Books

1980. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. 1980. 8vo. Original cloth and wrapper; pp. xii, 338; wrapper very slightly faded with rubbing to extremities and tape repairs to two closed tears to verse, otherwise near fine. First edition, first printing, in first issue jacket with Walter Percy blurb. Published posthumously after the author committed suicide at the age of 31, this was Toole's second novel and a Pulitzer Prize-winning one at that. Toole used his scabrous creation Ignatius Reilly to mock human nature in general and the American South in particular and his novel has become a cult classic lauded for its satirical bite.

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.