Although all three novels in this 'trilogy' are independent works that have been published individually, they share a common thematic concern with transcendentalism, not least in respect of modern art, and were originally written by the author in quick succession, thereby retaining a stylistic as well as thematic consistency which has always lent itself to the idea of a loose trilogy that, partly because of their mutual independence and partly because of their subject-matter, could be regarded as 'transcendent'. Hence the title, 'A Trilogy Transcendent', which, deferring to the structural informality of the texts, has the merit of presenting these three novels in a cyclically chronological light - something arguably necessary to John O'Loughlin's work as a whole, but especially necessary to a fuller understanding of his approach to transcendentalism as it stood in 1980, the year these novels were written.