Augustus Carp Esq. by himself

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A Churchwarden, Sunday school superintendent, and President of the St Potamus Purity League, Augustus Carp is assiduous in exposing the sins and foibles of others while studiously ignoring his own. Although he campaigns against lechery, drinking, and smoking, he manages to indulge himself in plenty of other vices in the name of piety. The more seriously Carp takes himself, the more ridiculous he becomes. His frequent falls from dignity are uproarious--from his inability to climb off buses without falling over to his lifelong problems with flatulence. As a satire on hypocrisy, there is nothing quite like it in English prose.

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Library Journal Review

Bashford's comic 1924 volume offers the mock autobiography of Augustus Carp, a self-aggrandizing, stuffy, puritanical oaf, who indulges in numerous vices in the name of Christianity, rationalizing his own weaknesses while condemning others for the same acts. Great fun. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

Anglophiles and connoisseurs of dry humor would be well advised to acquaint themselves with the Prion Humour Classic Series. Its unmatchable lineup boasting editions of Benson's Mapp and Lucia and Grossmith's Diary of a Nobody has now been extended to include a reissue of Augustus Carp Esq. by Himself, by Sir Henry Howarth Bashford. This apocryphal autobiography of a painfully pious, self-satisfied English landowner is perhaps less accessible than other volumes in the series, but the droll inanities of its protagonist easily pass muster. ( Mar. 1) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Kirkus Book Review

Bashford's hilarious comic novel, first published anonymously in 1924, was rediscovered by Anthony Burgess in the ’60s: it's a faux autobiography of a self-righteous boor who is completely oblivious of just how obnoxious he is. The eponymous Carp, a middle-aged, middle-class prig, disguises his offensive behavior in the language of "Xtian" virtue. An active member of such groups as the Anti-Dramatic and Saltatory Union and the Society for the Prevention of Strong Drink Traffic, Carp is himself a glutton, given to a history of uncontrolled flatulence and other stomach ailments. Capable of rationalizing his life failures, he blackmails his way into employment as a "Xtian" bookdealer and marries into a family of homely women with incomes. Bashford's genius transcends the obvious hypocrisies; his language and characters remind you of Pale Fire , or that other remarkable one-shot, A Confederacy of Dunces .