Mister Johnson (novel)

Mister Johnson
1951 edition
AuthorJoyce Cary
GenreAdventure fiction
Publication date
1939
Pages198

Mister Johnson (1939) is a novel by Joyce Cary. It is the story of a young Nigerian who falls afoul of the British colonial authorities. Although the novel has a comic tone, the story itself is tragic. Joyce Cary has been quoted as saying that Mister Johnson was his favorite book that he had written. Mister Johnson is often read in schools and has had a wide audience. It has been adapted as a play by Norman Rosten and a 1990 film by Bruce Beresford. Chinua Achebe has said that Mister Johnson struck him as superficial and helped form his determination to write his own novels about Nigeria. Other critics have found Cary's portrayal of his main character patronizing and Johnson himself childish.