattractive but a nice man. She didn’t want to marry him but he was persistent and she ended up married to him. The title of the book is “Herself Surprised” and that is because throughout the book things happen to her and she has a role in causing those things to happen, but she has this feeling afterwards like “now how did that happen?” “So I am married to this guy that I don’t find attractive but I find to be nice? I wonder how that happened? Oh well, might as well go with the flow.” They end up with four children, and because he is rich she is living a very fine life, However he dies at a relatively early age. That’s not the end of her relationships with men — she ends up being in bed with both the artist Gulley Jimson and Mr. W. (as he is called in the book a lot but his name is Mr. Thomas Wilcher) albeit at different times in her life. She is supposed to be married to them so that all is proper and well given that she shares a bed with them, but as to whether she is married to them…I’ll have to leave it at that. You know…no spoilers from me! 😊 .
The book opens with her at trial and being sentenced to jail for stealing stuff from Mr. W. The book ends with her thinking that eventually she’ll get out of jail and will pick up her life where she left off, working in the kitchen of somebody’s estate. She feels bad for what she has done. But not that bad. She feels there were extenuating circumstances for why she did what she did. You will have to decide whether you buy what she says. I am fairly certain my opinion will be informed in part by what Gulley Jimson and Mr. W. say about her.
I am thinking that this might be similar to a novel I read a long time ago, “Happenstance”, by Carol Shields the Canadian writer (her most famous novel was “The Stone Diaries”). In Happenstance something happens and the first part of the book is the husband describing to the reader what happened and the second part of the book is the wife describing to the reader what happened, and the two descriptions are not a perfect match. So there is reality and things do happen to people but how it impacts them influences them in how they describe what happened (reality). So I want to find out how Gulley Jimson describes his life with Sara (In the Horse’s Mouth) and how Mr. W. (To Be a Pilgrim) describes his life with Sara and I have a suspicion the descriptions of reality will differ between the three.
This is Cary’s own words from the Preface to the First Trilogy:
• What I set out to do was to show three people, living each in his own world by his own ideas and relating his life and struggles, his triumphs and miseries in that world. They were to know each other and have some connection in the plot, but they would see completely different aspects of each other's character. (p. ix) What is revealed to us as we read through the three novels in order is the way in which their interrelationship is dependent on feeling.
Notes:
• This is the first time in my life I have heard of a male with a first name of “Joyce”. I went into this book thinking that a female was the author. Wrong-o.
• And I never heard of a first name of Gulley either. I would not want to be named after a gulley. Just saying.
Review:
I could only find one…from a blog site: https://www.themodernnovelblog.com/20...
About Joyce Cary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyce_Cary
October 27, 2008
Joyce Cary continues to be the author whose books give me the most pure pleasure. I find myself grinning a lot and exclaiming things aloud while I read his work. The first time I read this book, I didn't think I liked it very much because it contains the character of Gulley Jimson, so captivating in The Horse's Mouth, but he isn't the focus of Herself Surprised, and I thought I wanted him to be. But around my third or fourth reading of The Horse's Mouth I started to realize that a book from the point-of-view of Sarah Monday ought to be amazing, and indeed it is. Her obsession with pleasure, and her exquisite manner of rationalizing everything she does, juxtaposed against her deep, but always swiftly thrust aside religion, make for an intriguing and very authentic character. I love how she constantly manipulates everyone around her and convinces herself that she didn't know she was doing it at the time. I think it's funny, and very true-to-life, how she is constantly indulging herself in any way she likes while pretending that she has been trying to resist every sensual temptation. And all the while she fears that God will punish her, but she keeps insisting that all her faults are just a result of the way she was made. Joyce Cary knows how to make profound character explorations & personality observations more delightful to read than anything in any more overtly humorous book I've ever read. This is a book I'll be coming back to again, for sure.
October 31, 2009
Sarah Monday, the protagonist of Herself Surprised is a wonderful character. She is everyman/woman in her loves, dishonesties and irrationality. Who couldn't relate to her while she does things she doesn't understand herself and hurts people she loves and only wants the best for? There are also beautiful passages where she loves and appreciates her life in the simplest things--her job as a cook with a well stocked kitchen, a beautiful garden. Cary has portrayed a wonderful, true-to-life-in-all-its-complexities woman.
September 17, 2023
This one took me months to get through but somehow I knew I would not abandon it. I've been thinking about this story even as I picked up and finished other books in between. I believe this is a testament to Joyce Cary's evocative writing style in which short chapters are used to flesh out characters yet you're somehow never bored reading pages of descriptions. Plus Cary is one of very few authors I've read so far who can write a compelling female protagonist and nail the ethos and psyche down to a tee. I think he's long overdue for rediscovery. Can't wait to read the other two books in this trilogy.
November 15, 2010
Cary has the Irish gift of mixing grime with glory. His writing is beautiful, some examples -
"For the sea itself, though gloomy from a boat, is always lively from the land. Even if it should be flat, on a hot day, yet it always has a sparkle. It never stops winking sunshine. But when it has waves, then it is like a whole ballroom full of heads bobbing up and down, and you would think the waves falling on the sand were the swish of skirts in the old grand waltz, not too quick, but always turning."
or
"'So here I am,' I thought 'mistress of my own world in my own kitchen,' and I looked at the shining steel of the range and the china on the dresser glittering like jewels... And then beyond where the larder door stood ajar you could see bottles of oil and relish and anchovies and pickles and underneath the lid of the big flour bin as white as its own lovely flour, I call it a treat for queens to sink your hands into new wheaten flour."
He does it over and over - right in the middle of squalor he shows you sheer exquisite joy. He's a marvelous writer. This book deserves more stars than I've given it, and the only reason I didn't give it more is out of personal preference - "The Horse's Mouth" was much more to my taste.
"For the sea itself, though gloomy from a boat, is always lively from the land. Even if it should be flat, on a hot day, yet it always has a sparkle. It never stops winking sunshine. But when it has waves, then it is like a whole ballroom full of heads bobbing up and down, and you would think the waves falling on the sand were the swish of skirts in the old grand waltz, not too quick, but always turning."
or
"'So here I am,' I thought 'mistress of my own world in my own kitchen,' and I looked at the shining steel of the range and the china on the dresser glittering like jewels... And then beyond where the larder door stood ajar you could see bottles of oil and relish and anchovies and pickles and underneath the lid of the big flour bin as white as its own lovely flour, I call it a treat for queens to sink your hands into new wheaten flour."
He does it over and over - right in the middle of squalor he shows you sheer exquisite joy. He's a marvelous writer. This book deserves more stars than I've given it, and the only reason I didn't give it more is out of personal preference - "The Horse's Mouth" was much more to my taste.
August 4, 2007
I remember being surprised that a man could create such a completely female character as Sara Monday, protagonist of the first novel in Cary's First Trilogy. By turns sly, seductive, nurturing, unscrupulous, voluptuous, deceitful, willful, and vibrant, she's utterly believable. The interplay of the three central characters in the First Trilogy is the real payoff in reading Cary. In this novel, Sara's view of Gulley is often at odds with the view of the first-person Gulley of The Horse's Mouth.
I read this trilogy out of sequence, starting with the third, then the first, and finally the second novel, To Be a Pilgrim, which I found not as enjoyable as the other two. I've reread Herself Surprised and The Horse's Mouth several times, though I think the latter is my favorite of the three books.
I read this trilogy out of sequence, starting with the third, then the first, and finally the second novel, To Be a Pilgrim, which I found not as enjoyable as the other two. I've reread Herself Surprised and The Horse's Mouth several times, though I think the latter is my favorite of the three books.
June 30, 2013
An amazing character study showing the complexity of human nature... including how our world view influences how we see ourselves and others.
April 30, 2012
"I thought that there were as many traps in humility as pride, and that the Devil's best hook was baited with confession."
Sara constantly looks beyond others' transgressions and surface expression to find the good soul within, but never manages to see her own. Still, she accepts what comes her way and makes the best and most of it.
She has been sent to prison; the book begins and ends with her ruminations about this fact; and in the between of her own story and confessions, she tries to make sense of how she became criminalized. Sara never blames others in her straightforward telling, even when the failures and faults of others put her in bad situations that lead her to trouble. She does not bear a grudge.
A deep appreciation for the living world, and her simple pleasure and enjoyment of just being alive, keep her solid and grounded. She says she does not like change, but she always finds value in her current situation and adapts, even thrives.
A wonderfully and richly developed character.
Sara constantly looks beyond others' transgressions and surface expression to find the good soul within, but never manages to see her own. Still, she accepts what comes her way and makes the best and most of it.
She has been sent to prison; the book begins and ends with her ruminations about this fact; and in the between of her own story and confessions, she tries to make sense of how she became criminalized. Sara never blames others in her straightforward telling, even when the failures and faults of others put her in bad situations that lead her to trouble. She does not bear a grudge.
A deep appreciation for the living world, and her simple pleasure and enjoyment of just being alive, keep her solid and grounded. She says she does not like change, but she always finds value in her current situation and adapts, even thrives.
A wonderfully and richly developed character.
January 12, 2009
This is a joy of a book. Sara Monday is one of the most honestly created characters in English literature. She is at her most loveable when she is at her most despicable. I just couldn't help but love her, warts and all. She is probably more an Everywoman character more than most would like to admit.
January 28, 2016
Sara Monday tells us via Joyce Cary's lovely prose all about her vigorous, full, fun and foolish life. For example: 'She was a queer girl, a lady by her rights and as pretty as a supplement, though gypsy in her color, but as helpless as a sheep on her back, turning its eyes at the sky and bleating for the moon to drop grass into its mouth.'
June 26, 2021
Here you will find well-rounded characters, leaning toward caricatures, with light humor and a sharp edge. Sara is more loving than loved, and tolerant to a fault. She’s more acted upon than influencing, which only fuels the irony when she is accused of taking advantage of Tom. At the same time she has a thief’s view of hoarding items she feels are owed her.
Cary paints breathtaking images through this servant-class narrator, an earthy, practical sort who has much to learn about herself.
Along the way we meet a reclusive, moody, first husband, Matt Monday, a self aggrandizing benefactor, Hickson, and an anarchic, abusive artist, Jim Gulley — the central character of the final book in the trilogy. When Gulley abandons Sara for another in a string of wives and mistresses, Sara finds herself embroiled with Mr Wilcher, the narrator of the second volume. Sarah accepts his polite but improper proposal, until his daughter in law intercedes to bring one of Sara’s secrets to light.
Cary paints breathtaking images through this servant-class narrator, an earthy, practical sort who has much to learn about herself.
Along the way we meet a reclusive, moody, first husband, Matt Monday, a self aggrandizing benefactor, Hickson, and an anarchic, abusive artist, Jim Gulley — the central character of the final book in the trilogy. When Gulley abandons Sara for another in a string of wives and mistresses, Sara finds herself embroiled with Mr Wilcher, the narrator of the second volume. Sarah accepts his polite but improper proposal, until his daughter in law intercedes to bring one of Sara’s secrets to light.
February 7, 2020
Herself Surprised is part of a trilogy (which Cary called a triptych) which ends with the more famous The Horse's Mouth. Each of the stories is written from the point of view of three of the entangled characters. This first tale is from the persepective of Sara Monday, whose journey from cook to housekeeper, to lover, to wife, to thief, is told in garrulous unreliable narrator style. Sara is religious, but manages to skirt around this when undertaking some dubious moral decisions. Is she as generous and warm-hearted and manipulated by others as she seems, or is her rationale for her actions just sly self-deception? Subtly funny, with some beautiful writing about simple joys, and a wink and a nod or two about human nature.
July 6, 2009
I expected more depth from this character. I didn't trust the author's voice about the character's motivation for her behavior. I suppose there are women who do things for the reasons Sara does, but I've never known anyone like her. It's part of a triptych - three novels that show the same events from three different perspectives, and perhaps the author just doesn't relate to her from inside her head. I thought I"d read the other two, but I'm not really motivated after this one.
April 23, 2010
I wasn't sure what to expect from this book as I was given it from someone getting rid of old books. Although it wasn't the most enjoyable read, it still contained some literary merit. But I do believe that a male author didn't quite grasp the female perspective with this one. What about her children? She hardly mentions them but to most women, it would be discussed much more than a broke, artistic bum...
March 6, 2014
The judge, when he sent me to prison, said that I had behaved like a woman without any moral sense.
Brilliant - the craic. 4.5*
Brilliant - the craic. 4.5*
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May 14, 2021I am really not sure if I have read this one before or not! I have read the third volume in the trilogy, The Horse’s Mouth, about a dozen times, and I suspect I read Herself Surprised and To Be A Pilgrim in the pre-comprehensive exam summer of 1995. It is wonderfully interesting to see the Sara Monday/Gulley Jimson relationship from Sara’s perspective. Cary’s humour is a continuing mix of the hilarious and the poignant. As a first person narrator, Sara Monday is unreliable to say the least and yet somehow lovable. This is one I’ll probably read again, if I’m lucky.
September 30, 2025
I actually gave it a 3 1/2. It's a really good story and the protagonist's eye for the beauty in the world is really fantastic, but I just struggled getting through it. It didn't leave me exhilarated or breathless or anything; it was just an excellent English novel, part one of a trilogy which will be an imaginative exercise in point of view. I just hope the next two reader better. Example of the way the narrator views the world: "It was late October, but some leaves were still hanging in the top branches, twiddling in the breath of air as bright as new sovereigns." This one struck me--the sound of dry leaves "twiddling" and the gentle air as "breath" and the brightness of new gold coins. I like that one. The protagonist was always going on about religion and duty and right and wrong, but she was actually a real hell raiser. It was a really good story and a worthwhile read; I just wasn't capivated.
May 13, 2017
Like many people, I have read and loved The Horse's Mouth (more than once, in fact). So I finally got 'round to reading another book in Cary's "triptych", Herself Surprised. For some reason I had difficulty getting going with this book, and that's the only reason I didn't give it five stars. I found the beginning hard to stick at.
Perhaps it's because I'm in love with the character of Gulley Jimson, who is central to The Horse's Mouth, but I felt that even though Cary's prose in wonderful in this book from the very beginning, it didn't really come alive until Gulley showed up. Maybe that's because Sara, the central character of this book, is brought to life by her love for Gulley, and I think that's something which many readers and commentators miss. They get hung up on the various men in Sara's life, and what they might mean, and how we should interpret the easy way she slides from one man to another, and they miss the effect that Jimson and Sara have on each other. The way they can't stop being friends even when they cease to be lovers in the sexual sense. They are still lovers at the soul level.
The prose and descriptions in this book are sumptuous, humourous and clever. Cary gives Sara Monday an artist's eye for description, and I often think that's another reason she and Gulley are so well suited to one another, for although she often describes his paintings as absurd, she understands the value of his need for self-expression, and is only half surprised on the occasions when he gains recognition. This book kept making me want to pull out a notebook and jot down her clever, analogous descriptions.
Perhaps it's because I'm in love with the character of Gulley Jimson, who is central to The Horse's Mouth, but I felt that even though Cary's prose in wonderful in this book from the very beginning, it didn't really come alive until Gulley showed up. Maybe that's because Sara, the central character of this book, is brought to life by her love for Gulley, and I think that's something which many readers and commentators miss. They get hung up on the various men in Sara's life, and what they might mean, and how we should interpret the easy way she slides from one man to another, and they miss the effect that Jimson and Sara have on each other. The way they can't stop being friends even when they cease to be lovers in the sexual sense. They are still lovers at the soul level.
The prose and descriptions in this book are sumptuous, humourous and clever. Cary gives Sara Monday an artist's eye for description, and I often think that's another reason she and Gulley are so well suited to one another, for although she often describes his paintings as absurd, she understands the value of his need for self-expression, and is only half surprised on the occasions when he gains recognition. This book kept making me want to pull out a notebook and jot down her clever, analogous descriptions.
March 23, 2017
There is a strong hint of Moll Flanders in the main character of Herself Surprised, Sara Monday. Sara is not a particularly good woman, or a particularly bad woman, but clearly a woman careless with her life. She makes no real plan, and does not try to improve herself, but only to take advantage in the moment. Her first married name, Monday, suggests that despite her desire to be religious, and her observances of religion on Sundays, she is a woman of the world, the mundane. Yet, like Moll Flanders, she is admirable in her ability to keep going even when terrible things happen to her, and never to blame the world or other people for her troubles. And like Moll Flanders, there is a lot to like about Sara.
February 27, 2018
** SPOILERS**This book was very frustrating. the writing is very good and the story is interesting but the the ideas behind the story are what frustrate me. The story is about a woman who has three main relationships in her lifetime. The first man was good to her but accused her of cheating on him which was not true. The second man beat her and she thought she deserved it. And the third man was her employer employer and took advantage of her sexually and she was okay with it. She ended up in jail and thought she deserved it. I know I'm coming at it from my own modern point of view, but still!
May 30, 2014
A clever character study written in an old-fashioned style that is highly readable and fluid. I was surprised, myself, at my capacity for appreciating and enjoying this book. I immediately got caught up in the fate of Sara. What a great character! She's a complicated mix of self-indulgence, accommodation and restraint. She's treated unjustly but she also takes advantage of others. (It's been decades since I read Moll Flanders, but there lingered in my mind a sense that there is some similarity?)
February 1, 2020
Superlative writing from Cary (as I was expecting having read The Horse's Mouth first), with the most real/fully-rounded female character that I've ever known a man write in Sara Monday. The gentle satisfaction that she gets from her housekeeping/cooking/gardens etc, along with her being unable to help herself wrt men (esp Gully Jimson) and minor offences which land her in jail (not a plot spoiler, as this is apparent from first sentence!). Close to 5 stars, but sprawls a bit and gets a bit repetitive, so 4.5 rounded down to 4.
August 8, 2017
Wonderful distillation of the historical difficulties experienced by women. There is very little overly dramatic or melodramatic problems that arise here, but the everyday mundane issues that require constant compromise are shrewdly described and feel realistic. The realist aspect does however contribute to a fairly tedious read, and there is a bit of repetition with the cyclical return of an abusive lover which adds an unfortunate frustration.
May 20, 2013
Picked this up on the basis of the title, which I loved. Good read, although it felt a little dated. It was nice to read a novel wherein the heroine accepts responsibility for what befalls her. She is no-nonsense in that respect. You cannot always understand her motivations, but you respect her because she is honest and true to who she is.
March 13, 2017
In this first book of Cary's First Trilogy, Sara Monday tells the story of her bumpy life with great verve. From the secure life with her husband to becoming the mistress of an obsessively selfish painter, Gulley Jimson, and on to housekeeping for a miserly lawyer, Sara rolls with the punches and never loses faith.
February 2, 2020
Cary's cast of very flawed characters, especially the main character, Sara Monday,
is a yarn brimming over with grace, grace, and more grace flowing with constancy from Sara Monday. The story is definitely for "inconsistent, unsteady disciples whose cheese is falling off their cracker" as Brennan Manning said.
is a yarn brimming over with grace, grace, and more grace flowing with constancy from Sara Monday. The story is definitely for "inconsistent, unsteady disciples whose cheese is falling off their cracker" as Brennan Manning said.
January 14, 2016
The story in Herself Surprised will carry you along - there are some passages that are artfully descriptive but not always keeping with the character of Sarah through whom the story is told. Seems to accurately capture a time and place and way of life.
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June 27, 2007unforgettable, heartbreaking and hilarious. Sounds like a cover blurb, but accurate.
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