Books

First edition, first impression; 8vo; internally fine; publisher's pale green-grey cloth, black lettering to spine, with the unclipped pictorial first issue dustjacket with Percy blurb and no review, light rubbing to extremities, else fine. An outstanding copy of this scarce title in the first issue dustjacket, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and published 11 years after the author's suicide.

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.