My late OH gave this to me - it was an unexpected choice, but is a truly wonderful book shot through with wit. Definitely to be recommended.
I wrote a review of it:
The Unexpected Professor: An Oxford Life in Books, by John Carey
As is to be expected from an Emeritus Professor at Oxford and a Fellow of the British Academy, John Carey's autobiography is erudite and witty, but more surprisingly charming, warm and full of self-deprecatory humour. He shares with us his life's literary journey from Biggles, via Tarka the Otter to Milton, Shakespeare, Dickens, Golding, Thackeray and so many more.
Along the way we are treated to vignettes from and analyses of some of the world's greatest literature, about which he is often refreshingly scathing: on Dostoyevsy “I find his plots rambling and (full of) sentimental religiosity”; Cervantes' Don Quixote is “boring and hateful”; Plato “nonsense”; and Thackeray's The Virginians “soporific at a pharmaceutical level.” It is tempting to imagine that my shared views on some of these and other works may not simply be borne out of my own lack of erudition; just as it was a “great relief” to him to discover in his late teens that he had been “misinformed” about females' lack of interest in sexual activity.
We are also enlightened about the pitifully puerile rituals, traditions, and rivalries of Oxford colleges. It is hard to credit that some of our greatest intellects can be party to such despair-inducing nonsense. What price world peace? But, left-leaning in his politics and true to his grammar school roots, Carey sets about trying to widen the intake of Oxford colleges and bring the syllabus into the 21st century by introducing for the first time the study of modern literature.
He treats us to a list of the 20 favourite books that he has reviewed, which are hugely varied and include Frank Muir's autobiography “A Kentish Lad”, Michael Frayn's “The Human Touch: Our Part in the Creation of the Universe”, and Robert R Provine's “Laughter: A Scientific Investigation.” I am tempted to acquire Carey's “Pure Pleasure: A Guide to the Twentieth Century's Most Enjoyable Books.” I suspect there will be much to learn and delight in.
On religion, he concludes that: “Though I thought of myself as an agnostic, I was really a Christian who just did not happen to believe in God.” Borne out of his childhood experiences as a choirboy and remembering the words of the Magnificat, he found that: “My belief........that the mighty and the rich deserved to be humbled and go hungry …. had outlasted my belief in God.”
And his humour? Whilst in Egypt on National Service and having inadvertently discharged a .38 revolver into the sleeping company lines, he is hauled before the major. “Standing to attention before his desk, I was forced to admire, with a small detached literary-critical portion of my mind, the colour, variety, cogency, rhetorical incisiveness and dramatic force of his language, even though its purport was far from complimentary to me.”
It is intriguing to share time with a man who has devoted his every waking moment to reading and the analysis of literature. Is this pure self-indulgence or a worthwhile way to spend a life? He makes out a good case: “Reading distrusts certainty.......punctures pomp......is contemptuous of luxury.....makes you see that ordinary things are not ordinary. Reading is vast, like the sea, but you can dip into it anywhere and be refreshed. Reading takes you into other minds and makes them part of your own. Reading releases you from the limits of yourself. Reading is freedom.”
Or it can simply be an unexpected delight, as is this book.