Kingsley Amis Summary

Biography EssayMore than thirty-five years after the turbulence attending the publication of his overwhelmingly popular first novel, Lucky Jim (1954), Kingsley Amis remains a controversial figure in ... Read more

"Crisp, witty, sardonic...." That is one way to introduce Kingsley Amis, the way one editor, Edward Lucie-Smith, took in 1970. Amis's wit began to delight the world in 1954 when his first novel, Lucky... Read more

Author of seventeen novels, three poetry collections, and more than twenty short stories, Kingsley Amis is a writer whose literary style defies categorization. In Kingsley Amis (1989) Richard Bradford... Read more

Critical Essay by Karl Miller The writing in [Jake's Thing] is determined throughout by Jake's manner of speaking, and it has all the virtuosity of Amis at his comic best, though there a... Read more

Critical Essay by Melvyn Bragg Jake is an Oxford don, approaching 60, which he finds almost impossible to believe and, equally incredibly, out of libido. His "thing" isn't up to i... Read more

Critical Essay by V. S. Pritchett As a comic novelist Kingsley Amis still practices the revival of the robust masculine tradition of English farce with its special taste for the sententious that skids... Read more

In the following essay, Gindin, a professor of English at the University of Michigan, considers the nature of comedy as well as the political and moral tone of Amis's work. The changes and inco... Read more

In the following review, Abrams, a novelist, praises The Russian Girl, claiming Amis writes a plausible yet brilliantly satirical novel which reflects the time period. Sir Kingsley Amis 21st novel [Th... Read more

In the following review of The Biographer's Moustache, Wolcott argues that Amis has been too harshly criticized and provides an overview of his career. Late this summer, a literary crime was co... Read more

In the following essay, Watson, a longtime friend and colleague of Amis's, discusses their friendship, praising Amis as a novelist who expressed their generation's experiences. Or so I u... Read more