Synopsis
50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
A ruthless satire of academic life, The History Man by Malcolm Bradbury is a witty campus novel and one of the most influential books of the 1970s.
Take a Valium. Have a party. Go on a demo. Shoot a soldier. Make a bang. Bed a friend. That’s your problem-solving system . . . But haven’t we tried all that?
Howard Kirk, native son of the Swinging Sixties, radical university lecturer, and one half of a very modern marriage, is throwing a party. The night will have all sorts of repercussions: for Henry Beamish, Howard’s desperate and easily neglected friend, and for Howard’s wife, promiscuous ’70s liberal and exhausted victim of motherhood.
Funny, disconcerting and provocative, Bradbury's classic novel brilliantly satirizes a world of academic power struggles as his anti-hero seduces his way around campus. It also reveals a marriage in crisis and demonstrates the fragility of the human heart.
Now part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the very best of modern literature.
Details
02 October 2025
9781035061150Reviews
The funniest and best-written novel I have seen for a very long timeAuberon Waugh
Grim wit, chill comedy and a fictional energy which is as imaginative as the tale is shockingA. S. Byatt
Malcolm Bradbury has come up with a novel that simply must be readElizabeth Berridge, The Daily Telegraph
Extremely witty . . . Bradbury writes brilliantlyThe New York Times
