A Confederacy of DuncesA Confederacy of Dunces
Score Classic
What it's about
Ignatius J. Reilly is thirty, enormous, pompous and convinced he was born in the wrong century. He lives with his mother in New Orleans, writing his great work on notepads and despising the modern world. When his mother crashes her car and needs money, Ignatius is forced to get a job, first at a pants factory and then pushing a hot-dog cart through the French Quarter, with chaos everywhere he goes.
Why it's worth reading
It won the Pulitzer Prize and was voted onto PBS's Great American Read. It's one of the funniest novels in American literature. Toole died years before it was published; his mother fought to get it into print.
You'll love it if you liked
Catch-22
Breakfast of Champions
The Catcher in the RyeGood to know
Ignatius is hard to like, which is part of the joke. Some characters' speech reflects 1960s racial attitudes.
By the numbers
- Readers25 out of 100 · counts 42%
- Critics67 out of 100 · counts 34% (its stronger lane)
- Bestseller47 out of 100 · counts 14%
- Buzz0 out of 100 · counts 10%
Critics and Bestseller are two ways to earn a place: a book's stronger one counts more. Buzz rewards recent bestseller weeks and prizes, so older books start at zero. The parts combine into the Must-Read Score, shown on a scale where the best book we found scores 99 and the last book to make the ranking scores 50.
Where it ranks
- #173 of the 309 literary novels we rank
- #423 of the 762 classics we rank
- #1435 of the 2,816 books we rank
Why it made the list
Reads as
Funny, Moving, Thought-provoking
If you like this, read next
The Bonfire of the Vanities
Infinite Jest
Cold Comfort Farm
Money
Lucky Jim
The Diary of a NobodyExplore the best-of lists
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Quick answers
Is A Confederacy of Dunces worth reading?
Yes. It won the Pulitzer Prize and was voted onto PBS's Great American Read. It ranks #1,435 of the 2,816 books in our ranking, with a Must-Read Score of 68.8 (the best book we found scores 99).
What is A Confederacy of Dunces about?
Ignatius J. Reilly is thirty, enormous, pompous and convinced he was born in the wrong century. He lives with his mother in New Orleans, writing his great work on notepads and despising the modern world. When his mother crashes her car and needs money, Ignatius is forced to get a job, first at a pants factory and then pushing a hot-dog cart through the French Quarter, with chaos everywhere he goes.
How long does it take to read A Confederacy of Dunces?
About 8 hours (338 pages), or about 2 weeks at 30 minutes a day.
What awards has A Confederacy of Dunces won?
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner (1981).
What should I read after A Confederacy of Dunces?
If you liked it, try Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut or The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger.