''Inside Mr Enderby'' is the first volume of the Enderby series, a quartet of comic novels by the British author

Anthony Burgess John Anthony Burgess Wilson, (; 25 February 1917 – 22 November 1993), who published under the name Anthony Burgess, was an English writer and composer. Although Burgess was primarily a comic writer, his dystopian satire ''A Clockwork ...

. The book was first published in 1963 in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

William Heinemann William Henry Heinemann (18 May 1863 – 5 October 1920) was an English publisher of Jewish descent and the founder of the Heinemann publishing house in London. Early life On 18 May 1863, Heinemann was born in Surbiton, Surrey, England. Heine ...

under the pseudonym

Joseph Kell John Anthony Burgess Wilson, (; 25 February 1917 – 22 November 1993), who published under the name Anthony Burgess, was an English writer and composer. Although Burgess was primarily a comic writer, his dystopian satire ''A Clockwork O ...

. The series began with the publication in 1963 of ''Inside Mr. Enderby'', continued in 1968 with '' Enderby Outside'' and 1974 with '' The Clockwork Testament, or Enderby's End'', and concluded after a ten-year break in 1984 with '' Enderby's Dark Lady, or No End to Enderby''.

Plot summary

The story opens on a note of pure fantasy, showing school children from the future taking a field trip through time to see the dyspeptic poet Francis Xavier Enderby while he is asleep. Enderby, a lapsed

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

in his mid-40s, lives alone in

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

as a 'professional' poet - his income being interest from investments left to him by his stepmother. Enderby composes his poetry whilst seated on the toilet. His bathtub, which serves as a filing cabinet, is almost full of the mingled paper and food scraps that represent his efforts. Although he is recognised as a minor poet with several published works (and is even awarded a small prize, the 'Goodby Gold Medal', which he refuses), he has yet to be anthologised. He is persuaded to leave his lonely but poetically fruitful bachelor life by the editor of a woman's magazine, Vesta Bainbridge, after he accidentally sends her a love poem instead of a complaint about a recipe in her magazine. The marriage, which soon ends, costs Enderby dearly, alienating him from his

muse In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in ...

and depriving him of his financial independence. Months pass, and Enderby is able to write only one more poem. After spending what remains of his capital, he attempts suicide with an overdose of aspirin, experiencing disgusting (and rather funny) visions of his stepmother as he nears death. His cries of horror bring help, and he regains consciousness in a mental institution, where the doctors persuade him to renounce his old, "immature" poetry-writing self. Rechristened "Piggy Hogg", he looks forward contentedly to a new career as a bartender.

Criticism

Anthony Burgess wrote a review of Joseph Kell's book for the ''Yorkshire Post''. " en the editor sent him the author's novel—Burgess thought it was a practical joke but it wasn't." When the paper found out that Kell was one of Burgess' pen names, Burgess was removed from his reviewing duties. Anatole Broyard of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' wrote:

"Mr. Burgess is so fond of Enderby—by far his best creation—that he has devoted four books to him: ''Inside Mr. Enderby'' and ''Enderby Outside,'' which were published in 1968, ''The Clockwork Testament'' in 1975, and now, ''Enderby's Dark Lady.''"

Harold Bloom Harold Bloom (July 11, 1930 – October 14, 2019) was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. In 2017, Bloom was described as "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking worl ...

has nominated the novel as one of his candidates for "the most undervalued English novel of our era".Bloom, Novelists and Novels, Burgess, p442

Reviews

Release details

*1963, UK, William Heinemann (ISBN B0000CLQ13), Pub Date ? ? 1970, Hardback *1984, US, Mcgraw-Hill (), Pub Date April ? 1984, Hardback *1984, US, Mcgraw-Hill (), Pub Date ? ? 1984, Paperback *1996, US, Carroll & Graf Publishers (), Pub Date January ? 1996, Hardback (complete Enderby series)

Footnotes

Sources, references, external links, quotations

*
NY Times Book review of the last book in the seriesBiography
{{burgess Novels by Anthony Burgess 1963 British novels British comedy novels Works published under a pseudonym Novels set in Brighton Heinemann (publisher) books