Why Lucky Jim is not a "comic" novel

wrong about that: looks like Margaret, despite all the foreshadowing, will make it to the end of "Lucky Jim." Jim (Dixon) delivers his Merrie England lecture and, predictably, it's a total fiasco, with Dixon pretty well drunk, shaking with nerves, launching into parodic imitations of his department and other notables, various in the audience, Dixon seems to faint or collapse, but does manage to eke out an ex tempore comment, completely at odds with his dinner-clubbish prepared text, in which he declares that there never was a Merrie England, that England of old was a time of misery and suffering and only hopeless nostalgics or fools would imagine that it was a merrie time. That could be a theme for this whole novel. In fact, Merrie England would have been a better title. Nevertheless, giving the lie to the underlying issues of class and privilege, Jim Dixon does prove to be lucky, as the wealth Gore-Urquart offers him a cushy job in London as a private secretary - what a fool, Dixon will obviously fail at that, and not use the opportunities it affords him either because he has no core goals or beliefs. He will, I guess, in the final two (upcoming) chapters win Christine. Is this a comic novel? Yes, in the sense that, it seems, all knots are tied and all survive (still maybe wondering about Margaret's fate) and the evil get their due but in farcical ways. No in that it seethes with bitterness and cynicism, it's a comic novel that's all attitude and no heart.