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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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
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.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
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.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A lost classic,
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This review is from: Augustus Carp Esq. By Himself (Prion Humour Classics) (Hardcover)
I first became aware of this lost classic through Frank Muir's anthology of comic prose. I was lucky enough to find a copy in my local library and, following several hysteria-plagued re-readings, I decided to buy a second-hand copy. This book inspires devotees. I enquired after many newly advertised second-hand copies of the book online, only to be told by dealers that the book had been sold immediately on being placed online, and that, moreover, I was the sixth or seventh person to have asked after it. (I did manage to snare a copy eventually.) So Prion is doing the reading public a great service in rescuing the book from its undeserved out-of-print limbo. Augustus Carp is an anti-hero who can easily stand comparison with Waugh's greatest snobs, and as a bore and a prig he could almost have sprung from the mind of Patrick Hamilton (another neglected genius). Anyone who has ever felt that the Church is rather too keen to deny basic pleasures will find the book's feverish satire a tonic; loathers of hypocrisy will put it by their bedside tables; those who love to laugh will buy four or five copies for friends. It's that good.
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
caution... this book ellicits laughter, even in public,
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This review is from: Augustus Carp Esq. By Himself (Prion Humour Classics) (Hardcover)
I have never been guilty of laughing out loud when reading a book, until now. Augustus Carp is simply irresistible, and the more supercilious and flawed his character is shown to be (through his own writings!), the funnier it gets; though not unaccompanied by a certain nervous introspection... after all, who among us is without some self-deluded failings? So it is humor (humour) with an edge, as is characteristic of all the best British humor. Like a good martini, it is dry and leaves you stirred, and perhaps chuckling a little helplessly...
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Snobs to the fore,
This review is from: Augustus Carp Esq. By Himself (Prion Humour Classics) (Hardcover)
This is the end of the Victorian age and the nineteenth century. Augustus Carp tells us about his life as a young man, brought up in a middle-class family. A nattering nabob, a supreme snob, an obnoxious boor, and a prig given to hourly flatulence. He spends his time correcting others to the point of suing them, while he himself is always right and, of course, superior to any human being. He keeps his mother as a slave and destroys those around him. Can the comeuppance be lurking in the future? Find out by reading this very, very funny book. This is a fabulous satire of a morally uptight generation,
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