A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES


Written by John Kennedy Toole. Published by Louisiana State Press, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Copyright 1980; “Seventh Printing (June, 1981)” is stated on the copyright page.

From Wikipedia:

A Confederacy of Dunces is a novel by American writer John Kennedy Toole that was published in 1980, 11 years after Toole's death. Published through the efforts of writer Walker Percy (who contributed a foreword) and Toole's mother, Thelma, the book became first a cult classic, then a mainstream success; it earned Toole a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981 and is now a canonical work of modern literature of the Southern United States.

The book's title refers to an epigram from Jonathan Swift's essay Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting: ”When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him." Dunces is a picaresque novel featuring the misadventures of protagonist Ignatius J. Reilly, a lazy, obese, misanthropic, self-styled scholar. He is an educated but slothful 30-year-old living with his mother in the Uptown neighborhood of early-1960s New Orleans. In his quest for employment, he has adventures with colorful French Quarter characters. Toole wrote the first draft in 1963 during his last few months in Puerto Rico. Critics liked the accurate depictions of New Orleans dialects. Toole based Reilly in part on his professor friend Bob Byrne. Byrne's slovenly, eccentric behavior was anything but professorial. Reilly resembled Toole; Toole's experiences served as inspiration for episodes. While at Tulane University, Toole filled in for a friend as a hot-tamale cart vendor and worked for a family who owned and operated a clothing factory.

DESCRIPTION:

338 pages

9 1/4 x 6 1/4 inches

Seventh Printing hardcover with dustjacket

CONDITION:

This hard-cover book is in very good+ condition with a fair dust jacket. The hardcover (gray paper covered boards with black clothespin) is clean and shows only slight wear at the corners. The interior is excellent with no names, marks, underlining, tears or odor. The hinges and binding are excellent with no loose or missing pages.

The dust jacket has some problems- the price has been cut from the lower front flap, and has two large chips in the bottom of the front panel. It is rubbed and a bit worn at the edges and corners. There are several small tears along the edges which have been stabilized on the back with acid-free archival tissue tape. This dust jacket will come protected in a new Brodart mylar dust jacket protector.

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