In 1984, Anthony Burgess published Ninety-Nine Novels, a selection of his favourite novels in English since 1939. The list is typically idiosyncratic, and shows the breadth of Burgess’s interest in fiction. This podcast, by the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, explores the novels on Burgess’s list with the help of writers, critics and other special guests.

In this episode, Graham Foster discovers Nadine Gordimer’s 1966 novel The Late Bourgeois World, with guest Jeanne-Marie Jackson.

The Late Bourgeois World tells the story of Johannesburg suburbanite Liz Van Den Sandt, who finds out her ex-husband has committed suicide after betraying his comrades in the burgeoning rebellion against apartheid. Though she lives a privileged life with her new partner, she begins to feel drawn towards political action. When she is asked to help the Black Nationalist movement with their finances, she has to choose between her own safe but boring life and the exciting but risky act of rebellion. But does her ex-husband’s failure prove the futility of political action?

Nadine Gordimer was born in the Transvaal region of South Africa in 1923. She moved to Johannesburg in 1948 and lived in the city for the rest of her life. She published her first novel, The Lying Days, in 1953 and went on to publish 14 more novels and over 20 books of short stories. Gordimer won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991. She died in 2014.

Jeanne-Marie Jackson is Professor of English at Johns Hopkins University. Her research focusses on African literature and intellectual history. Her first book, South African Literature’s Russian Soul: Narrative Forms of Global Isolation was published by Bloomsbury in 2015. Her most recent book, The African Novel of Ideas: Philosophy and Individualism in the Age of Global Writing was published by Princeton University Press in 2021. She has written for the New York Times, New Left Review, and The Conversation, among others. Her latest book, as editor, is a critical edition of J.E. Casely Hayford’s Ethiopia Unbound.

Books mentioned in this episode

By Nadine Gordimer:

• The Lying Days (1953)
• Burger’s Daughter (1979)
• July’s People (1981)
• ‘Living in the Interregnum’ in The Essential Gesture: Writing, Politics and Places (1988)

By others:

• Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev (1862)
• The Stranger/The Outsider by Albert Camus (1942)
• The Ripley Series by Patricia Highsmith (1955-91)
• The Necessity of Art by Ernst Fischer (1959)
• Muriel at Metropolitan by Miriam Tlali (1975)
• Edith’s Diary by Patricia Highsmith (1977)
• Amandla by Miriam Tlali (1980)
• Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee (1999)
• The City of Kings Trilogy by Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu (2018-22)

(This page contains affiliate links which help support the work of the Burgess Foundation)

In previous series of Ninety-Nine Novels, we learnt about authors including James Joyce, Thomas Pynchon, Elizabeth Bowen, Evelyn Waugh and Christopher Isherwood, among others. These episodes are available at your favourite place to get podcasts.

You can join the conversation and tell us which 100th book you would add to Burgess’s list by using the hashtag #99Novels on Twitter.

If you have enjoyed this episode, why not leave us a review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Listen to this podcast below or on your audio platform of choice (Apple Podcasts / Soundcloud / Spotify/ YouTube), or use the streaming links below.

The theme music for the Ninety-Nine Novels podcast is Anthony Burgess’s Concerto for Flute, Strings and Piano in D Minor, performed by No Dice Collective.

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