Joyce Cary wrote two trilogies, or 'triptychs' as he later called them, and both are in Faber Finds. The first comprises Herself Surprised (1941), To Be a Pilgrim (1942) and The Horse's Mouth (1944). The Horse's Mouth is a portrait of an artistic temperament. Its protagonist, Gulley Gimson, is an impoverished painter who scorns conventional good behaviour. If a bad citizen, he is a good artist, so wholly preoccupied with his art that he is willing to endure any privation. For Gulley there is but one morality: to be a painter. "Joyce Cary is an important and exciting writer...To use Tennyson's phrase, he is a Lord of Language ...if you like rich writing full of gusto and accurate original character drawing, you will get it from The Horse's Mouth". (John Betjeman, Daily Herald).

Joyce Cary wrote two trilogies, or 'triptychs' as he later called them, and both are in Faber Finds. The first comprises Herself Surprised (1941), To Be a Pilgrim (1942) and The Horse's Mouth (1944). The Horse's Mouth is a portrait of an artistic temperament. Its protagonist, Gulley Gimson, is an impoverished painter who scorns conventional good behaviour. If a bad citizen, he is a good artist, so wholly preoccupied with his art that he is willing to endure any privation. For Gulley there is but one morality: to be a painter. "Joyce Cary is an important and exciting writer...To use Tennyson's phrase, he is a Lord of Language ...if you like rich writing full of gusto and accurate original character drawing, you will get it from The Horse's Mouth". (John Betjeman, Daily Herald).