Monday, January 17, 2011

Ten of the best beards in literature

At the Guardian, John Mullan named a list of ten of the best beards in literature.

One entry on the list:
Bertrand Welch

The most obnoxious character in Kingsley Amis's Lucky Jim is Professor Welch's son Bertrand. He is first encountered "wearing a lemon-yellow sports-coat, all three buttons of which were fastened, and displaying a large beard which came down further on one side than the other". Say no more.
Read about the other beards on Mullan's list.

Lucky Jim also appears on Sean O'Hagan's list of the ten best fictional hangovers, Roger Rosenblatt's list of the five best satires of academic life, and John Mullan's list of ten of the best professors in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue