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 in his mid-40s, lives alone in Brighton as a "professional" poet - his income being interest from investments left to him by his stepmother.
Enderby composes his poems while he sits 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 Vesta Bainbridge, the editor of a woman's magazine, 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 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 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
1984 McGraw-Hill edition
Anthony Burgess wrote a review of Joseph Kell's book for the Yorkshire Post. "[W]hen the editor sent him the author's novel Burgess thought it was a practical joke, but it wasn't."[2]
When the paper found out that Kell was one of Burgess's pen names, Burgess was removed from his reviewing duties.[3]
"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."[4]
Harold Bloom has nominated the novel as one of his candidates for "the most undervalued English novel of our era".[5]
Liukkonen, Petri. "Anthony Burgess". Books and Writers. Finland: Kuusankoski Public Library. Archived from the original on 10 March 2008. "Joke" story told in this article about Anthony Burgess.
