Description
Lucky Jim is a novel by Kingsley Amis, first published in 1954 by Victor Gollancz. It was Amis's first novel and won the 1955 Somerset Maugham Award for fiction. The novel follows the exploits of the eponymous James (Jim) Dixon, a disinclined lecturer at an unnamed provincial English University. The novel 'Lucky Jim' is dedicated to Phillip Larkin, who helped to inspire the main character James Dixon and contributed significantly to the edifice of the novel. The last name 'Dixon' was also inspired by Larkin's address '12 Dixon Drive, Leicester'.
In this comedy novel, Jim Dixon is a lecturer in medieval history at a red brick university in English Midlands, a moderately successful future in the History Department. He starts with uncertainty and towards the end of the academic year, he is concerned about losing his probationary position in the department. In his attempt to be awarded a permanent post he tries to maintain a good relationship with his absent-minded head of department, Professor Welch. He tries to stand out among others in the staff, but his trial goes wrong in the madrigal-singing weekend at Professor Welch's.
Besides all, In order to establish his credentials, Dixon must ensure the publication of his first scholarly article. He eventually discovers that the editor to whom he submitted the article has translated it into Italian and passed it off as his own article.
Dixon comes in touch with Margaret Peel, a fellow lecturer in the university, who attempted suicide in the wake of a broken relationship and recovering from it. Dixon feels pity for her and eventually started dating her. Soon, he meets Christine on a weekend, who is the girlfriend of Welch's awful son Bertrand. They tend to like each other but try to be apart as they both think that they both are in a relationship with someone.
The novel reaches its climax with Dixon's public lecture on "Merrie England". He tries to keep himself calm by drinking too much, therefore, he passes out. Welch lets Dixon know that his employment will not be extended due to certain things, however, he gets the offer of a coveted job from Christine's uncle to assist him in London. From this point on the plot begins to congeal, with Jim caught like a shrimp in the aspic.
Notwithstanding, Dixon soon realizes that Margaret is faking her suicidal attempt in course of emotionally blackmailing her ex-boyfriend and she had never been his fiancée. Feeling free from their so-called relationship with Margaret, he approaches Christine and she requests to see her off as she leaves for London. There Dixon learns that she is leaving Bertrand after being told that he has affair with the wife of one of Dixon's former colleagues. They both decide to leave for London together.
Review
The novel, Lucky Jim, was rewarded with titles as the finest, and funniest comic novel of the twentieth century by its readers and critics. Time magazine included Lucky Jim in its Time100 Best English-language Novels from 1923-2005. Lucky Jim remains trenchant, withering, and eloquently misanthropic as when it first scandalized readers in 1954.
In the view of critics and readers, 'Mr. Kingsley Amis is so talented, his observation is so keen, that you cannot fail to be convinced that the young men, he so brilliantly describes, truly represent the class with which his novel is concerned. They are woefully unable to deal with any kind of social predicament. Their idea of a celebration is to go to a public bar and drink six beers. They are mean, malicious, and envious... They are scum and have no manners.'
His scabrous debut leads the reader through a gallery of emphatically English bores, cranks, frauds, and neurotics with 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 postwar manners, This novel is an attack on the force 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 Woodhouse and waugh. 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 frisk so imperishable.' Kingsley Amis has a rare wit that teeters between the hilariously nonsensical and the deep seriousness. This delightful novel is his first novel by which he did debut in the world of literature.
Adaptation
His scabrous debut leads the reader through a gallery of emphatically English bores, cranks, frauds, and neurotics with 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 postwar manners, This novel is an attack on the force 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 Woodhouse and waugh. 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 frisk so imperishable.' Kingsley Amis has a rare wit that teeters between the hilariously nonsensical and the deep seriousness. This delightful novel is his first novel by which he did debut in the world of literature.
Adaptation
- In the 1957 British film adaptation, Jim Dixon was played by Ian Carmichael in the movie titled 'Lucky Jim'.
- In 1982, Keith Barron starred in a seven-episode BBC TV series 'The Further Adventures of Lucky Jim' which was based on the characters of Lucky Jim and set in the 'swinging London' of 1967.
- In 2003, ITV aired a remake of Lucky Jim with Stephen Tompkinson playing the central character of Jim.
Sir Kingsley William Amis, CBE (The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire), born on 16 April 1922, was an English Novelist poet, critic, and teacher. He is widely known as a comic novelist of life in the mid-to-late twentieth century. His style of writing is known as comic fiction and fiction prose. He wrote more than twenty novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, short stories, radio and television scripts, and works of social and literary criticism. He is best know for satirical comedies such as One Fat Englishman (1963), Ending up (1974), Jake's Thing (1978), and The Old Devils (1986).
His biographer Zachary Leader called Amis 'The finest English Comic novelist of the second half of the twentieth century.' In 2008, The Times ranked him ninth on a list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945. He was shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times for Ending up (1974), Jake's Thing (1978), and finally, as the recipient for The Old Devils (1986). He was part of the Angry Young Men literary movement. He died on 22 October 1995 in London, England.
His biographer Zachary Leader called Amis 'The finest English Comic novelist of the second half of the twentieth century.' In 2008, The Times ranked him ninth on a list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945. He was shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times for Ending up (1974), Jake's Thing (1978), and finally, as the recipient for The Old Devils (1986). He was part of the Angry Young Men literary movement. He died on 22 October 1995 in London, England.
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| Kingsley Amis |
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Rating: 3.8/5
Author: Kingsley Amis
Publisher: Penguin UK
Publishing Date: 30 May 2000
Language: English
Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Classic Fiction, Comedic Drama and Play, Surrealist Literary Criticism
ISBN-10: 0141182598
ISBN-13: 978-0141182599
Pages: 272
Cost: 794 INR (Paperback)
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