Plan I. Introduction

University[edit]
Burgess had originally hoped to study music at university, but the music department at the Victoria University of Manchester turned down his application because of poor grades in physics.^[19] Instead, he studied English language and literature there between 1937 and 1940, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts. His thesis concerned Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, and he graduated with an upper second-class honours, which he found disappointing.^[20] When grading one of Burgess's term papers, the historian A. J. P. Taylor wrote "Bright ideas insufficient to conceal lack of knowledge."^[21]
Marriage[edit]
Burgess met Llewela "Lynne" Isherwood Jones at the university where she was studying economics, politics and modern history, graduating in 1942 with an upper second-class.^[22] Burgess and Jones were married on 22 January 1942.^[5] She was daughter of secondary school headmaster Edward Jones (1886–1963) and Florence (née Jones; 1867–1956), and reportedly claimed to be a distant relative of Christopher Isherwood, although the Lewis and Biswell biographies dispute this.^[23] Per Burgess's own account, it was not from his wife that the alleged connection to Christopher Isherwood originated: "Her father was an English Jones, her mother a Welsh one. [...] Of Christopher Isherwood [...] neither the Jones father or daughter had heard. She was unliterary..."^[24] Biswell identifies Burgess as the origin of the alleged relationship with Christopher Isherwood- "if the rumour of an Isherwood affiliation signifies anything, it is that Burgess wanted people to believe that he was connected by marriage to another famous writer"- and notes that "Llewela was not, as Burgess claims in his autobiography, a 'cousin' of the writer Christopher Isherwood"; referring to a pedigree owned by the family, Biswell observes that "Llewela's father was descended from a female Isherwood"... "which means going back four generations... before encountering any Isherwoods", making any connection "at best" "tenuous and distant". He also establishes that per official records, "Llewela's family name was Jones, not (as Burgess liked to suggest) 'Isherwood Jones' or 'Isherwood-Jones'."^[25]