Kingsley Amis Livres

1993

Published in hardcover. Covered in Mylar by the previous owner. There are minor markings on the jacket. The boards are in excellent condition. There is a small amount of scuffing on the spine head. The pages in the main body remain clean and in excellent condition. GE

Although best known for his comic novels, Kingsley Amis wrote poetry throughout his career. Collected Poems spans subjects from nature and cricket to love, ageing and literature, brimming with his characteristic wit and irreverence, yet full of compassion. 'The Last War' brings home the futility of battle by portraying countries as flawed characters destined for misfortune, while 'Their Oxford' reflects on the passing of time, and in contrast the playful 'Sight Unseen' laments the difficulty of attracting women. By turns provocative and poignant, this collection provides an illuminating glimpse into the heart and mind of Amis.

An omnibus containing three Kingsley Amis novels - "Jake's Thing", "Stanley and the Women" and "The Old Devils", which won the 1986 Booker Prize for Fiction.

1972. First Edition Thus. 237 pages. Paperback book with pictorial cover. Pages and binding are presentable with no major defects. Minor issues present such as mild cracking, inscriptions, inserts, light foxing, tanning and thumb marking. Overall a good condition item. Paper cover has mild edge-wear with light rubbing and creasing. Some light marking and tanning.

"Reciter" is a nineteenth-century term used here for a collection of characteristically nineteenth-century poems that sound well and go well when spoken in a declamatory style. If recitation has died out in the family circle, reading aloud has not, and it is as material for this that the editor's anthology is ideally intended. He is not afraid to include many examples of "good bad verse" because he recognises that they echo something in all men's hearts. But he does not neglect better Kipling is here, of course, with Tennyson and Byron and Macaulay – ringing voices that may no longer be recited, as in earlier times, but can and should be read aloud with profit and pleasure.

A successor to Dictionary of modern English usage (popularly known as Modern English usage) H.W. Fowler which was preceded by King's English / H.W. Fowler and F.G. Fowler.

This collection is vintage Amis from a succcession of good years. A selection of his non-fiction pieces in the form of reviews, articles, broadcasts and letters are gathered together in this book. Topics such as writers and writing, "abroad", eating and drinking, music, language, educational and social questions are examined. Such Amis hobby-horses as arts subsidies, literary prizes and jazz are also featured as well as writers such as Evelyn Waugh, Anthony Powell, Anthony Burgess and Ian Fleming. Among poets, the great Victorians are celebrated, and serious consideration is given to Philip Larkin.

A scourge of illiteracy and a thorn in the side of pretension, the author provides advice about the linguistic blunders that lie in wait for us, from danglers and four-letter words to jargon and even Welsh rarebit.

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics.

A superlative collection of the finest SF short stories from recent years. Ten astounding writers explore one whole hemisphere of the imagination, providing an outlet, both refreshing and necessary, for modern man's sense of wonder. ------------------------------------------------- Introduction (Spectrum) • essay by Kingsley Amis and Robert Conquest The Midas Plague • (1954) • novella by Frederik Pohl Limiting Factor • (1949) • shortstory by Clifford D. Simak The Executioner • (1956) • novelette by Algis Budrys Null-P • (1951) • shortstory by William Tenn The Homing Instinct of Joe Vargo • (1959) • novelette by Stephen Barr Special Flight • (1939) • novelette by John Berryman Inanimate Objection • (1954) • novelette by H. Chandler Elliott Pilgrimage to Earth • (1956) • shortstory by Robert Sheckley Unhuman Sacrifice • (1958) • novelette by Katherine MacLean By His Bootstraps • (1941) • novella by Robert A. Heinlein

This autobiography of Kingsley Amis covers his upbringing in lower middle-class South London, Oxford, during and just after the war, his friendship with Philip Larkin and his marriage to Elizabeth Jane Howard.

Kingsley Amis was one of the great masters of comic prose, and no subject was dearer to him than the art and practice of imbibing. This new volume brings together the best of his three out-of-print works on the subject: Kingsley Amis in Drink, Everyday Drinkingand How's Your Glass? In one handsome package, the book covers a full shelf of the master's riotous and erudite thoughts on the drinking arts: Along with a series of well-tested recipes (including a cocktail called the Lucky Jim) are Amis's musings on The Hangover, The Boozing Man's Diet, The Mean Sod's Guide, and (presumably as a matter of speculation) How Not to Get Drunk - all leavened with fun quizzes on the making and drinking of alcohol all over the world. Mixing practical know-how and hilarious opinionation, this is a delightful cocktail of wry humour and distilled knowledge, served by one of our great gimlet wits.

A gift for anyone who loves good liquor and high-proof prose: a collection of hilarious and deeply informed writings about drink from one of the all-time authorities. With an Introduction by Christopher Hitchens.

Marching Morons by C.M. Kornbluth;Gadget vs. Trend by Christopher Anvil;Such Stuff by John Brunner;The Sellers of the Dream by John Jakes;The Large Ant by Howard Fast;Barrier by Anthony Boucher;The Great Nebraska Sea by Allan Danzig;Compassion Circuit by John Wyndham;A Planet Named Shayol by Cordwainer Smith;Into the Shop by Ron Goulart;The Secret Songs by Fritz Leiber;Stranger Station by Damon Knight;Hot Planet by Hal Clement;The Choice by Wayland Young.

In this wry, piercing short story from one of the greatest of all British post-war writers, an ageing poet considers the value of his art - and of the critics who've found genius in it. Then, with his final work, he exercises a unique revenge...

Contents:My enemy's enemy --Court of inquiry --I spy strangers --Moral fibre --All the blood within me --Dear illusion --Something strange --The 2003 claret --The friends of Plonk --Too much trouble --Investing in futures --Hemingway in space --Who or what was it? --The Darkwater Hall mystery --The house on the headland --To see the sun --Affairs of death --Mason's life.

Kipling's life and work reflect an age now gone--the age of British Empire and Victorian manners. This biography explores his lengthy travels around the world, especially to the India of the Raj, & his isolated, active old age in Sussex. B&W photos & illus.

Jim Dixon has accidentally fallen into a job at one of Britain's new red brick universities. A moderately successful future in the History Department beckons. As long as Jim can survive a madrigal-singing weekend at Professor Welch's, deliver a lecture on 'Merrie England' and resist Christine, the hopelessly desirable girlfriend of Welch's awful son Bertrand.

In Kingsley Amis’s virtuoso foray into virtual history it is 1976 but the modern world is a medieval relic, frozen in intellectual and spiritual time ever since Martin Luther was promoted to pope back in the sixteenth century. Stephen the Third, the king of England, has just died, and Mass (Mozart’s second requiem) is about to be sung to lay him to rest. In the choir is our hero, Hubert Anvil, an extremely ordinary ten-year-old boy with a faultless voice. In the audience is a select group of experts whose job is to determine whether that faultless voice should be preserved by performing a certain operation. Art, after all, is worth any sacrifice. How Hubert realizes what lies in store for him and how he deals with the whirlpool of piety, menace, terror, and passion that he soon finds himself in are the subject of a classic piece of counterfactual fiction equal to Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle. The Alteration won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best science-fiction novel in 1976.

Competition is stiff for the position of sub-librarian in Aberdarcy Library. For John Lewis, the situation is complicated by the attentions of daunting and desirable village socialite, Elizabeth Gruffyd-Williams, who is married to a member of the local Council.

In this hilarious, inspiring and provocative series of essays, Kingsley Amis introduces every reader to the wonders and value of science fiction writing. From the extraordinary ideas but sexless science of Jules Verne to the power of H. G. Wells's terrifying storytelling; from the brilliance of bad science fiction writing to the potency of their important ideas; from a portrait of the average SF reader to Amis's sad prediction that this genre will never make it in film or television, New Maps of Hell is a warm and witty exploration of a world many readers may be yet to discover.

Brian Leonard, a Monty Python of secret agents, meets James Churchill, a young officer at an English army base where preparations are under way for Operation Apollo. To complicate matters, Churchill has gone round-the-bend for a parole from the mental ward. Thrown amongst these loose cannons is a widowed beauty who practices "conspicuous polyandry," an unfocused psychiatrist, an unbelieving chaplain, and a charming alcoholic. "Amis delights in combining espionage, violence, love and religious skepticism. Such disparate elements, like dishpans and fire rings, challenge his juggler's dexterity. Who wins? The reader!" (Publisher's Source)

Beset by boredom and the decay of old age, the septuagenarian inhabitants of Tuppenny-hapenny Cottage find that malice is the best recipe for keeping their spirits alive. And when the grandchildren arrive to do their duty on Christmas Day, the festivities degenerate into an unforeseen riot.

Retired librarian Harry Caldecote longs to revel in the pleasures of the 1980s during his waning years but has a problem--a nagging sense of responsibility for everyone he knows. A wickedly funny novel of desire versus duty.

Book by Amis, Kingsley

Douglas Yandell, a youngish music critic, is enlisted by Kitty Vandervane to keep an eye on her roving husband - the eminent conductor and would-be radical Sir Roy - as he embarks on yet another affair. Roy, meanwhile, wants Douglas as an alibi for his growing involvement with Sylvia, an unsuitably young woman who loves nothing more than to shock.

Winner of the 1986 Booker Prize. Malcolm, Peter and Charlie and their Soave-sodden wives have one main ambition left in life: to drink Wales dry. But their routine is both shaken and stirred when they are joined by professional Welshman Alun Weaver (CBE) and his wife, Rhiannon.

Award-winning writer Kingsley Amis's newest novel is a dazzling romp through a territory he has made triumphantly his own--the battle of the sexes and the conflicting claims of love and integrity. Art, literature, political correctness, and the gender war all come under Amis's seasoned scalpel in this corrosively funny academic satire.

Garnet Bowen is a literary gent from Wales, author of one obscure book, disconsolate husband, father and son-in-law. When he gets an offer that requires travel to Portugal, he figures it can't be worse than London. But it is. "Kingsley Amis strikes again. Not only is he funny--and he is very funny, as anyone who has read LUCKY JIM knows--his very absurdities are profound." (B-O-T Editorial Review Board)

A classic armchair mystery, THE RIVERSIDE VILLAS MURDER has for its hero a 14-year-old boy, Peter Furneaux.Like all 14 year olds he is hovering hopefully on the brink between sexual inexperience and initiation, and in this book, under our very eyes, Peter suddenly becomes an adult!A crime, truly murderous, is committed by an unknown and almost unidentifiable assailant. Only Peter begins to guess at the truth--a dangerous truth--which leads him to the river bank by moonlight. A delightful book, and as with all works by Kingsley Amis, guaranteed to please.

Discover Kingsley Amis's classic James Bond tie-in. First published in 1968, four years after Ian Fleming's death, this was the first Bond 'continuation' novel. Catch up on this new take on Bond before the release of No Time to Die 'A man in my line of business shouldn't work to a timetable' Lunch at Scott's, a quiet game of golf, a routine social call on his chief M - James Bond's life has begun to fall into a pattern that threatens complacency...until the sunny afternoon when M is kidnapped and his house staff savagely murdered. The action ricochets across the globe to a volcanic Greek island where, stripped of all professional aids, Bond must avert a world-menacing conspiracy and face unarmed the monstrous devices of the glacial, merciless Colonel Sun. 'Bond is a hero for all time' Jeffrey Deaver

An Englishman's unhappy encounter with Americans on campus in a Pennsylvanian college.

1st Penguin 1989 edition paperback vg++ book In stock shipped from our UK warehouse

A virgin's progress amid orgy and seduction. When attractive little Jenny Bunn comes south to teach, she falls in with Patrick Standish, a schoolmaster, and all the rakes and rogues of a provincial "Hell Fire Club".

A novel of Britain under Russian rule. Published in paperback by Penguin Books.

A lecherous Oxford don, rapidly approaching sixty and horrified at the dwindling resources of his normally hyperactive libido, seeks professional advice and tours the modern inferno of self-awareness and sexuality

Just when Stanley Duke thinks it's safe to sink into middle age, his son, Steve, goes insane

Kinglsey Amis was knighted in 1990, but in one respect he's also the king -- of the art of good storytelling. It's an art that has become rare in contemporary writing.In this volume of short stories, Amis also uses variety to entertain us. We discover why Mr. Barrett worries about his daughter's association with the poet Browning, and we share a bizarre incident with a timid literary agent who becomes a hostage. In another, more eerie story, a parson meets an identical twin he didn't know he had, with unnerving results."The triumphant work of a writer at the top of his form." (B-O-T Editorial Review Board)

Teenager Clive Rayner becomes involved in a raid on a warehouse in which the night watchman is accidentally injured. In the aftermath, Clive is reassured by his mother, the vicar and the social worker that it wasn't really his fault, when in fact his need is for confirmation of his guilt.

"Article 22 of the Constitution laid down a standard procedure for dealing with the present type of emergency..."But alas, it is completely beyond the power of Article 22 or anything else to protect the Metropolitan Egyptological Society from the Lee Eddington Schwartz disturbance which brews suddenly on a cold winter evening, or from the pyramiding alarms and confusions which follow.Should the reader be, at first, in some doubt as to the real nature of the activities of the Egyptologists, he must not be surprised. The members' expertise in camouflage and deception has baffled many perceptive persons. The Society has been suspected at various times of engaging in espionage, in drug-smuggling, in the activity implied by its all-male membership, and even in Egyptology.What is the Metropolitan Egyptological Society? What goes on behind the locked doors of its Isis Room? What is the significance of the safeguards listed in Article 22? Those who pursue these questions in the pages of The Egyptologists will come not only to the centre of the mystery, but also to one of the most outrageously funny spoofs of the season.

«Ein Standardwerk.» Süddeutsche Zeitung Kingsley Amis war nicht nur ein großer englischer Literat, sondern auch ein Meister in der Kunst des Trinkens. Er schöpfte aus langjähriger Erfahrung, als er das Handbuch ANSTÄNDIG TRINKEN verfasste und damit eine witzige und höchst informative Anleitung für Profis und Laien schuf, die bei allem Vergnügen die praktischen und ökonomischen Aspekte des Trinkens nicht vernachlässigt. Denn: Zünftige Drinks zu servieren ist ein Handwerk besonderer Art. Amis erläutert so wichtige Themen wie wertvolle Trinker-lektüre und das wohlsortierte Schnapsregal, die Diät für den Trinker und die Frage, wie man beim Trinken möglichst lange nüchtern bleibt. Sein geistreiches Brevier enthält zudem eine Typologie des Katers und eine Auswahl der besten und explosivsten Rezepte, die er in jahrelanger Feldforschung zusammengetragen hat. «Smart, überhaupt nicht unsinnig und vor allem charmant.» New York Times

Deutsche Erstveröffentlichung mit einem Nachwort von Franz Rottensteiner

Grossbritannien unter sowjetischer Besatzung Die russischen Streitkräfte haben nur ein paar Tage gebraucht, um die britischen Inseln zu erobern, einige Wochen, um den zähen Widerstand von patriotischen Partisanen zu brechen, und ein halbes Jahrhundert, um den Briten ihr nationales Selbstverständnis, ihre Kultur und ihren Stolz zu nehmen, daß sie sich von den arroganten russischen Offizieren schurigeln lassen. Die Besatzer legen eher ein zaristisches als ein kommunistisches Gehabe an den Tag und wissen oft vor lauter Langeweile nicht, wie sie die Zeit totschlagen sollen - wodurch sie unschwer für ziemlich riskante Unternehmungen zu haben sind, seien sie sexueller oder kriegerischer Art. Es bedarf nicht nur des typisch britischen Humors, sondern auch der meisterhaften Feder eines Kingsley Amis, um dieser trostlosen Zukunft lustige Züge abzugewinnen, wie es ihm in diesem Roman auf unnachahmliche Weise gelingt.

Příběh literáta, který píše monografii o aristokratickém spisovateli a na vlastní kůži tak poznává anglické společenské bariéry a tradice. Knihou, která postrádá výraznější děj, se promenují zlomyslně popsané a vesměs nesnesitelné postavy, které autor čtenářům nabízí asi jako odstrašující exempláře snobů a příslušníků středních vrstev, kteří nejsou vůči konvenci dostatečně imunní.... celý text

Satirický román o skupině rafinovaných záletníků zesměšňuje nejen řadu lidských vlastností a diletantství, ale především anglického měšťáka. Děj se rozvíjí kolem založení tzv. Egyptologické společnosti skupinkou pánů středních let, jimiž má tato společnost sloužit jako zástěrka pro jejich zálety. Je to pro ně zároveň i hra a únik ze šedivé skutečnosti, protože vybrušováním pravidel a chodu celé společnosti věnují veškerou svou vynalézavost a energii. Kniha vyniká situační komikou a anglickým humorem.

Román o dospívání a zrání muže, který je autorovým souputníkem s podobným během života.

Кингсли Эмис (1922 - 1995) - знаменитый английский писатель, отец не менее знаменитого Мартина Эмиса. `Лесовик`, экранизированный на Би-би-си в 1990 г., - общепризнанно считается самым увлекательным его романом. Главный герой - хозяин трактира, не дурак выпить и не чуждый прочих жизненных радостей, которому начинают мерещиться призраки. Впрочем, мерещиться ли? И так ли уж мертв злобный доктор Андерхилл, по легенде вызывавший Лесовика в XVII в., дабы творить несусветные бесчинства?

Příběh o radostech i strastech londýnského novináře, který, ač nerad, jede i s rodinou na „pracovní“ dovolenou do Portugalska. Ústřední postavou u nás poprvé vycházejícího románu světoznámého anglického humoristy je Garnet Bowen, který je žurnalistou a lektorem v jednom londýnském nakladatelství. Je ženatý, má tři děti, miluje britské pivo a zrovna neoplývá sympatiemi k neanglicky mluvícím zemím. Naopak jeho hezká žena Barbara je velkou vyznavačkou exotiky. A protože je léto, tedy čas dovolených, Garnet ví, že tento problém bude muset nějak vyřešit. Rozhodování mu usnadní zaměstnavatel, který ho pošle do Portugalska. Zde má Garnet napsat několik neotřelých cestopisných článečků a navíc má na zakázku svého nakladatele sepsat divadelní hru. Portugalsko se tak stane kompromisem i pro to, aby mohl vyhovět manželčině touze po zvláštních turistických zážitcích. Během této ne zcela běžné dovolené Garnet zažije řadu veselých, místy až groteskních situací i pohrom, v nichž se může turista ocitnout díky lákadlům exotické ciziny. Přestože Amis tento román napsal už v r. 1958, najdeme v něm nejen jeho typický, svěží humor, ale též osvědčená témata – cestování, dovolená či kontrast mužského a ženského pohledu na svět. K pohodě při jeho četbě velkou měrou přispívá výborný překlad Ivo Šmoldase.

V sedmi povídkách sleduje klasik anglického humoru s vlídnou ironií malicherné a všelijak nedokonalé lidičky, jejich předstírané i špatně tajené city. Tři ze sedmi povídek této sbírky se odehrávají ve vojenském prostředí, jedna je jakousi symbolickou sci-fi. Vždy se však jedná o peripetie předstírání, utajovaných a nečekaně projevovaných náklonností i nepřátelství. Na to vše autor pohlíží s vlídným sarkasmem a inteligentní skepsí, s jemnou dávkou situační i slovní komiky. Svým datem vzniku patří povídky do Amisova mladšího období a skutečně v nich převažuje spíše optimismus Šťastného Jima než hořkost autorových pozdějších děl.... celý text

Kingsley Amis neměl nic na světě radši než popíjení alkoholu. Tato kniha v jednom svazku přináší tři texty, které o pití napsal. Velký mistr anglického humoru doporučuje čtenářům dobře vyzkoušené recepty na míchané nápoje, seznámí je s fenoménem kocoviny, poradí, jak by se pijáci měli stravovat a jak se neopít. Čtenář zde najde citáty slavných osobností na téma alkoholu a potěší se autorovými poučenými a veselými myšlenkami, postavenými na jeho celoživotní pilné praxi a hlubokých zkušenostech.