Anthony Burgess, Inside Mr Enderby

Rob Spence (Edge Hill University)
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Burgess wrote more about Enderby than any other character. He appears in four novels, having, like Sherlock Holmes, to be resurrected after fictional death to placate his admirers. It is evident that Enderby, though a repugnant character in many ways, gained a level of approval seldom accorded to Burgess’s characters, even by his admirers. The first appearance of Enderby, in the novel

Inside Mr Enderby

(1963), established the character who was to appear in a further three novels in increasingly bizarre circumstances.

The opening of Inside Mr Enderby is an extended conceit based on the idea of a time-travelling academic from some far distant future,(employed, we discover at the end of The Clockwork Testament by “Educational Time Trips Inc.”), who can show his class the sleeping form

2274 words

Citation: Spence, Rob. "Inside Mr Enderby". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 November 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=4457, accessed 28 March 2024.]

4457 Inside Mr Enderby 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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