Ready Reference Treatise: Lucky Jim

By Raja Sharma

“Lucky Jim” by Kingsley Amis was first published in 1954. It was the first novel of the author and it won the Somerset Maugham Award for fiction.

The story is assumed to be set sometime around 1950. Jim, the titular character and protagonist of the novel, follows the exploits of the eponymous James Dixon, called Jim. James Dixon was a reluctant medieval history lecturer at an anonymous provincial English university.

The style of writing is quite wide-ranging and finely modulated. In the initial part of the story, there is the mention of ‘old song.’ ‘Oh, lucky Jim, How I envy him.’

Ready Reference Treatise: Lucky Jim
Copyright
Chapter One: Introduction
Chapter Two: Plot Overview
Chapter Three: Major Characters
Chapter Four: Complete Summary
Chapter Five: Critical Analysis

• Language: English
• Publisher: Raja Sharma
• Release date: Nov 13, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311383259

Raja Sharma

Raja Sharma is a retired college lecturer.He has taught English Literature to University students for more than two decades.His students are scattered all over the world, and it is noticeable that he is in contact with more than ninety thousand of his students.

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Ready Reference Treatise: Lucky Jim

Copyright

Ready Reference Treatise: Lucky Jim

Raja Sharma

Copyright@2015 Raja Sharma

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Chapter One: Introduction

Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis was first published in 1954. It was the first novel of the author and it won the Somerset Maugham Award for fiction.

The story is set sometime around 1950. Jim, the titular character and protagonist of the novel, follows the exploits of the eponymous James Dixon, called Jim. James Dixon was a reluctant medieval history lecturer at an anonymous provincial English university.

The style of writing is quite wide-ranging and finely modulated. In the initial part of the story, there is the mention of ‘old song.’ ‘Oh, lucky Jim, How I envy him.’

The novel is dedicated to Larkin. It is said that Larkin had contributed a lot to structure the novel.

Lucky Jim was included in the TIME 100 Best Englsih language novels from 1923 to 2005.

According to Christopher Hitchens, Lucky Jim is the funniest book of the second half of the twentieth century. It is also judged as the best comic novel of the twentieth century by Toby Young.

Kingsley Amis’s writing career covers five decades, but Lucky Jim remains the most significant accomplishment of the author. Amis wrote poetry, television plays, short stories, science fiction, and even a James Bond novel.

Lucky Jim is taught at several schools and colleges in England to the students of English literature as a part of course of study.

It has been the first in a long line of British campus satires that shifted the object of ridicule from the students to the faculty. The book is still widely discussed among scholars, academicians, and critics.

Chapter Two: Plot Overview

Jim Dixon is the titular character and protagonist of the novel. He happens to be a junior lecturer in history, at a provincial English university. The time is some years after the Second World War.

He is nearing the end of his first year at the school. It transpires that he has not been able to create a good impression upon the faculty.

Professor Welch is his superior. He is an absent-minded person. Jim knows that Professor Welch could tell Jim to leave at the end of the term the following month.

Jim dislikes Professor Welch, but he does not want to reveal his disgust. He is afraid of adding to the bad impression he has already created. He agrees to deliver a lecture at the end of the term.

The theme of the lecture is Merrie England. He prepares himself to stay with the Welches the following weekend for a weekend of music and arts.

During the party, Jim Dixon comes across Welch’s son Bertrand and his