Kingsley Amis

Penguin Decades bring you the novels that helped shape modern Britain. When they were published, some were bestsellers, some were considered scandalous, and others were simply misunderstood. All represent their time and helped define their generation, while today each is considered a landmark work of storytelling. Kingsley Amis's Lucky Jim was published in 1954, and is a hilarious satire of British university life. Jim Dixon is bored by his job as a medieval history lecturer. His days are only improved by pulling faces behind the backs of his superiors as he tries desperately to survive provincial bourgeois society, an unbearable 'girlfriend' and petty humiliation at the hands of Professor Welch. Lucky Jim is one of the most famous and influential of all British post-War novels.

Lucky Jim

Sumptuous, tightly knit, satisfying romp. 

Adam Scharf

Jessica Smith

I understand that this book is supposed to be enormously influential, inspiring a large amount of British satire of class stratification… and yet… I feel like by now, it's been done so much better so many times that this just isn't that good. I didn't even get a laugh out of it…

The characterisation of the female characters, in particular, bugged the crap out of me. It seemed like Dixon, the protagonist, didn't have anything to think about them except for what they looked like, and how irritating he found Margaret's emotional instability. There weren't really any times he seemed to enjoy the company of either of them or have any of those really good conversations you have with people you're attracted to. His entire thought process just seemed to be, "WOW Christine is hot and I hate her boyfriend, I hope I can steal her away from him!! also Margaret is ugly and crazy, blech." I ended up not liking him much at all. I also wasn't a fan of the scene at the end that came almost out of nowhere to cast Margaret in a really nasty light. I don't even think the revelations of that scene were in character for her. I just did not like it.

The rest of the book is okay. You have a lot of elitist upper-class academic types being skewered, which is always alright. I liked seeing Bertrand get his comeuppance. But the book as a whole just left a sour taste in my mouth.

David Lodge

A humorous novel about an amiable opportunist who finds himself, after the war, in the improbable role of an instructor in medieval history in a small British village.

Vitali Avagyan

Very ordinary character with a funny spontaneity in actions :)

baikalsturgeon

Ippolit

Danielle Martin

Jim Dixon has accidentally fallen into a job at one of Britain's new redbrick 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.

David Pascuzzo

Aaron McCollough

Clare B

Fran Lewis

Ivan Shiel

Jean A

Alexander Lobov

Mutter

Bee 

Giovanni Garcia-Fenech 

Moray Lyle McIntosh

Frederik Van den Bril

Penguin Decades bring you the novels that helped shape modern Britain. When they were published, some were bestsellers, some were considered scandalous, and others were simply misunderstood. All represent their time and helped define their generation, while today each is considered a landmark work of storytelling. Kingsley Amis�s Lucky Jim was published in 1954, and is a hilarious satire of British university life. Jim Dixon is bored by his job as a medieval history lecturer. His days are only improved by pulling faces behind the backs of his superiors as he tries desperately to survive provincial bourgeois society, an unbearable �girlfriend� and petty humiliation at the hands of Professor Welch. Lucky Jim is one of the most famous and influential of all British post-War novels.

Lucky Jim

Reviews