A Confederacy of Dunces - Penguin Modern Classics (Paperback)
  • A Confederacy of Dunces - Penguin Modern Classics (Paperback)
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A Confederacy of Dunces - Penguin Modern Classics (Paperback)

(author), (foreword)
£9.99
Paperback 352 Pages
Published: 30/03/2000
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Waterstones Says

Toole’s posthumous cult classic has developed a formidable – and thoroughly well-deserved - reputation for picaresque wit and lively character portraits. The rambling, hilarious saga of Ignatius J. Reilly and his battle against modernity and employment constitutes one of America’s very greatest comic novels.

..the nation as a whole has no contact with reality. That is only one of the reasons why I have always been forced to exist on the fringes of its society, consigned to the Limbo reserved for those who do know reality when they see it.

A monument to sloth, rant and contempt, a behemoth of fat, flatulence and furious suspicion of anything modern - this is Ignatius J. Reilly of New Orleans, noble crusader against a world of dunces. The ordinary folk of New Orleans seem to think he is unhinged. Ignatius ignores them, heaving his vast bulk through the city's fleshpots in a noble crusade against vice, modernity and ignorance. But his momma has a nasty surprise in store for him: Ignatius must get a job. Undaunted, he uses his new-found employment to further his mission - and now he has a pirate costume and a hot-dog cart to do it with...

John Kennedy Toole (1937-1969) was born in New Orleans. He received a master's degree in English from Columbia University and taught at Hunter College and at the University of Southwestern Louisiana. He wrote A Confederacy of Dunces in the early sixties and tried unsuccessfully to get the novel published; depressed, at least in part by his failure to place the book, he committed suicide in 1969. It was only through the tenacity of his mother that her son's book was eventually published and found the audience it deserved, winning the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His long-suppressed novel The Neon Bible, written when he was only sixteen, was eventually published as well.


Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
ISBN: 9780141182865
Number of pages: 352
Weight: 249 g
Dimensions: 198 x 130 x 15 mm


MEDIA REVIEWS

My favourite book of all time. I've read it so many times and I still go back to it today. - Billy Connolly

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“A modern day Don Quixote”

Meet Ignatius J. Reilly, an overeducated, undersexed bag of wind. Slothfully living with his alcoholic Mother at 30 in New Orleans, he believes his numerous failings are the work of a higher power. He heaves his vast... More

Paperback edition
3 similar books recommended
Helpful? Upvote 114

“A picaresque classic”

The idea of the antihero in fiction was particularly prominent in American fiction during the '50's and '60's and John Kennedy Toole has created one of the most unlikeable examples of such a... More

Paperback edition
Helpful? Upvote 114

“What a book!!!!”

This book was handed to me in store and the customer said " Read it, this is the best book ever". All I can say now is THANK YOU! I need to read more books like this! The voices created are amazing, with... More

Paperback edition
Helpful? Upvote 102

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