Mister Johnson – Joyce Cary Penguin Modern Classics

Mister Johnson by Joyce Cary

Penguin Modern Classics paperback. Cover drawing by Julian Allen. 

The rise and fall of the well-nigh irrepressible Mister Johnson, chief clerk of Fada in Nigeria (and of the main north road), friend of Rudbeck the District Officer, of the Wazirin Fada, and of the King of England, can only be described as the product of genius. The whole book flashes with the spirit of Nigeria as Joyce Cary knew it during his service there. Before our eyes, with the immediacy of a film scenario, passes a landscape of river, bush, and forest; Europeans as godlike and incomprehensible as Jehovah, attended by hosts of Fulani, Hausa, Nupe, Yoruba, or pagans; the receding vista of savage Africa and the coming vision of a continent of wealth.

And across the foreground twists and turns the irresponsible, intriguing, childlike figure of Mister Johnson, as he rhythmically advances step by step towards the gallows.

‘A beautifully written, absorbing story which, I trust, will serve to bring many new readers to this magnificent novelist’ — Howard Spring in the Sunday Times

Publisher: Penguin Modern Classics
Cover art: Drawing by Julian Allen
Condition: Good — light wear and tanning to covers and spine consistent with age; binding sound, interior clean.