A Confederacy of Dunces
American novelist, 1937–1969. Won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981.
A Confederacy of Dunces is a 1980 novel by John Kennedy Toole. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981.
On 4 of the 17 lists it was eligible for.
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At a glance
- Author
- John Kennedy Toole
- First published
- 1980
- Length
- 416 pages (UK paperback)
- Awards
- Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner, 1981
- Genre
- Comic novels and satire
Is A Confederacy of Dunces worth reading?
4 of the 17 best-of lists it could have made include it, among them the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and Readers' top 100 novels (The Guardian).
| List | Place | Original |
|---|---|---|
| 100 novels that shaped our world (BBC Arts, 2019) | Listed | See the list |
| Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (winners and finalists) (Columbia University, 1981) | Winner | See the list |
| Readers' top 100 novels (The Guardian, 2026) | No. 35 | See the list |
| The Great American Read (PBS, 2018) | Listed | See the list |
Best edition of A Confederacy of Dunces
The edition we link to is the Penguin paperback (2011), 416 pages.
- Publisher
- Penguin (paperback, 2011)
- Pages
- 416
- ISBN
- 9780241951590
How critics, prizes and readers rate A Confederacy of Dunces
Prize juries rate it most highly: it earned 50% of the points available on prize lists, against 34% on readers' and booksellers' lists and 10% on critics' lists.
Share of the available points it earned on each kind of list it was eligible for. How the scores work
Books like A Confederacy of Dunces
If you liked A Confederacy of Dunces, try Lolita, Scoop or Bridget Jones's Diary.
