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A Confederacy of Dunces

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A Confederacy of Dunces

By: John Kennedy Toole
Narrated by: Reginald D. Hunter
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

One of the BBC's '100 Novels That Shaped Our World'

A monument to sloth, rant and contempt, a behemoth of fat, flatulence and furious suspicion of anything modern—this is Ignatius J. Reilly of New Orleans, noble crusader against a world of dunces. The ordinary folk of New Orleans seem to think he is unhinged. Ignatius ignores them, heaving his vast bulk through the city's fleshpots in a noble crusade against vice, modernity and ignorance. But his momma has a nasty surprise in store for him: Ignatius must get a job. Undaunted, he uses his new-found employment to further his mission—and now he has a pirate costume and a hot-dog cart to do it with....

Never published during his lifetime, John Kennedy Toole's hilarious satire A Confederacy of Dunces is a Don Quixote for the modern age, now brought to life by the comedy legend, Reginald D. Hunter.

©2000 John Kennedy Toole (P)2021 Penguin Audio Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Satire Comedy Witty Funny Thought-Provoking New Orleans Crusade

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Critic reviews

"My favourite book of all time...it stays with you long after you have read it—for your whole life, in fact." (Billy Connolly)

"A pungent work of slapstick, satire and intellectual incongruities...it is nothing less than a grand comic fugue." (The New York Times)
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Reginald D Hunter reads this brilliantly . if it weren't for him, I would have consigned it to my slush pile. Flouted as a masterwork by many, the prose was forced and every character (except maybe Jones and Trixie) were anti-heroes. I read a review that said it's a story of the original Internet troll, but this didn't excuse all the flagrant racism and everything -ism that featured prominently. RDH must surely be a true professional. He is the star here.

Brilliant reading of a dodgy story.

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The voice actor should have received an award for his characterisations of these New Orleans loony tunes. Never read a book like this before, it’s only comparable to something like the Hitchhiker’s Guide for sheer laugh out loud moments. Genius.

Incredible book, unique, hilarious

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I bought this book, as I had read it was one of Billy Connolly's favourites, I struggled to get into it and cast it aside. I'm glad I stumbled across it on Audible so i didn't have to read it. Reg D H did a spectacular job of fleshing out a disappointingly stagnant story with some good character play. Some genuinely funny bits, some really clever bits, but an awful lot of filler.

Very well narrated.

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Brilliant adaptation of a brilliant book. Recommend highly. Binged it in 3 days, definitely will listen to again.

favourite book

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Reading this was an amazing experience. I am a serious reader - I have never read anything like it. I would recommend.
The author and narrator both hugely talented.

Unusual to say the least

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I was so excited when I heard that an audio book version of A confederacy of dunces was to be published and delighted when I discovered that it was to be narrated by Reginald D Hunter. I thought that he was an inspired choice and probably the only voice that could be a safe pair of hands for some of the best southern characters in fiction. I have heard Reginald D Hunter live and seen him on tv many times and I love his laconic drawl. On this audio book he sounds a bit stilted, as if he had been directed to split up the words and to annunciate clearly. Either I got used to it or Reginald warmed up as he went along and I really did enjoy this performance. Some people find A confederacy of dunces depressing and others think it is one of the greatest works of comic fiction; despite the misguided direction, Reginald D Hunter does these well-drawn, comic characters full justice. On the other hand, the director needs to question their world view and take lessons in philosophy and geometry.

This could never have lived up to my expectation

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A hilarious and brilliant novel, perfectly narrated by Reginald D Hunter. The best thing I have listened to on Audible all year and straight into my top 10 favourite books.

Loved every second

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Reginald D Hunter brings this classic to life. It takes a chapter or two to get used to but he makes the dialogue (and dialogue is 90% of this) sing. Thoroughly enjoyable.

Fantastic Narration

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I liked the fun way the narator read this.
loved the way the mother and son argued over his ideas of grandiose

the nartor made this book much better

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this story was the most funny and sad at the same time story I listen in a while the protagonist is big jerk and kinda insane and everyone around him are jerks too but it make the the thing kinda funnier like Eric Cartman or those other jerk characters everyone love too hate the protagonist make the really sad moment in book little bit funnier but there are moments where it is just sad the narrator does wonderful job portraying the characters like the main character and his mother the story has those random monument where you can either bust out of laughter or feel really sad for the characters the book make you choose

the Funny the Sad the insane

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