The History Man
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
At the centre of a turbulent 1970s British university campus stands Howard Kirk, a radical sociology professor whose calculated charm, political certainty, and voracious appetites make him one of the most compelling — and chilling — antiheroes in postwar British fiction. The History Man chronicles a single term in Kirk's life, as he manipulates colleagues, seduces students, and orchestrates social situations with the cold precision of a man who believes history is always on his side. Malcolm Bradbury constructs a razor-sharp satirical indictment of left-wing academic culture, exposing the gap between progressive ideology and personal tyranny with devastating wit. Published in 1975 and widely regarded as a landmark of the English comic novel, The History Man cemented Bradbury's reputation as a forensic observer of intellectual pretension and institutional hypocrisy. His prose is at once ironic and clinical, rendered in an unusual present tense that strips away sentiment and forces the reader into uncomfortable proximity with Kirk's world. The novel raises urgent questions about power, freedom, and the uses of ideology that feel no less relevant today — leaving the reader to decide whether Howard Kirk is a product of his times, or their most honest reflection.
Author: Malcolm Bradbury
Format: Hardback
Published: 1976, Houghton Mifflin Company
Genre: Modern fiction
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
At the centre of a turbulent 1970s British university campus stands Howard Kirk, a radical sociology professor whose calculated charm, political certainty, and voracious appetites make him one of the most compelling — and chilling — antiheroes in postwar British fiction. The History Man chronicles a single term in Kirk's life, as he manipulates colleagues, seduces students, and orchestrates social situations with the cold precision of a man who believes history is always on his side. Malcolm Bradbury constructs a razor-sharp satirical indictment of left-wing academic culture, exposing the gap between progressive ideology and personal tyranny with devastating wit. Published in 1975 and widely regarded as a landmark of the English comic novel, The History Man cemented Bradbury's reputation as a forensic observer of intellectual pretension and institutional hypocrisy. His prose is at once ironic and clinical, rendered in an unusual present tense that strips away sentiment and forces the reader into uncomfortable proximity with Kirk's world. The novel raises urgent questions about power, freedom, and the uses of ideology that feel no less relevant today — leaving the reader to decide whether Howard Kirk is a product of his times, or their most honest reflection.