The James Osborn Collection of Joyce Cary manuscripts deposited in the Bodleian Library contains all of the extant notebooks, worksheets, trial scenes, and early versions of Cary's works, both published and unpublished, finished and unfinished. This collection, gathering together in one place all of Cary's manuscripts, provides a unique record of the techniques, intentions, and development of an important contemporary novelist. Though the genesis and development of each of Cary's novels can be traced from an examination of the manuscript collection, I have limited this study to the first trilogy because the complexity of the trilogy form provides a deeper insight into Cary's method of writing and because the trilogy form represents his most important literary achievement.