Kingsley Amis

Why do most funny books have a happy ending? Is it because happy is synonymous with funny? Not necessarily, but it could be that a story that finishes with a happy ending, or at least a satisfactory one, completes it in a way that gives a sense of fulfilment to the reader looking for an enjoyable read.

A happy ending often means love and marriage for the main character(s), or the promise of at least one of them. Jane Austen states the case beautifully with her novel Emma (1815); George and Weedon Grossmith tie up the loose ends with it in their The Diary of a Nobody (1892); Lucky Jim (1954) by Kingsley Amis concludes with a hint of romance; and Graeme Simsion has his two main characters deciding to marry each other in The Rosie Project (2013).

Part of the popularity of Jane Austen is the entirely satisfactory way in which all six of her novels conclude. Austen set a formula for written romantic comedy which sees the marriage (or romantic attachment) of the main character (in Austen’s case all female) as a fitting conclusion to the various vicissitudes that precede it. This readily-encompassed story-line may have contributed to her books’ regular transitions to the screen.

The novel Emma has a heroine of whom Austen said, ‘I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like.’ This of course proves not to be the case, and Emma Woodhouse has been an enduringly popular character in humorous fiction. A main character with whom the reader can sympathise is a crucial element in a book that revolves around a romantic plot, and in Emma the interest begins in the first sentence with its economical and pointed description of the heroine. The humour continues with similarly astute passages until the book’s appropriate conclusion.

Later in the 19^th century, George and Weedon Grossmith published their fictional book The Diary of a Nobody, which had previously been available in serial form in the magazine Punch. The book’s humour rests on the social pretensions and ambitions of the fictitious main character and writer of the diary, Charles Pooter. Focusing on the aspirations of the lower-middle class of the time, it also forms a social commentary.

A subplot with a romantic element is threaded throughout the narrative with the adventures of Pooter’s son Lupin, whose inability to hold down a job and poor judgement in the investment and financial areas help to move the plot along. The varying ambitions, trials and eventual triumph of his amorous plans interact with the activities of his father and his friends, and Lupin becomes an extension of the family social standing and fortunes.

On a different note, Kingsley Amis centres the humour of his first published book on the pretentious and hollow aspects of life in a second-rate university. The main character of Lucky Jim, Jim Dixon, is a temporary lecturer at the university and intent on attaining a permanent position there. Combined with his career aspirations, or if not aspirations then at least forward planning, Dixon also contends with difficulties on the romantic front, with a manipulative girlfriend and his own preference for another woman.

The story moves along through comic set pieces, such as Jim’s drunken delivery of an important lecture. The transparent greed, affectations and illicit amorous activities of some of the secondary characters provide further comic detail, and Jim walking off arm-in-arm with the other woman gives a satisfactory ending to the story.

The Rosie Project also has part of its setting in a university, but with a completely different main character in the socially challenged academic Don Tillman. Don is in search of a wife and has set out a list of questions for potential candidates detailing the attributes he requires in a wife. He thinks the process shouldn’t be too difficult, because due to his acceptable work situation and physical features, ‘Logically I should be attractive to a wide range of women’.

This doesn’t prove to be the case, with his social skills not always equal to the demands of a potentially romantic situation, and his actions and decisions lead to various humorous encounters. The eventual denouement when Don realises that the best person to be his wife is Rosie, who on paper appears to be the least suitable, confirms the humour of the story.

The difficulties in developing empathy and an understanding of other people are often a feature of romantic comedies, and all four books employ this characteristic to keep the momentum going as they head towards their happy endings. The resolutions are romantic, but also contain elements of a renewed outlook in the main character as they reach what they finally realise they had been striving for all along. A happy ending, and a satisfactory ending.

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Authors

Jane Austen; George Grossmith and Weedon Grossmith; Kingsley Amis; Graeme Simsion

Titles

Emma by Jane Austen; The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith; Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis; The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion