Mister Johnson (Revived Modern Classic) [Paperback]

Joyce Cary (Author)

Book Description

Series: Revived Modern Classic | Publication Date: April 1989

A temporary clerk, still on probation, Mister Johnson has been in Fada, Nigeria, for six months and is already in debt. Undaunted, he not only entertains on the grandest scale with drums and smuggled gin, but also intends to pay a small fortune for a wife.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Joyce Cary was born in 1888 into an old Anglo-Irish family in Londonderry, Ireland. At the age of sixteen he studied painting, first in Edinburgh and then in Paris. From 1909 to 1912 he was at Trinity College, Oxford, where he read law. He then fought and served in the Red Cross in the Balkan War of 1912-13. Thereafter, having joined the Colonial Service in 1914, he served in the Nigeria Regiment during the First World War. He was wounded while fighting in the Cameroons, and returned to civil duty in Nigeria in 1917 as a district officer. West Africa became the locale of his early novels. Cary settled in Oxford in 1920, and died there in 1957. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 227 pages
• Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation; 2nd edition (April 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811210308
• ISBN-13: 978-0811210300
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,709,979 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A colonial tragi-comedy, March 5, 2001

By 

TheIrrationalMan - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mister Johnson (Revived Modern Classic) (Paperback)

"Mister Johnson", by Joyce Cary, is a tale of an intriguing, quixotic native character, set in colonial Nigeria. Cary draws on his own experiences as a colonial official in Nigeria, drawing a rich, topical, authentic picture of the country during the early thirties. The eponymous anti-hero, referred to only as "Johnson", is a pathetic creation who sees himself as an enthusiast for Empire, a champion of progress and civilisation, with the King of England numbering among his friends. In reality, he is despised by his European boss, Rudbeck, as a member of an inferior race. Johnson's life, his attempt to to become more English than the English, is set precariously between these two extremes -- the urgings of superiority and the reality of degradation, eventually leading him to the gallows. The story's culmination, involving larceny, treachery and murder, sees Johnson emerging as a pathetic but genuinely human creation, whose plight is an illustration of a genuine human dilemma.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars this is not the book, April 2, 2008

By 

VIKRAM INDRAJIT CHOPRA (DEHRADUN, India) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mister Johnson (Paperback)

Please note that this is a play based on the book NOT the actual book. Hence 1 star. I had read the book many years ago and the book deserves 5 stars. I ordered it unknowingly, got the play and wrote to AMAZON who very kindly refunded me the amount. Please look for the book elsewhere since it seems to be out of print.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mister Johnson, April 1, 2006

By 

Bomojaz (South Central PA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mister Johnson (Revived Modern Classic) (Paperback)

MISTER JOHNSON, perhaps the best of Joyce Cary's African novels, is about a man who fails to heed the reality all about him in favor of an illusory world of his own creation. Johnson is a Nigerian native; he comes to view the British colonial system, especially as represented by the incompetent road builder Rudbeck, through the prism of his African roots and experiences. Johnson tends not to filter things through the process of logical reasoning, but empirically through all his senses. The potential for disaster is great and is finally realized with the robbery and the subsequent murder he commits.

Cary narrates the story in the present tense, which gives it a strong feel of immediacy. Johnson's delusions, from his total lack of understanding of his bride Bamu, who doesn't like him at all, though he doesn't realize it; his near worship of Rudbeck; and his even thinking he is above the law because "I king of all dem country" - a laughable self-deception if it didn't carry such frightening consequences, is sad and poignant. Despite being his own worst enemy, the reader can't help but sympathize with the ever singing, joyful, optimistic, Johnson.