The Company She Keeps

The Company She Keeps, first novel by Mary McCarthy. Originally published as six separate short stories, the novel appeared in 1942.

Protagonist Margaret Sargent, a young student at a women’s college, “a princess among the trolls,” is based upon the author herself. The stories are barely disguised and acutely observed accounts of the author’s own years as a young New Yorker and describe the failure of a marriage, random love affairs, and a passing flirtation with Trotskyism. Sargent’s search for personal identity and her need for honesty and for distinguishing appearance from reality are the themes of the stories.