Lucky Jim - Couverture souple

Amis, Kingsley

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0141182598 ISBN 13 : 9780141182599

Editeur : Penguin Classics, 2000

Synopsis

Kingsley Amis' witty campus novel, "Lucky Jim" is a comedy that skewers the hypocrisies and 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' and resist Christine, the hopelessly desirable girlfriend of Welch's awful son Bertrand. Inspired by Amis's friend, the poet Philip Larkin, Jim Dixon is a timeless comic character, adrift in a hopelessly gauche and pretentious world. Kingsley Amis (1922-1995), born in London, wrote poetry, criticism, and 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) and "That Uncertain Feeling" (1955); his other works include "The Green Man" (1970) "Stanley and the Women" (1984), and "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 and preposterously funny book." ("Guardian").

A propos du livre

Revue de presse :

“Lucky Jim illustrates a crucial human difference between the little guy and the small man. And Dixon, like his creator, was no clown but a man of feeling after all.” – Christopher Hitchens
 
“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 have no manners, and are woefully unable to deal with any 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.” – W. Somerset Maugham
 
“’After Evelyn Waugh, what?’ this reviewer asked six years ago....The answer, already, is Kingsley Amis, the author of Lucky Jim....Satirical and sometimes farcical, they are derived from shrewd observation of contemporary British life, and they occasionally imply social morals....Lucky Jim is extremely funny. Everyone was much amused, and since it is also a kind of male Cinderella or Ugly Duckling story, it left its readers goo-humored and glowing.”  —Edmund Wilson, The New Yorker, 1956

“I was recommended [Kinglsey Amis’ Lucky Jim] when I was a teenager trying to figure out how to start reading 'serious' books. Great recommendation, because on the surface it’s nothing of the sort, but it is brilliant.” —Hugh Dancy, T: The New York Times Style Magazine
 
“Remarkable for its relentless skewering of artifice and pretension, Lucky Jim also contains some of the finest comic set pieces in the language.” —Olivia Laing, The Observer

“Remarkably, Lucky Jim is as fresh and surprising today as it was in 1954. It is part of the landscape, and it defines academia in the eyes of much of the world as does no other book, yet if you are coming to it for the first time you will feel, as you glide happily through its pages, that you are traveling in a place where no one else has ever been. If you haven’t yet done so, you must.” —Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post

Biographie de l'auteur :

Kingsley Amis' (1922-1995) works take a humorous yet highly critical look at British society, especially of the period following the end of World War II. He was born in London. Amis explored his disillusionment with British society in novels such asTHAT UNCERTAIN FEELING (1955). His other works include THE GREEN MAN (1970); STANLEY AND THE WOMEN (1984); and THE OLD DEVILS (1986) which won the Booker Prize. Amis also wrote poetry, criticism, and short stories.

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Penguin Classics
• Date d'édition: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0141182598
• ISBN 13: 9780141182599
• Reliure: Broché
• Numéro d'édition: 1
• Nombre de pages: 272