Burgess on Burgess: My First Novel
Anthony Burgess describes the genesis of Time for a Tiger, his first published novel, set in colonial Malaya
Anthony Burgess often reflected on his life as a writer, in the two volumes of his autobiography and in introductions to reprints of his books. This essay is the first in an occasional series of writings about his fiction, drawing on the resources of the Burgess Foundation’s archive. We begin with Burgess’s account of the circumstances in which he published his first novel, Time for a Tiger, in 1956.
‘My First Novel’ by Anthony Burgess (1981)
I never had any ambition as a writer. If, at the university, I became involved in the study of English and its literature, this was because, having failed in physics in the old School Certificate examination, I was not permitted to pursue a course in music. I knew about books but, up to the age of thirty-six, I still hoped to be a distinguished musician.
Working in Malaya, I wrote music based on Malayan themes and rhythms. I also wrote a novel about Malaya called Time for a Tiger, and the work was accepted for publication. It sold rather well and was decently reviewed. I think that its mild success had more to do with its exotic subject-matter than any distinction the writing and structure may have possessed. Signing a contract for it (the advance was all of fifty pounds), I found myself signing also for other books, not yet written and perhaps never to be written. Encouraged by publication, I was not inclined to write any more words: I had shown that I could do it and that was all that mattered. I got on with a more important task — the composition of a symphony to celebrate forthcoming Malayan independence. It was entitled Sinfoni Merdeka. It was sent to the appropriate department in Kuala Lumpur and there rejected. To hell. I would write another novel.
I wrote a number of novels while in Malaya and Borneo. Invalided out of the Colonial Service, unable to get a job in Britain, I became a professional novelist because I knew no other way of making a living. It was not much of a living; it never is.
That first novel (the first to be published, I mean) is still around, but I do not now find it easy reading: too many faults of form and errors of style. I was forced into rereading it last year when my wife was translating it into Italian and occasionally needed help, and I did not object because here at least was a chance to improve it: the Italian is better than the English and, in general, I would say that most of the translations I have been able to supervise are better than the originals. This should not be but is so. James Joyce was sure that the Finnegans Wake he was translating into French was going to be superior to that laborious Eurish.
One thing I learned about my first novel was what all the reviewers thought of it, from Little Rock to Broken Hill, for I subscribed to a press-cutting agency, a thing I have not done since. I learned thus, what I have had no occasion to unlearn, that reviewers do not read books with much care, and that their profession is more given to stupidity and malice and literary ignorance even than the profession of novelist. I have a character in that book who is a police-lieutenant during the Malayan Emergency, but the blurb turned him into a sergeant, presumably because the blurb-writer could not reconcile his rough demotic speech with the rank I gave him. All the reviewers referred to him as a police-sergeant, except one, who crossly asked: ‘Why can’t Mr Burgess make up his mind as to what rank this character possesses?’ It was the fashion in those days to call everybody an angry young man and I, though thirty-nine, had to become one too. The book, however, is humorous rather than angry, and its humour is probably its main virtue. I discovered I was a funny writer, and I had never seen myself as anything but a creature of gloom and sobriety.
© International Anthony Burgess Foundation
Find out more
The Malayan Trilogy by Anthony Burgess (affiliate link)
Listen to our podcast about Anthony Burgess and Malaya:
Every purchase from an affiliate link supports the charitable work of the Burgess Foundation.