A Confederacy of Dunces is an American comic masterpiece. John Kennedy Toole's hero is one Ignatius J. Reilly, "huge, obese, fractious, fastidious, a latter-day Gargantua, a Don Quixote of the French Quarter. His story bursts with wholly original characters, denizens of New Orleans' lower depths, incredibly true-to-life dialogue, and the zaniest series of high and low comic adventures."
A Confederacy of Dunces is an American comic masterpiece. John Kennedy Toole's hero is one Ignatius J. Reilly, "huge, obese, fractious, fastidious, a latter-day Gargantua, a Don Quixote of the French Quarter. His story bursts with wholly original characters, denizens of New Orleans' lower depths, incredibly true-to-life dialogue, and the zaniest series of high and low comic adventures."
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Find A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
Find A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
1 books in catalog
A classic text of American humor, A Confederacy of Dunces presents a raucous, sprawling comic portrait of mid-twentieth-century New Orleans and its eccentric personalities. Written by John Kennedy Toole, the novel earned widespread acclaim and a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, establishing a vibrant comedic voice in Southern literature despite remaining unpublished during his lifetime.
Born in New Orleans in 1937, Toole was raised in Louisiana by his mother, Thelma Ducoing Toole, and his father, an automobile salesman and mechanic. He wrote his first novel, The Neon Bible, in 1954 at age sixteen, though he shelved the manuscript after failing to find a publisher. He initially studied engineering at Tulane University before earning an undergraduate degree in English, later completing a master's degree at Columbia University. After working briefly in a clothing factory, Toole launched an academic career, holding teaching positions at the University of Southwestern Louisiana, Hunter College in New York City, and St. Mary's Dominican College in New Orleans.
While serving in the United States Army in Puerto Rico and teaching English to recruits, Toole drafted much of his comic novel, A Confederacy of Dunces. Upon returning to civilian life, he sought publication through Simon & Schuster, undergoing extensive revisions at the publisher's request. When the manuscript was ultimately rejected, Toole suffered severe disappointment and declining mental health, leading to his death in 1969. Following his passing, his mother persistently championed the manuscript, eventually enlisting the support of author Walker Percy to secure its publication.
Toole's fiction is distinguished by sharp satire, raucous comedy, and a detailed affection for the dialect, geography, and social fabric of New Orleans. His writing captures the idiosyncrasies of urban Southern life through vivid characterization and absurd situations, contrasting rigid institutional demands against eccentric individualists. In both his early effort and his later comic narrative, Toole explored themes of alienation, youthful disillusionment, and the friction between high-minded intellectual ambition and mundane daily survival.
1 books in catalog
A classic text of American humor, A Confederacy of Dunces presents a raucous, sprawling comic portrait of mid-twentieth-century New Orleans and its eccentric personalities. Written by John Kennedy Toole, the novel earned widespread acclaim and a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, establishing a vibrant comedic voice in Southern literature despite remaining unpublished during his lifetime.
Born in New Orleans in 1937, Toole was raised in Louisiana by his mother, Thelma Ducoing Toole, and his father, an automobile salesman and mechanic. He wrote his first novel, The Neon Bible, in 1954 at age sixteen, though he shelved the manuscript after failing to find a publisher. He initially studied engineering at Tulane University before earning an undergraduate degree in English, later completing a master's degree at Columbia University. After working briefly in a clothing factory, Toole launched an academic career, holding teaching positions at the University of Southwestern Louisiana, Hunter College in New York City, and St. Mary's Dominican College in New Orleans.
While serving in the United States Army in Puerto Rico and teaching English to recruits, Toole drafted much of his comic novel, A Confederacy of Dunces. Upon returning to civilian life, he sought publication through Simon & Schuster, undergoing extensive revisions at the publisher's request. When the manuscript was ultimately rejected, Toole suffered severe disappointment and declining mental health, leading to his death in 1969. Following his passing, his mother persistently championed the manuscript, eventually enlisting the support of author Walker Percy to secure its publication.
Toole's fiction is distinguished by sharp satire, raucous comedy, and a detailed affection for the dialect, geography, and social fabric of New Orleans. His writing captures the idiosyncrasies of urban Southern life through vivid characterization and absurd situations, contrasting rigid institutional demands against eccentric individualists. In both his early effort and his later comic narrative, Toole explored themes of alienation, youthful disillusionment, and the friction between high-minded intellectual ambition and mundane daily survival.
