Kingsley Amis, Lucky Jim

Kenneth Womack

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Kerry Myler (Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1954

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel
Satire

Resources

Kingsley Amis’s Lucky Jim is widely acknowledged as the quintessential campus novel of the twentieth century. As a central figure in the “Angry Young Man” movement during the 1950s, Amis utilizes comedy in the novel as a means for delivering his satiric attacks on the university community. Amis’s narrative is especially critical of those privileged individuals who endeavor to maintain the academic status quo in their favor through the exploitation of junior colleagues, and, ultimately, through the threat of expulsion from the seemingly sacred groves of campus life. Lucky Jim was Amis’s first novel, and it received the Somerset Maugham Award for fiction.

Lucky Jim finds its origins …

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2893 words

Citation: Womack, Kenneth. "Lucky Jim". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 May 2006 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3806, accessed 27 November 2024.]

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