Books

First paperback edition. Foreword by Walker Percy. Page edges a little darkened, faint creases on the spine, sound and very good or better. Inscribed by Walker Percy to Matthew Monahan. Posthumously published novel that won the Pulitzer Prize. *Burgess 99.*.

A Confederacy of Dunces is a picaresque novel by American novelist John Kennedy Toole, published by Louisiana State University Press in 1980, 11 years after Toole's suicide. 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.' Set in New Orleans, the novel bursts with rich and vivid characters, especially the protagonist, Ignatius J. Reilly, whose comedic misadventures are a highlight of the narrative.