Very funny - laugh out loud at times. Very clever. Explores piety in religion ( )

Augustus Carp, ESQ. was originally published anonymously, or as the title page suggested the book was written "by himself". The additional substitle "being the autobiography of a really good man" might raise some eye brows, and is a subtle hint at the character of the main protagonist. The book first appeared in 1924, and authorship remained obscure until 1961, when it became clear that the author was the late Sir Henry Bashford, M.D., F.R.C.P., Chief Medical Officer to the Post Office, Medical Adviser to the Treasury, Honorary Physician to King George VI, etc. This partly explains why some of the protagonists in the novel suffer from a variety rare ailments, of course all adding to the hilarity.

Very few books are really humorous throughout, but if you are interested then I would recommend this novel which pairs ridicule with verbal virtuosity. The book should perhaps be read as a parody of Hugh Walpole's Jeremy trilogy, of which the first two volumes were published in 1919 and 1923, describing a youth's development from childhood through adolescence to manhood. However, in spirit the book is closer to Geoffrey Willans's Whizz for atomms. A guide to survival in the 20th century for felow pupils, their doting maters, pompous paters and any others who are interested (1956).

Like the Jeremy trilogy, Augustus Carp, ESQ. describes the youth of young Augustus and his career into manhood, particularly his moral development. Much of the humour is tied in with religion and particularly with hypocracy. Like many such coming-of-age stories, the novel is dated, and this means that some of the humour doesn't work. It also depends on your sense of humour, and whether you think it is funny to read a whole page of chatter between father and son about a slip of the tongue: "A weed before the rind." ( )

While I could appreciate the humor of this satire of the pompous & self-righteous Carp men, this novel never made me laugh out loud though I did smile often. I'm glad that I read it but still prefer Jerome K. Jerome or P.G. Wodehouse. ( )

Thoroughly funny at a few moments, but mostly only mildly amusing. Doesn't quite live up to the hype in the introduction, alas. ( )

"Oh, sin", I cried, "sin - unbelievable sin in Greenwich Park", 24 October 2015

This review is from: Augustus Carp, Esq.: Being the Autobiography of a Really Good Man (Paperback)
One of the world's funniest books, narrated by the priggish, self-satisfied, unattractive Augustus - acutely aware of others' failings, but ever on the alert to use them to his own advantage.
Bashford's writing is superb, the language conveying such a vivid impression of the pompous character. Thus when his (equally pompous) father gets into an argument with their charwoman after dealing her son a blow ("dividing the integument of his forehead"), Augustus describes the woman's actions:
"I beheld Mrs O'Flaherty thrusting my father's head into her pail. It was a commodious pail, very nearly full with incompletely clean water, and containing in addition the saturate garment with which it was her habit to wash the linoleum."
Augustus proves singularly unpopular at school, both with the boys he reports and with the masters through his demeanour:
"When our form-master, a Mr Muglington, asked me if I knew the capital of Belgium, I replied that while I had not as yet enjoyed the opportunity of paying the town a personal visit, I had been credibly informed that it was known as Brussels, so indissolubly associated with the well-known brassica."
And meanwhile his proud, sternly Anglican father is - after a series of disagreements - transferring his worship from the Church of James the Less to that of James- the-Lesser-Still and ultimately James-the-Least-of-all. Mother is a poor cowed creature, her life spent serving her husband and son:
"After every such exhibition of pristine vigour, however, my father experienced an acute reaction, and for many weeks would become a martyr not only to neurasthenic indigestion but to digestive neurasthenia accompanied by flatulence of the severest order. For months on end, indeed, my mother would be obliged to sit by his bedside in case he should wake up and require abdominal kneading."
The author was Hon Physician to King George VI, and entertaining ailments pepper the work, from his friend Simeon Whey's stutter ("kck") to Charity and Understanding, but for whose "slight impediments in their noses the whole house would have been wrapped in the profoundest stillness."
In short, a hilarious book - much funnier than the better known "Diary of a Nobody" - and one I would recommend to all. ( )