Lucky Jim

Fiction & Literature, Humorous, Literary
Cover of the book Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis, New York Review Books
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Kingsley Amis ISBN: 9781590175910
Publisher: New York Review Books Publication: October 2, 2012
Imprint: NYRB Classics Language: English
Author: Kingsley Amis
ISBN: 9781590175910
Publisher: New York Review Books
Publication: October 2, 2012
Imprint: NYRB Classics
Language: English

Regarded by many as the finest, and funniest, comic novel of the twentieth century, Lucky Jim remains as trenchant, withering, and eloquently misanthropic as when it first scandalized readers in 1954. This is the story of Jim Dixon, a hapless lecturer in medieval history at a provincial university who knows better than most that “there was no end to the ways in which nice things are nicer than nasty ones.” Amis’s scabrous debut leads the reader through a gallery of emphatically English bores, cranks, frauds, and neurotics, with each of whom Dixon must contend in one way or another in order to hold on to his cushy academic perch and win the girl of his fancy.
 
More than just a merciless satire of cloistered college life and stuffy post-war manners, Lucky Jim is an attack on the forces of boredom, whatever form they may take, and a work of art that at once distills and extends an entire tradition of English comic writing, from Fielding and Dickens through Wodehouse and Waugh. As Christopher Hitchens has written, “if you can picture Bertie or Jeeves being capable of actual malice, and simultaneously imagine Evelyn Waugh forgetting about original sin, you have the combination of innocence and experience that makes this short romp so imperishable.”

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Regarded by many as the finest, and funniest, comic novel of the twentieth century, Lucky Jim remains as trenchant, withering, and eloquently misanthropic as when it first scandalized readers in 1954. This is the story of Jim Dixon, a hapless lecturer in medieval history at a provincial university who knows better than most that “there was no end to the ways in which nice things are nicer than nasty ones.” Amis’s scabrous debut leads the reader through a gallery of emphatically English bores, cranks, frauds, and neurotics, with each of whom Dixon must contend in one way or another in order to hold on to his cushy academic perch and win the girl of his fancy.
 
More than just a merciless satire of cloistered college life and stuffy post-war manners, Lucky Jim is an attack on the forces of boredom, whatever form they may take, and a work of art that at once distills and extends an entire tradition of English comic writing, from Fielding and Dickens through Wodehouse and Waugh. As Christopher Hitchens has written, “if you can picture Bertie or Jeeves being capable of actual malice, and simultaneously imagine Evelyn Waugh forgetting about original sin, you have the combination of innocence and experience that makes this short romp so imperishable.”

More books from New York Review Books

Cover of the book On the Abolition of All Political Parties by Kingsley Amis
Cover of the book Friend of My Youth by Kingsley Amis
Cover of the book The Post-Office Girl by Kingsley Amis
Cover of the book Difficult Women by Kingsley Amis
Cover of the book The Milk of Dreams by Kingsley Amis
Cover of the book W. S. Graham by Kingsley Amis
Cover of the book The Root and the Flower by Kingsley Amis
Cover of the book The Scientist as Rebel by Kingsley Amis
Cover of the book Black Wings Has My Angel by Kingsley Amis
Cover of the book Pitch Dark by Kingsley Amis
Cover of the book On the Yard by Kingsley Amis
Cover of the book A Memoir of the Warsaw Uprising by Kingsley Amis
Cover of the book The Pushcart War by Kingsley Amis
Cover of the book Max in Hollywood, Baby by Kingsley Amis
Cover of the book The Gallery by Kingsley Amis
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy