Enderby (fictional character)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Enderby is the protagonist in a quartet of comic novels by Anthony Burgess. He is a reclusive, middle aged minor poet, plagued by dyspepsia, who writes all his poetry while sitting on the toilet.

The four volumes that make up the cycle are:

• Inside Mr. Enderby (1963) - Originally published under the pseudonym of Joseph Kell
• Enderby Outside (1968)
• The Clockwork Testament, or Enderby's End (1974)
• Enderby's Dark Lady, or No End of Enderby (1984)

Burgess may have named the character after Enderby, a village in Leicestershire, central England, as the writer and his first wife lived for four years in nearby Banbury, Oxfordshire. The name may also have suggested itself to Burgess in view of the fact that Enderby suffers from severe flatulence. Burgess writes in his autobiography that he conceived the idea of the Enderby cycle "while seated on the lavatory" at his quarters in Kota Bharu, northern Malaya.