Lucky Jim (Penguin Modern Classics)
by Kingsley Amis
Our Price: $6.75
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $6.72 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Kingsley AmisEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2000-05-25
ISBN: 0141182598
Number of pages: 272
Publisher: Penguin Books
Book Reviews of Lucky Jim (Penguin Modern Classics)
Book Review: A classic campus comedy, one of the great works of 20th Century British fiction
Summary: 5 Stars
Kingsley Amis is one of my favorite writers, and Lucky Jim (1954) of course is probably his most famous novel. It's also his first novel, which makes him one of those writers who spent their entire career trying to live up to early success. Despite Lucky Jim's preeminent reputation, several later novels are at least as good: I'd mention as my personal favorites The Anti-Death League, The Green Man, Ending Up, The Alteration, and The Old Devils.
I think this is my third reading of Lucky Jim. It remains a very enjoyable book. It's the story of Jim Dixon, a history lecturer at a provincial English university shortly after the second world war. Jim is involved in an unsatisfactory relationship with a drippy fellow lecturer called Margaret Peel, who uses emotional blackmail such as implicit suicide attempts (she took sleeping pills after breaking with her previous boyfriend) to keep him on the string. He hates his job, and he hates his boss (Professor Welch) if anything even more, while worrying that he won't be retained for the next school year. He hates phoniness in general, particularly that represented by Professor Welch, who is into recreations of old English music (recorders and all).
The plot revolves mainly around Dixon's growing attraction to Christine Callaghan, a beautiful girl who is nominally Professor Welch's son Bertrand's girlfriend -- but Bertrand is also fooling around with a married woman, and he's a crummy artist to boot. Also, Dixon is working on a lecture about Merrie Olde Englande, which he hopes will impress Professor Welch enough that he can keep his job, but every sentence of which he hates. The resolution is predictable, if rather convenient for Dixon (involving a rich uncle of Christine's), but it satisfies. The book itself is really very funny: such set-pieces as Dixon's hangover-ridden lecture, and his disastrous drunken night at the Welch's, remain screams after multiple rereadings.
I should say that some things bother me a bit. Some of Dixon's stunts (such as stealing a colleague's insurance policies and burning them) seem, well, felonious. And of course Margaret Peel really is someone he's better off breaking up with, but the way Christine is presented as naturally good because she is beautiful does seem rather sexist. Still, all this can be laid to accurate description of a certain character -- and if we root for Jim (as we more or less naturally do), it should be with some uneasiness.
All this said, Lucky Jim is deservedly a classic of 20th Century fiction, and an enormously entertaining book. This edition includes an introduction by David Lodge, who is both an first rate writer of comic novels in the same mode as Lucky Jim, and a first rate critic as well.
Summary of Lucky Jim (Penguin Modern Classics)
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 survive a madrigal-singing weekend at Professor Welch's, deliver a lecture on 'Merrie England' and resist Christine, the hopelessly desirable girlfriend of Welch's awful son Bertrand.Literature & Fiction Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Literature & Fiction Books
Little Womenby Louisa May Alcott
Scribner; Published: 1986-06-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.49
Price in other shops:
The Killing Groundby JACK HIGGINS
HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS LTD; Published: 2007; Hardcover; Book
Saving Fish from Drowningby Amy Tan
4th Estate; Published: 2005; Paperback; Book
Life Expectancyby Dean Koontz
Harpercollins Pb; Published: 2005-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.00
Constant Princessby Philippa Gregory
Touchstone/Simon & Schuster; Published: 2005; Hardcover; Book
Wolf of the Plains (Conqueror, Book 1)by Conn Iggulden
Harper; Published: 2007; Paperback; Book
Saharaby Clive Cussler
Harper Collins Pb; Published: 2005-03-21; Paperback; Book
Perelandra (Cosmic Trilogy)by C. S. Lewis
Voyager; Published: 2005-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.73
Price in other shops:
The Lord Of The Rings: Part 2 The Two Towersby J. R. R. Tolkien
Harper Collins Publishers; Published: 2001; Paperback; Book
Red Marsby Kim Stanley Robinson
Trafalgar Square; Published: 2001-06; Paperback; Book
Similar Books and other products
London Fieldsby Martin Amis
Vintage; Published: 1991-04-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.45
Price in other shops:
Mooby Jane Smiley
Anchor; Published: 2009-02-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.16
Price in other shops:
John Dies at the Endby David Wong
St. Martin's Griffin; Published: 2010-09-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.06
Price in other shops:
Decline and Fallby Evelyn Waugh
Back Bay Books; Published: 1999-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.20
Price in other shops:
Money: A Suicide Note (Penguin Ink)by Martin Amis
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2010-06-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.75
Price in other shops:
Straight Man: A Novelby Richard Russo
Vintage; Published: 1998-06-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.49
Price in other shops:
Everyday Drinking: The Distilled Kingsley Amisby Kingsley Amis
Bloomsbury USA; Published: 2010-04-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.99
Price in other shops:
A Confederacy of Duncesby John Kennedy Toole
Grove Weidenfeld; Published: 1987; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.57
Price in other shops:
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Palby Christopher Moore
William Morrow Paperbacks; Published: 2003-02-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.38
Price in other shops:
The Gun Sellerby Hugh Laurie
Washington Square Press; Published: 1998-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.35
Price in other shops: