The Complete Enderby: Inside Mr. Enderby, Enderby Outside, the Clockwork Testament, Enderby's Dark Lady

Enderby #1-4

by Anthony Burgess

Four works including Inside Mr. Enderby, Enderby Outside, The Clockwork Testament, and Enderby's Dark Lady follow the comic poet's encounters with a professional widow, a plagiarizing pop star, and an African-American nightclub singer. Original.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Literature, British Literature, Collections, Humor, 20th Century

631 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1963

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Seriocomic novels of noted British writer and critic Anthony Burgess, pen name of John Burgess Wilson, include the futuristic classic A Clockwork Orange (1962).

He composed also a librettos, poems, plays, screens, and essays and traveled, broadcast, translated, linguist and educationalist. He lived for long periods in southeastern Asia, the United States of America, and Europe along Mediterranean Sea as well as England. His fiction embraces the Malayan trilogy ( The Long Day Wanes ) on the dying days of empire in the east. The Enderby quartet concerns a poet and his muse. Nothing like the Sun re-creates love life of William Shakespeare. He explores the nature of evil with Earthly Powers , a panoramic saga of the 20th century. He published studies of James Joyce, Ernest Miller Hemingway, Shakespeare, and David Herbert Lawrence. He produced the treatises Language Made Plain and A Mouthful of Air . His journalism proliferated in several languages. He translated and adapted Cyrano de Bergerac , Oedipus the King , and Carmen for the stage. He scripted Jesus of Nazareth and Moses the Lawgiver for the screen. He invented the prehistoric language, spoken in Quest for Fire . He composed the Sinfoni Melayu , the Symphony (No. 3) in C , and the opera Blooms of Dublin .

Reviews

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Burgess was an elitist bastard, but he wrote brilliant satire, especially about the counter-culture. For example, to avoid any gender bias in English, Burgess suggested contracting the subject pronouns: she, he and it, into one subject pronoun: shit. It's been a couple of decades since I read the Enderby series, but the misadventures of Enderby, steeped in the classics, baited but unhooked by modernity, stay with me.

My novel End Man will be released by Cursed Dragon Ship Publishing in October 2022. Kirkus Reviews describes it as "An engrossing and well-crafted SF Tale with timely themes." It's also a satirical take on contemporary online culture.

[Justin Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

As you'd expect from a collection of four novels written over a period of twenty years or more, this is uneven. The first two novels hand together quite well. In the first, Enderby tries to avoid engaging with the outside world; in the second, he is forced to do so. As with anything by Burgess, it's funny, wordy, and vocabulary-expanding. Enderby himself is a very ambiguous fellow. He's a truly horrific human being, but also strangely appealing to anyone who has elitist/artistic tendencies.

The last two novels are a different matter. They don't hang together, either with each other or with the first two. The Clockwork Testament is the worst novel of the four, in terms of art (less well written, less unified) and morality (most contemporary readers will judge at least Enderby and possibly also Burgess to be racist) but also the most interesting in terms of literary history and philosophy: it is, quite obviously, a response to the American reception of A Clockwork Orange/i>. This is perfectly reasonable in purely intellectual terms. The novel was butchered by the film version, and Burgess was made to appear someone he really isn't (i.e., the film is a celebration of the individual freedoms so beloved by seventies radicals; the book is actually a rejection of the juvenile antics that bear some resemblance to the antics of seventies radicals); here, Enderby spends much time thinking about Dostoevskian themes of individual freedom, determinism, and predestination, in a fairly responsible manner, i.e., in exactly the manner that the film of ACO, and the aforementioned radicals, refused.

Unfortunately, Burgess lets the radicals themselves into the book, and promptly becomes the kind of reductionist that he claims those radicals were. Racism is mostly in your head, and so is sexism, etc... No, they're not.

The final novel, Enderby's Dark Lady, could almost be an apology for writing the Testament. The 'dark lady' of Shakespeare becomes a wonderful black American woman, who is far more intelligent, beautiful, sensible, and personable than Enderby... and also clearly a victim of blatant sexism and racism, which is not, as it was in the Testament, excused. It's also a very funny piece of anti-Americanism, if you like that kind of thing. And let's be honest, you got to the end of a review of a series of Anthony Burgess novels, so you probably do.

Unfortunately, the last chapter of this last Enderby novel is very, very silly.

[William2 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inside Mr. Enderby 4 stars - I thought this was a wonder when I read it in 1997. Burgess is for word lovers. One of the things that makes him funny is his insertion of the perfect overwrought word at the right moment. His gift very much reminds me of Martin Amis's work, though they are strikingly dissimilar in other ways.

Enderby Outside 3 stars - Reading this in 2013, I was disappointed. I lost interest in the narrative toward the middle. And the last scene where Enderby meets his muse I did not like at all. Though technically, there was no falling off of technique. In other words, it doesn't get sloppy, I simply lost interest in it. The reason for this was the discourse on poetry, which hasn't aged well.

I have yet to read the last two novels here: Clockwork Testament and Enderby's Dark Lady.

[Lucas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anthony Burgess's "The Complete Enderby" is a four-novel sequence that is a delight to read, and a shining example of Burgess's unique storytelling style. It's an epic saga that spans multiple decades and locations, filled with humor, pathos, and the undeniable charm of its eponymous hero. This work is a clear five-star choice for me.

The four novels - "Inside Mr. Enderby", "Enderby Outside", "The Clockwork Testament, or Enderby's End", and "Enderby's Dark Lady, or No End to Enderby" - are all centered around the character of F.X. Enderby, a somewhat reclusive, misanthropic poet. Enderby is one of Burgess's most memorable characters, a man who is at once sympathetic, infuriating, and utterly fascinating.

Burgess's portrayal of Enderby is a masterclass in character development. Over the course of the four novels, we witness Enderby in various stages of his life, from his humble beginnings as a poet to his adventures in different parts of the world. Burgess takes us deep into Enderby's psyche, revealing a man who is as flawed and complex as he is endearing.

The writing in "The Complete Enderby" is nothing short of brilliant. Burgess's prose is sharp, witty, and filled with linguistic playfulness that reflects his love for language. Each novel is crafted with a distinct style and tone, but they all share Burgess's trademark humor and keen eye for detail.

One of the standout features of "The Complete Enderby" is its exploration of the nature of creativity. Through Enderby's journey as a poet, Burgess delves into the joys, frustrations, and absurdities of the creative process. He examines the role of the artist in society, the tension between art and commerce, and the often blurred line between fiction and reality.

In conclusion, "The Complete Enderby" is a remarkable work by one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. It's a rich, multifaceted saga that will make you laugh, think, and perhaps even shed a tear or two. It's a testament to Burgess's immense talent and creativity, and it's a book that I am more than happy to award five stars.

[Edward Champion · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this to get reacquainted with Burgess before writing an essay on A CLOCKWORK ORANGE. And while my favorite Burgess novel will always be EARTHLY POWERS, this hilarious collection of novels about a largely sexless poet who wants to be left alone is arguably a close second. These novels would absolutely not be published today. They are gritty, scatological, politically incorrect, and completely hilarious. The idea behind Enderby is that here is a valiant poet caught within the decline of Western civilization. It makes SENSE to place him among disgusting pub habitues, thieving poets, and -- in THE CLOCKWORK TESTAMENT -- the impoverished dregs of society as a teacher. Burgess is elitist and often insensitive and pulls no punches. But that's why these books work so well! Reading these books near the end of the pandemic, when even the most gregarious among us are feeling a mite misanthropic, turned out to be perfect timing. It's been said by some that Enderby was a thinly veiled Burgess himself. And one of the reasons we can go along for the ride here is because Enderby himself is honest and self-effacing. He just wants to write his poetry, but the wild vagaries of the world keep shattering his existence in ridiculous but ever more plausible ways. Also, Nicholson Baker shamelessly ripped off Enderby for his Paul Chowder books, sanding all the offensiveness down, and making the reading experience more "palatable." I much prefer the unadulterated Burgess vision. There is an audacious scene in THE CLOCKWORK TESTAMENT in which Enderby confronts a Black Power poem that would probably spawn a thousand hot takes of offense, but it had me howling with laughter in a way that caused me to fall off the bed. So I very much enjoyed these books, although this is not the reading experience for everyone.

[Cait · Rating 5 out of 5]

For me, F. X. Enderby is one of those memorable characters. He is just as memorable as A Confederacy of Dunces. Enderby is a strange poet who has dyspepsia and writes all his poetry on the toilet. In fact, he was so memorable and funny, I named my cat Enderby.

[Eric T · Rating 5 out of 5]

A clever and hilarious series is to be found in the Enderby novels. Enderby himself is one of Burgess's finest achievements. A bumbling dyspeptic rude impotent elitist poet whose personal life always seems to fall apart in service to art, for better or for worse, so to speak. He is an outcast, much like Burgess, finding it hard to make a home of anywhere. All he has is his muse and his love of art, and he must betray both to connect with the outside world.

Burgess's key themes make an appearance; Burgess's apostate catholic theology pairs well with scatological humor, ponderings on the worth of poetry, and the occasional quiet moment of honest reflection on the human condition that peer through the witticism and cynicism of Enderby and his peers.

The first two novels are the strongest. Burgess originally imagined them as one novel, but due to a thankfully false prognosis that gave him a year to live, he feared he wouldn't be able to finish it. He released the first half as Inside Mr. Enderby, and Enderby Outside was finished a few years later.

The other two novels are strange entities, largely given life by Enderby himself who I never seemed to tire of. Burgess had things say with these two novels, but it almost seems like he tacked Enderby to it for lack of a better idea. Not that I'm complaining; again, Enderby is worth the ride.

The Clockwork Testament or Enderby's End is a fictional re-creation of Burgess's own experience dealing with the aftermath of Kubrick's adaptation of A Clockwork Orange. Enderby waxes his most elitist here and has a disdain for the social issues of the day, only wishing to stick to his expertise - language. When Kubrick pulled his film from cinemas based on reports that youth who had viewed the film engaged in imitative violence, Burgess felt like Kubrick had betrayed art to censorship. For Burgess, if one film or novel or play could be held responsible for the actions of the viewer, reader, or audience member, then they all could be. Not even Shakespeare would be safe from censorship and public outrage. Enderby clarifies the themes of ACO: original sin, free will, and what-not.

Enderby's Dark Lady seems to be a self-lashing, all too catholic, for his pastiche Shakespearean novel Nothing Like the Sun and perhaps an earlier tendency toward casual racism. However, Dark Lady has some of the most genuinely hilarious sequences of the series. Enderby's impotence and hypocrisy is on full display here, at times comic and others genuine. Again, the latter two novels are far too humorous and human to dismiss.

I would highly recommend reading the first two novels, especially if you enjoy Burgess. The latter two I would recommend as well, but only if the reader has fallen for the title character. He is despicably anti-social, but ineluctable in his honesty. Enderby is a poet. He is never spurious or perfidious, even when he ought to be, and that is his ultimate charm.

[D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very funny. The involuntary adventures of a poet who would much prefer to be left alone. The stories become more and more fantastic and 'over the top' as do the locations: from Brighton to London, Rome to Spain, Tangier, Indiana and outer space to a version of earth in a different universe.

[Doug Hart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enderby's Dark Lady is worth it alone, still one of the funniest books I've ever read

[aditya · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm blown away by how something so empty can be made so epic and meaningful. Literary heroin, sweet quadruple spoonfuls of postmodern syrup. First of all, Enderby is an arcane character with an entirely plausible yet completely ridiculous set of values. He's a lost cause from the lower middle classes but is a truly towering Literary figure in his relation to great poets and playwrights, which gives him an inner strength that fuels him through all kinds of intensely twisted situations, largely of his own making.

For instance, he's committed to dyspepsia and reflux as a natural mode of life. He often chases those sickly states with cups of whisky, over-caffeinated cups of tea and horrendous sounding British meals that generally involve gross bits of animals stewed or fried in lard. LOL he has his own style of cooking that he cherishes that pretty much rests on that formula.

He's also unable to communicate with anyone except women who temporarily fall in love with him, and other wretched poets from his milieu, because his prose is so dense and his tone and emotional affect so misaligned with acceptable tone that he is immediately seen or heard as forward and suspicious. The sheer brutality and nakedness of the situations being described and that he gets into are awe inspiring.

OTOH his inner intellectual activity, writing poetry and following his inner voice, is really defensible in a literary context, although the fact that he is entirely sexless, just prone to bouts of masturbation and recrimination, as a sacrifice to his muse is very darkly appropriate.

And as a consequence of his idiosyncrasies and perceived depravity, he often finds himself involved with the dregs of society, the places where writers, druggies and pederasts roam free in Morocco, or with gnarly cut-rate butchers, and so on.

Whether Enderby is worthless or worthwhile is, indeed, the seriocomic question the author, readers, Enderby, other characters, and history are all eternally asking themselves. Hilariously the answer is likely a superposition - he's both.

The novels vary in character and tone, I'd say the first two are perfectly poised and positioned, but the latter make interesting commentary on the first two and are awesome in their own way, but more literary fun and games than the visceral crawl into the heart of poetry and how its ideals crash and completely oppose all our modern and many of our ancient values and systems.

You have to be in the right place to take in this dense book. It has you looking up words and references in the dictionary every page or so. Often cackling when you realize how deep and self
referential and fractal they are. A truly wild ride. We will never know if Enderby's poetry was "good" but it will always be great in context within this book!

[Rhys · Rating 5 out of 5]

Astonishing. Astounding. Darkly delightful.

I bought this omnibus a few years ago. I had been meaning to read the 'Enderby' novels for some time. Eventually I began reading the first one, Inside Mr Enderby, and after only a few pages I realised that I had set off on a journey into a masterpiece. This is probably the best novel of the four, but that's a bit like saying a very very wonderful thing is better than a very wonderful thing. All four novels are superb.

The second, Enderby Outside, has the most action. Enderby becomes (or thinks he has become) a criminal and he is on the run. He chooses a very exotic refuge and William Burroughs has a cameo role here (though he is disguised in it). This novel, like its precedessor, is scathing, hilarious, relentlessly ironic, mildly misanthropic, elitist (but humorously so), brilliantly written, vulgar and sublime.

In the third, The Clockwork Testament, the satire is harder and sharper and the cultural criticisms are eye-watering. Burgess is reacting to a world that has changed considerably from the world of the time of the first Enderby novel. Enderby, always lost in the world, is now absolutely out of place. He pushes on regardeless, paying the ultimate price.

In the fourth, Enderby's Dark Lady, set in an alternative present to the world of the third book, Enderby is thrust deep into the politics of aspirational actors and composers. He forms an unlikely alliance, a friendship which could have gone deeper had he chosen, and he achieves a very small triumph at the end, a pyrrhic victory, despite everything. This novel ends with an outrageously brilliant piece of science fiction.

Anthony Burgess has one of the most enthralling prose styles I have ever encountered, intricate, lyrical, original, full of wordplay and language tricks, but his brilliancies are never at the expense of meaning. I rank him with Nabokov as a stylist, on the highest plateau of all.

[Howard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poetic farty, anti-hero Enderby is a balding, anti-society lonely man. He is a well regarded poet but a poorly regarded human being. He is written to be a loveable, sympathetic character.

The complete edition covers his route to a failed, unconsummated marriage to Vesta (1966) then his escape after being framed for shooting her musical protégé to Morocco but seeking revenge on a anti-friend competitor poet (1968). His final day as a teacher in America forms the third novel (1978) then a form of parallel universe allows Enderby to be invited to write the lyrics for a musical and he falls for the black lead actress (1984).

This is all well written with Anthony's erudite linguistic abilities. It can get all too indulgent of the author in my view and with increasing demoralisation I progressed with a declining level of enjoying each book with the sense that the author was progressively having greater fun writing. The first two are most definitely the best, not comic or funny but just rather humorous on infrequent occasions.

If I had known I'd have not started the 'complete version' (I can't not finish a book in one go) but just bought 'Inside Mr Enderby' and I'd have probably left it there.

[Sue · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like others have said, the first two stories are quite good and amusing. Enderby's stomach and bowels providing noises and entertainment. You almost like him. His escape from Vesta in Rome engenders sympathy and his attempts to live afterwards ending in a suicide attempt is sad. He is sent to some kind of psychiatric hospital given a new identify and is retrained as a barman of all things. The story becomes more farcical when he is framed for a murder and manages to escape to Morocco ending up running a bar in Tangiers.

Burgess should have stopped there. Given him a half happy ending. But no he writes 2 more poor stories. One in which he goes to teach in the USA. He becomes disillusioned and unpleasant and dies from a heart attack. The next story sees him resurrected from the dead but again going to the States to help write a play about Shakespeare. And finally a weird sci fi story which is rubbish.

[Kit · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first two books of the series are good, Enderby is not a typical protagonist, and he deals with issues, humourous as it may be, of dealing with stomach noises, and catching fleeting thoughts to paper, as after all, it is the profession. He is ageing, he is awkward with people, and for what it's worth, for the first couple of books, I enjoyed the poetry.

The last couple of books were garbage. It was difficult to relate to Enderby, he became more obscene, his poetry and Burgess's prose were incomprehensible. The Enderby books are uncomfortable reads. Funny at some parts, and stretches your vocab (I had to look up noumenon), but really, two were enough, four beyond excess. Unfortunately, the latter books really took the shine off the former, and I grew to loathe Enderby.

[Garathe O Den · Rating 4 out of 5]

I mostly enjoyed the Enderby tales, however bizarre they did seem at times, and as non-relatable as the character was to me.

I definitely enjoyed the earlier parts more so that the latter, but overall it was a brilliantly odd story in it’s own right.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like Evelyn Waugh(like I do) you’ll love this.

[Ryan Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

hilarious. he loves his art and he just doesn’t understand anything else.

[h. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enderby is a delightful character. I'd actually forgotten all about him until landing on goodreads and starting to think seriously about what good books I've read over the years.

If you like A Hitchhiker's Guide, The Importance of Being Earnest,Bucket of Face, A Confederacy of Dunces, or any of PG Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster/Jeeves novels, I can confidently recommend Enderby.

You'll find a bit of Charles, Ignatius, Jack,and Bertie in Enderby. And you'll love all the secondary characters, too. Enderby is plagued by his own Marvin, Jeeves, Algy, and Myrna, too.

When life truly gets you down and you need something absolutely delightful to pull you up, step inside Enderby's life! (And if you do, please let me know which scene you liked the best!) I can promise you'll never feel quite the same about a cup of English Breakfast again.

Now that I've remembered him again, I'm going to order this collection --- and gasp --- pay fullprice for it --- unless I can grab it cheap before Border's closes shop. I just hope I can get it before this weekend. A bottle of cold wine and several hundred pages of excellent absurdity! Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain.

[Lee Belbin · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is no doubt that Burgess can write but he didn't manage to engage me. Enderby oscillates between generating sympathy to downright horror due to his lack of sensitivity. Burgess is a wordsmith by today's standards so I enjoyed expanding my vocabulary, but the philosophical asides didn't add to the story. Let's face it that a 'professional poet' is going to have his problems, regardless of skill. Maybe I would treat him more differently depending on what I last read. There are just too many books out there.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I liked the first of the four books contained here I did find myself of necessity having to put it down, but equally eager to take it up again as soon as possible. it is very funny. Burgess likes to pride himself apparently on use of obscure words, but that's a part of what is interesting about him. Enderby seems an extemporizing of his own (Burgess's) personality to a great degree, but he scores in a lot of ways when he skewers trends in pop culture prevalent at the time he was writing it. This one is a great antidote to boredom.

[John]

As someone who alternately imagines himself to be Robin Hood one moment and then a schlemiel, the next, this book appeals to my schlemiel self. And, yet for all those disgusting moments (think of Confederacy of Dunces), where our "hero" warms himself before the electric fire while seat on the throen, he does stumble into some exciting dramas. The world tends to hate him and hunt him, although he is oblivious to their venom.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

so my version actually didn't have "enderby's dark lady" which is apparently one of the best. there were moments of genius in the first three books, but then also parts i wasn't that into. the character reminded me a lot of ignatius from a confederacy of dunces which is quite possibly the best character ever. a good read but not on par with "a clockwork orange."

[Doopa00 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not keen on Dark Lady, I think Burgess should have ended with Clockwork Testament as he originally intended.

If can stand the bit of vulgarity (no more than A Clockwork Orange) Burgess likes to indulge in, then the first two in the trilogy are definitely worth the read.

[Marguerite Kaye · Rating 4 out of 5]

The sort of book stacked full of lines you wish you'd written. Funn and moving and clever, as you'd expect, only much more so. A book to read lots and lots and still pick up on things you hadn't before, and still laugh out loud too.

[Edward Creter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enderby is a poet whose rhymes are often unappreciated by the outside world. He's a guy anyone can relate to. If you're not an Anthony Burgess fan, this book should give you a good start.

[Chrissy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love Enderby

[Frederick Aspbury · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious...