Lucky Jim cover art

Lucky Jim

Penguin Modern Classics

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Lucky Jim

By: Kingsley Amis
Narrated by: James Lailey
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

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 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.

©1953 Kingsley Amis (P)2020 Penguin Audio Classics Literature & Fiction Funny

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I’d not read Lucky Jim since the seventies. I’d remembered it as a Wodehouse-like comic romp but while it does have some excellent comic scenes it’s far more bitter than that — and enjoyably so. Anyone interested in English social history will find this glimpse of 1950s provincial academia quite fascinating. The narrator does his job well. Recommended.

Enjoyable period piece - funny and biting

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Kingsley Amis' writing skills are not in doubt in this book and the novel itself is moderately engaging. But a classic? Hard to like any of the characters or sympathise with their self-regarding lives. The period is well captured but in the rarefied environment of academia only and the final resolution is disappointingly conventional. Well-written and well-read, however.

Moderately engaging

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A moldern literrary classic. Have read the book several times over the years and never fail to laugh out loud - frequently. Although written in the 1950s much of it could be relevant today. An Audible classic too with a splendid performance that perfectly captures the voices and mannerisms of Jim Dixon and the book's other characters.


A Classic.

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I once heard Sue Townsend say this was her favourite and most influential book, the one that inspired her to write. I can see why as the development of the characters is flawless. The dialogue is refreshingly accurate.
I loved this book,.
Try it and see.

Outstanding!

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Very funny and extremely well read. Plenty of outlandish characters and cringeworthy episodes. Not sure how much I actually sympathised with Jim...

outstanding

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I read Lucky Jim when I was young. It’s a delight, and lends itself so well to an Audiotreatment. Wonderful understated narration.

Gloriously funny

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This is well read, unfortunately it's incredibly boring. None of the characters are likeable and it's quite mysogenistic. The climax is quite funny, but not so much that it makes the rest of it worth it - I stuck with it for my book club but I wouldn't recommend.

Dull

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Kingsley Amls...at his finest. A book to read annually.

If you always laugh out loud at the same parts that does suggest the writting remains fresh and the characterisation well drawn

My favorite book which always makes me laugh

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Title says it all. Painfully funny and the end is well worth waiting for. X

Wonderful

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The women in the story were portrayed as childish and silly when in many cases they were clearly successful in their particular areas of expertise

Excellent reading

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