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")."