Lucky Jim: Kingsley Amis (Penguin Decades) - Tapa blanda

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.

The 1950s was the decade of post-war glamour, Barbie dolls, Pop Art and the Cold War. Britain celebrated the coronation of Elizabeth II and welcomed the Angry Young Men. The teenager was invented, rayguns were the toy of the moment, and Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley changed the face of modern culture forever.

The publication of Kingsley Amis's Lucky Jim in 1954 was a landmark moment in British post-War fiction, with its anti-hero Jim Dixon and its hilarious satire on the British educational establishment. Jim 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.

With a new introduction by David Nicholls