Suggestions
Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select.Please wait while we process your payment
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
Please wait while we process your payment
By signing up you agree to our terms and privacy policy.
Don’t have an account? Subscribe now
Create Your Account
Sign up for your FREE 7-day trial
Already have an account? Log in
Your Email
Choose Your Plan
Save over 50% with a SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan!
Purchasing SparkNotes PLUS for a group?
Get Annual Plans at a discount when you buy 2 or more!
Price
$24.99 $18.74 /subscription + tax
Subtotal $37.48 + tax
Save 25% on 2-49 accounts
Save 30% on 50-99 accounts
Want 100 or more? Contact us for a customized plan.
Your Plan
Payment Details
Payment Summary
SparkNotes Plus
You'll be billed after your free trial ends.
7-Day Free Trial
Not Applicable
Renews February 7, 2023 January 31, 2023
Discounts (applied to next billing)
DUE NOW
US $0.00
SNPLUSROCKS20 | 20% Discount
This is not a valid promo code.
Discount Code (one code per order)
SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4.99/month or $24.99/year as selected above. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. You may cancel your subscription on your Subscription and Billing page or contact Customer Support at custserv@bn.com. Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. Free trial is available to new customers only.
Choose Your Plan
Payment Details
Payment Summary
For the next 7 days, you'll have access to awesome PLUS stuff like AP English test prep, No Fear Shakespeare translations and audio, a note-taking tool, personalized dashboard, & much more!
You’ve successfully purchased a group discount. Your group members can use the joining link below to redeem their group membership. You'll also receive an email with the link.
Members will be prompted to log in or create an account to redeem their group membership.
Thanks for creating a SparkNotes account! Continue to start your free trial.
Please wait while we process your payment
Your PLUS subscription has expired
Please wait while we process your payment
Please wait while we process your payment
Michie, a history student, stops Dixon to inquire about the syllabus for Dixon's special honors subject course in the following fall. Dixon claims the papers are in his room, but he has not actually worked out what he will be teaching. Dixon is planning his special subject in to attract a sufficient number of students without taking them from Welch's classes, and in part because he wants to figure out how to insure that Michie does not take the class, and that three attractive female students do. Additionally, Dixon is unsure whether he will still be at the college the next fall. Michie offers lengthy suggestions about the course, while Dixon avoids the issue to avoid displaying his ignorance.
The two men part at the foot of College Road and Dixon walks to his room in a boardinghouse. His fellow tenants are Alfred Beesley, an assistant lecturer in the English Department, Bill Atkinson, an insurance salesman, and Evan Johns a staff member at the college and an oboe player at Professor Welch's concerts. Waiting for Dixon is a letter from Dr. L. S. Caton announcing the acceptance of Dixon's academic article in Caton's new academic journal. Dixon proceeds to deface the photo on the cover of one of Johns's magazines because Johns is a suck-up whom Dixon doesn't like.
Beesley comes home and Dixon tells him about the acceptance of his article. Beesley suggests that L.S. Caton's vaguely worded note will not be enough to guarantee Dixon's job security. The two men sit down to tea served by Miss Cutler, the housekeeper, and Bill Atkinson comes in. Beesley asks Dixon first if Dixon's article is any good, and then why Dixon decided to take up medieval studies. Dixon is surprised that Beesley would assume that Dixon was taking either the paper or his career seriously. Dixon has become a medievalist because the medieval coursework was easier at his college.
Beesley leaves and Dixon asks Atkinson to phone him at the Welches' on Sunday to give Dixon an excuse to leave the get-together early. At this moment, Johns arrives in the room. Dixon is unsure if Johns, a friend of both of the Welches, has overheard the conversation. Johns will be going to the Welches for the weekend as well, but Dixon has resolved to take the bus rather than ride with Johns. Dixon walks to the bus stop feeling optimistic and energized by the business of the city center. He looks forward to giving Margaret a book of verse he's bought for her.
The beginning of Chapter 3 marks one of the few explicit reference to World War II in Lucky Jim. We learn that Dixon's history student Michie commanded a tank troop during the war, while Dixon saw no war action in his post as an Royal Air Force corporal in Western Scotland. These brief details continue the novel's attempt to expose ineffective hierarchies—Dixon seems well aware of the irony that he commands Michie in the post-war setting of the college, even though Michie held a higher and more dangerous position during the war.
Michie is the only student we see Dixon interact with in the novel, and the scenes involving Michie turn up another comic incongruity: while the studious Michie expects that teaching and learning are based on academic concerns, Dixon actually plans his classes around his desire to have three pretty female students in his class. The pettiness behind many university decisions is further evidenced throughout the novel. Nothing is straightforward in Dixon's interactions with other students and faculty. When Beesley advises Dixon that Caton's acceptance of Dixon's article is not concrete enough, for example, Dixon immediately wonders whether the advice is sound, or the product of Beesley's disappointment about his own job-rejection letter.
Please wait while we process your payment