Arthur Joyce Lunel Cary elegantly combined modern fiction's playful experimentation with the traditional novel's strong reliance on plot and character. Born in Ireland, Cary's family soon relocated to England. Growing up, he navigated three distinct worlds: the bustling life in London, the serene holidays in Devon, and the culturally rich vacations with his grandparents in Ireland.

Early Life and Education

These diverse environments shaped Cary’s ability to view life through multiple lenses. Tragically, Cary lost his mother, Charlotte, at the age of ten, and his stepmother, Dora, followed when he was fifteen. His academic journey took him to boarding schools at Hurstleigh and Clifton, where he was a rather unremarkable student. For a period, Cary entertained dreams of becoming an artist, a path that led him to France in 1904, where he fell in love with Impressionism. By 1906, he was in Paris as an art student, but a year later he moved to Edinburgh, only to abandon painting by 1908, realizing that writing was his true calling. This pivotal transition inspired Cary's first fictional trilogy, focusing on the character Gulley Jimson—a bohemian artist whose spirited life and imaginative vision brought vivid emotion and metaphors to Cary’s novels.

University and Colonial Service

In 1909, Cary attended the University of Oxford to study law, completing his degree by 1912. Lacking clear career prospects, he ventured to the Balkans amidst burgeoning conflict. A year later, Cary joined the colonial service and was dispatched to Nigeria in 1914, where he spent four years engaged in the fight against the German East African army and contributed to postwar rebuilding efforts. His roles varied from policeman to tax collector, and engineer, experiences that deeply influenced his writing. Like contemporaries such as Rudyard Kipling and George Orwell, Cary's time within the empire provided him with a unique perspective on global affairs, which he channeled into early works exploring the often comic yet tragic interactions between Western imperialism and African tribalism.

Return to England and Literary Pursuits

Cary returned to England in 1920, settling in Oxford with his wife, Gertrude Ogilvie, whom he married in 1916. For 37 years, they resided in the same home, raising five children and facing personal challenges, including Gertrude's terminal illness. To make ends meet, Cary crafted engaging short stories for magazines, which eventually allowed him the financial freedom to focus on more serious literature. His debut novel, Aissa Saved, did not achieve commercial or critical success, but it marked the beginning of his reputation as a skilled writer of novels addressing social conflicts. Shifting his focus from Africa to Ireland, he published Castle Corner in 1938, seeking to capture complex realities beyond traditional narrative forms. With Mister Johnson, Cary reached a turning point, using innovative narrative techniques to explore character depth and perception, notably through the shared experiences of an African and a European—Johnson and Rudbeck. The novel, though ending in tragedy, highlighted Cary’s ability to use narrative forms to delve into character intricacies.

A Trilogy on Art and Recognition

In 1941, Cary achieved recognition with the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, just as he embarked on a significant trilogy centered around the world of painting. Each novel in this trilogy presents a different perspective—Herself Surprised through the eyes of Sara Monday, To Be a Pilgrim from Tom Wilcher's point of view, and The Horse’s Mouth through Gulley Jimson's narrative. These works weave the interconnected lives of artists and critics, capturing their essence through distinctive narrative voices. Despite the lack of a chronological structure, the trilogy revisits the same events and emotions, offering rich, multifaceted character studies. Written...