Lucky Jim

By: Kingsley Amis

Narrated by: James Lailey

Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

A hilarious satire about college life and high-class manners, this is a classic of postwar English literature.

Regarded by many as the finest, and funniest, comic novel of the twentieth century, Lucky Jim remains as trenchant, withering, and eloquently misanthropic as when it first scandalized readers in 1954.

This is the story of Jim Dixon, a hapless lecturer in medieval history at a provincial university who knows better than most that “there was no end to the ways in which nice things are nicer than nasty ones.” Kingsley Amis’s scabrous debut leads the audience through a gallery of emphatically English bores, cranks, frauds, and neurotics with whom Dixon must contend in one way or another in order to hold on to his cushy academic perch and win the girl of his fancy.

More than just a merciless satire of cloistered college life and stuffy postwar manners, Lucky Jim is an attack on the forces of boredom and a work of art that at once distills and extends an entire tradition of English comic writing, from Fielding and Dickens through Wodehouse and Waugh.

As Christopher Hitchens wrote, “If you can picture Bertie or Jeeves being capable of actual malice, and simultaneously imagine Evelyn Waugh forgetting about original sin, you have the combination of innocence and experience that makes this short romp so imperishable.”

©1953 Kingsley Amis (P)2020 Penguin Audio

wonderful language

loved narration and though not much of a story kept me intensely interested throughout

Satisfactory, but a Bit Stale

I suspect this novel was a lot more pleasing to the reader in the 50s when it was written.

Amis likely well caught the mood and matters of life on English campuses back then, with the faculty and all that made up their lives.

It frankly felt mostly stale to me now in 2023. And so I believe it hasn’t worn particularly well. But, actually, I’m not sure it was ever that strong creatively or literarily.

I’ve long admired Amis. But I can’t offer much fresh testimony here for why.

Cuttingly funny, well read

Wonderful reader. Stinging satire of 1950s academia. Dated? Of course—it’s 1953 England. Jeeves books are also dated. But funny and cutting, diverting and engaging, great use of language. A different world but I don’t mind dipping into it for a few hours.

University Life

University Life

A series of conversations and meetings that give us the flavor of university life among the professors..

Great narration

A fun romp

Listened to after John Cleese held it as the funniest book he’s ever read, I enjoyed the passage of Jim through the banalities of 1950s academia. Much was very funny and the performance is excellent.

All-time favorite!

This book has been a favorite of mine for years, and I was excited to see it finally available on Audible. Highly recommend it. The narration was tight and easy to listen to.

An old favorite!

It’s a great sendup of the worst of pompous academics! I have found Jim’s technique of imagining faces he’d like to make quite satisfying in our present political climate. I am always a bit nervous about listening to an old favorite, but this reader was perfect.

Oldie but a goodie

Long a fan of Evelyn Waugh and his ilk, hard for me to fathom that I somehow missed Amis' Lucky Jim for the past 70 years. Lovely story arc, laugh out loud entertaining, and brilliant portrayal of 'disorders', one of which didn't become official until 1980, that makes the book all the more prescient. I refuse to watch the film version fearing that it might focus on the broad comedy and miss the characterizations that are the spine of the book.

Amusing novel, narrator is outstanding

I read along with this and I have to say the narrator, James Lailey, is really outstanding. I can’t imagine anyone doing a better job. I think the novel is funny and very well written. The chapter where Jim ends up drunk at the home of his department head is just brilliant. Loved it.

Just not that interesting

I never really got to a point where I cared what happened to the main character. I finished the book, but not because I was compelled to find out what happened to the character.