Hide this

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Loading...

A Confederacy of Dunces

by John Kennedy Toole

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations
9,141158123 (4.09)211
Loading...
won't like will probably not like will probably like will like will love

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

English (150)  French (3)  Swedish (1)  Spanish (1)  Danish (1)  Dutch (1)  Italian (1)  All languages (158)
Showing 1-5 of 150 (next | show all)
When I first started to read this novel, I found Ignatius Reilly utterly appalling, but I eventually came to adore his antics and hope that he would conquer his world. He is one of the best literary heroes (or anti-heroes) that I have every encountered. ( )
  MHelm1017 | Oct 8, 2009 |
One of my all-time favorites - the hilarious misadventures of Ignatius Reilly, New Orleans misfit and slacker extraordinaire, and his peculiar circle of acquaintances. In my experience, people either adore the book or it simply does not speak to them. After reading this book on my recommendation, one of my very dear friends said that it changed his life. I think he meant that after reading this book, one does not look at the world in quite the same way again. ( )
  DowntownLibrarian | Sep 27, 2009 |
I didn't think I'd like this, but it won me over. I've always wondered how much Walker Percy contributed to this book, if anything. Probably doesn't matter. ( )
  paulpekin | Sep 25, 2009 |
Ingenious. Funny in a sort of 18th century way. ( )
  xine2009 | Sep 25, 2009 |
simply the funniest book ever written. am i retired yet? ( )
  rootlaura | Sep 12, 2009 |
Showing 1-5 of 150 (next | show all)
no reviews | add a review
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Series (with order)
Canonical Title
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Awards and honors
Epigraph
When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him. -Jonathan Swift, "Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting"
Dedication
First words
A green hunting cap squeezed the top of the fleshy balloon of a head. The green earflaps, full of large ears and uncut hair and the fine bristles that grew in the ears themselves, stuck out on either side like turn signals indicating two directions at once. Full, pursed lips protruded beneath the bushy black moustache and, at their corners, sank into little folds filled with disapproval and potato chip crumbs...
Quotations
"The only problem those people have anyway is that they don't like new cars and hair sprays. That's why they are put away. They make the other members of society fearful. Every asylum in this nation is filled with poor souls who simply cannot stand lanolin, cellophane, plastic, television, and subdivisions."
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Canonical titleA Confederacy of Dunces
Original publication date1980
People/CharactersIgnatius J. Reilly, Myrna Minkoff, Irene Reilly, Burma Jones, Patrolman Mancuso, Santa Battaglia (show all 7)
Important placesNew Orleans, Louisiana, USA, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA
Awards and honorsPulitzer Prize (Fiction, 1981), PEN/Faulkner Award finalist (1981), New York Times: Best Work of American Fiction of the Last 25 Years (Multiple Votes), Guardian 1000 (Comedy), Anthony Burgess: 99 Novels (1980), 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (2006/2008 Edition)
EpigraphWhen a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him. -Jonathan Swift, "Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting"
First wordsA green hunting cap squeezed the top of the fleshy balloon of a head. The green earflaps, full of large ears and uncut hair and the fine bristles that grew in the ears themselves, stuck out on either side like turn signals in... (show all)
Quotations"The only problem those people have anyway is that they don't like new cars and hair sprays. That's why they are put away. They make the other members of society fearful. Every asylum in this nation is filled with poor souls ... (show all)
Last words(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Book description

Amazon.com (ISBN 0807126063, Hardcover)

"A green hunting cap squeezed the top of the fleshy balloon of a head. The green earflaps, full of large ears and uncut hair and the fine bristles that grew in the ears themselves, stuck out on either side like turn signals indicating two directions at once. Full, pursed lips protruded beneath the bushy black moustache and, at their corners, sank into little folds filled with disapproval and potato chip crumbs."

Meet Ignatius J. Reilly, the hero of John Kennedy Toole's tragicomic tale, A Confederacy of Dunces. This 30-year-old medievalist lives at home with his mother in New Orleans, pens his magnum opus on Big Chief writing pads he keeps hidden under his bed, and relays to anyone who will listen the traumatic experience he once had on a Greyhound Scenicruiser bound for Baton Rouge. ("Speeding along in that bus was like hurtling into the abyss.") But Ignatius's quiet life of tyrannizing his mother and writing his endless comparative history screeches to a halt when he is almost arrested by the overeager Patrolman Mancuso--who mistakes him for a vagrant--and then involved in a car accident with his tipsy mother behind the wheel. One thing leads to another, and before he knows it, Ignatius is out pounding the pavement in search of a job.

Over the next several hundred pages, our hero stumbles from one adventure to the next. His stint as a hotdog vendor is less than successful, and he soon turns his employers at the Levy Pants Company on their heads. Ignatius's path through the working world is populated by marvelous secondary characters: the stripper Darlene and her talented cockatoo; the septuagenarian secretary Miss Trixie, whose desperate attempts to retire are constantly, comically thwarted; gay blade Dorian Greene; sinister Miss Lee, proprietor of the Night of Joy nightclub; and Myrna Minkoff, the girl Ignatius loves to hate. The many subplots that weave through A Confederacy of Dunces are as complicated as anything you'll find in a Dickens novel, and just as beautifully tied together in the end. But it is Ignatius--selfish, domineering, and deluded, tragic and comic and larger than life--who carries the story. He is a modern-day Quixote beset by giants of the modern age. His fragility cracks the shell of comic bluster, revealing a deep streak of melancholy beneath the antic humor. John Kennedy Toole committed suicide in 1969 and never saw the publication of his novel. Ignatius Reilly is what he left behind, a fitting memorial to a talented and tormented life. --Alix Wilber

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:22 -0400)

(see all 3 descriptions)

The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details.

Popular covers

 

Help/FAQs | About | Privacy/Terms | Blog | Contact | LibraryThing.com | APIs | WikiThing | Common Knowledge | 45,608,516 books!