Amis, Kingsley William

Amis, Kingsley William 

Born Apr. 16, 1922, in London. English writer.

Amis, a veteran of World War II, graduated from Oxford University in 1949. Along with J. Wain he was one of the first Angry Young Men. His best works, Lucky Jim (1954; Russian translation, 1958), That Uncertain Feeling (1955), and The Anti-Death League (1966), skillfully satirize the time-honored mores of the bourgeoisie. Their use of the grotesque and farce recall the works of T. Smollett. Amis is a writer of realistic comedy; his later works have included Take a Girl Like You (1960), I Want It Now (1968), and Girl, 20 (1971). He is nevertheless capable of sacrificing ethical principles merely for the sake of a laugh, for example, in Ending Up (1974). Amis is also the author of the detective novel Colonel Sun (1968). His novels are characterized by a spirit of parody and hoax, for example The Alteration (1976).

WORKS

I Like It Here. London, 1958.
One Fat Englishman. London, 1963.
The Riverside Villas Murder. London, 1973.

REFERENCES

Ivasheva, V. V. Angliiskaia literatura, XX vek. Moscow, 1967.
Allen, U. Traditsiia i mechta. Moscow, 1970.
Fraser, G. S. The Modern Writer and His World. Harmondsworth, 1964. Pages 175–79.

V. A. KHARITONOV