The Complete Enderby : Inside Mr. Enderby, Enderby Outside, the Clockwork Testament, Enderby's Dark Lady (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Four works including Inside Mr. Enderby, Enderby Outside, The Clockwork Testament, and Enderby's Dark Lady follow the comic poet's encounters with a professional widow, a plagiarizing pop star, and an African-American nightclub singer. Original.

Product Details

• Paperback: 630 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishers (January 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786702486
• ISBN-13: 978-0786702480
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #319,229 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( B ) > Burgess, Anthony

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Burgess' Best, January 25, 2000

By	Paul Arnold (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

In these novels, Anthony Burgess has done more to de-mystify the creative process (and those who persue it) than any other modern writer. His protagonist, F. X. Enderby, professional English poet, is as flawed as any character ever created. From his almost constant malapropisms down to his bodily emissions, he is every person with true human frailties. He stumbles his way through everyday conversations (often both misunderstanding and misunderstood) while at the same time offending almost everyone he comes into contact with. He is incapable of handling life in the "real" world and is shamelessly exploited by those who do.

In spite of his human failings, Enderby produces things of great beauty. The delicately worded, well balanced verses offer a wonderful counterpoint to Enderby's social ineptitudes and lack of common sense.

There is also a fairly strong political angle in the books which readers in today's society should heed. Censorship, that demon of modern P.C. sensibility, is discussed here intelligently and honestly. Bear in mind, these books are fairly old and some of the racial and sexual comments made in them will reflect this. However, I think you will find a certain balance in their use; everyone gets it in the end. Including Enderby.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awaiting rediscovery., June 4, 1996

By A Customer

Burgess is probably the most underrated writer in English in the last half of the twentieth century. This collection of somewhat autobiographical novels about F.X. Enderby is on the surface an inventive jaunt about the globe and on little slips of paper, collecting half-noticed experience and half-lines of eventual poetry. Nabokov said that his work was (is?) most appreciated when the reader assumed the point-of-view not of the protagonist, but of the author or fashioner. Burgess is tricky on this point and seems to have played with the difficulty in this distinction throughout his career, making the character who is the narrator assume some part of the creation of the finished work and putting some part of himself in the animated speaker. I hope that in the near future this and other of Burgess' works (I'm reading Earthly Powers now) find a new audience because there is a great deal to enjoy and to absorb. He wrote a great deal and much of it is very great

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enderby, Burgess at his best, July 30, 2001

By	"umd_cyberpunk" (MA, United States) - See all my reviews

"Inside Mr. Enderby," is wonderful and off beat. "Enderby Outside," follows the off kilter story of Enderby and the absurdity that is his life. "The Clockwork Testament," as the title would suggest, has shadings of Burgess' very well known book, "Clockwork Orange." The "Testament," is surreal and twisted while funny at the same time. The final story, "Enderby's Dark Lady," is wonderful and surprising to the reader with value not only for fans of the dyspeptic poet but lovers of Shakespeare as well.

While slightly dated, these stories have a bite to them that speaks volumes of truth for anyone who has been an academic, a professional writer or just a little bit out of touch with the world around them. Enderby is often misunderstood and though he makes his living in a "communication" field, he has a lot of trouble getting his point across to others.

Not only are these books funny, but as is often the case with Burgess, the satire is thinly veiled and pointing at both society and himself.