Kingsley Amis` witty campus novel, ” Lucky Jim” is a comedy that skewers the hypocrisies & vanities of 1950s academic life. This ” Penguin Modern Classics” edition contains an introduction by David Lodge. Jim Dixon has accidentally fallen into a job at one of Britain`s new red brick universities. A moderately successful future in the History Department beckons
- as long as Jim can stave off the unwelcome advances of fellow lecturer Margaret, survive a madrigal-singing weekend at Professor Welch`s, deliver a lecture on ` Merrie England` & resist Christine, the hopelessly desirable girlfriend of Welch`s awful son Bertr&. Inspired by Amis`s friend, the poet Philip Larkin, Jim Dixon is a timeless comic character, adrift in a hopelessly gauche & pretentious world. Kingsley Amis (1922-1995), born in London, wrote poetry, criticism, & short stories, but is best remembered as the novelist whose works offered a comic deconstruction of post-war Britain. Amis explored his disillusionment with British society in novels such as ” Lucky Jim” (1954) & ” That Uncertain Feeling” (1955); his other works include ” The Green Man” (1970) ” Stanley & the Women” (1984), & ” The Old Devils” (1986) which won the Booker Prize. If you enjoyed ” Lucky Jim”, you might like Amis`s ” The King`s English”, also available in ” Penguin Modern Classics”. ”A flawless comic novel...I loved it then, as I do now. It has always made me laugh out loud.” (Helen Dunmore, ” The Times”). ”A brilliantly & preposterously funny book.” (” Guardian”).