The Naked Civil Servant (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) [Paperback]

Quentin Crisp (Author), Michael Holroyd (Preface)

Book Description

Release date: May 1, 1997 | Series: Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics

In this autobiography, Quentin Crisp describes his unhappy childhood and the stresses of adolescence that led him to London. There in bedsits and cafes he found a world of brutality and comedy, of shortlived jobs and precarious relationships. All of which he faced with humour and intelligence.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Published at the height of the sexual revolution?1968, to be exact?Crisp's memoir flaunting his homosexuality nonetheless raised plenty of eyebrows, even though he had been completely open about it for more than 30 years. Though quite humorous, the book is still sensitive to the feelings of anyone looking for acceptance for any reason.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

'A work of great wit, intelligence and sensitivity.' Washington Post Book World --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics; Revised edition (May 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0141180536
• ISBN-13: 978-0141180533
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #513,385 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #60 in Books > Gay & Lesbian > Biographies & Memoirs > Gay

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars "Queer" Before There Was "Queer" -- And Funny as Hell October 11, 2002

By Allen Smalling TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

Quentin Crisp truly embodies the expression "to thine own self be true." But his life bumped up against another cliche, "don't frighten the horses." As a young man in London during the 1920s and 1930s, he lived openly as an effeminate, homosexual man, not closeted, but, as he says in these witty memoirs, "brazening it out" and willing to take the social and other lumps associated with such visibility.

Actually, his sexuality seems to be the least of his problems in these sharply observed autobiographical accounts. An eccentric in the true British tradition, he refused ever to dust his bedroom, observing that after the first three years the dust didn't get any worse . . . and at bedtime he slipped beneath the seldom-washed sheets ensconced in cold cream like a cocoon in its chrysalis.

Corporate life had its own bewilderments and intrigues for Mr. Crisp, who was silly enough to take literally what he was told to do. When asked to buy his employer a pair of scissors, he went to a good stationery store and spent one shilling sixpence (eighteen pence, pre-decimalization, about US$.50 at that time) for a good pair of office scissors. This frightened his office colleague no end, who had expected him to pick up a cheap pair at Woolworth's for sixpence. Crisp facetiously suggested denominating the more costly pair "paper shears" and was aghast when she accepted his notion all too happily. His droll take on the mismatch between his mentality and the corporate life shows us that his ego demands no grandiosity, no sense of who is "right" and who is "wrong," but simply a perpetual befuddlement at two mindsets that can never understand each other.

Along with such everyday satires of circumstance, much of the pleasure of *The Naked Civil Servant* lies in its prose style and tone, which are conversational and chatty, but also clever and occasionally arch. Perhaps like a pleasant, purring pussy cat who gets its back up once in a while, but is never indignant -- not at us, anyway. As an inducement to stay in town and leave the family alone, Crisp mentions receiving the proceeds of "GUILT"-edged securities, a pun on the British term "gilt-edged" securities, or what we Americans would call "blue-chip stock."

But of course, interwar gay life had its stereotyping and role-playing. The he-man types were expected to be the sexual aggressors, and the nellies the submissives. In one section Crisp complains that he and his friends "camped it up all over the place" but their virile new acquaintances were too dense to figure out what they wanted in bed.

Because of this book, Mr. Crisp's services (as an author and savant) became greatly in demand on this side of the pond, and he became a favorite in lecture halls and as author of such books as *Manners From Heaven.* His Wildean sensibility was evident -- when he panned a movie he'd say something like "it was as boring as real life." But Crisp was never a bore, and there was never a book like this. First-rate all the way, full of surprises, and interesting glimpses of an interwar England not usually mentioned in the usual histories.

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars HEROES COME IN ALL SHAPES AND SIZES (AND HAIR COLOURS) August 1, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

Mr. Crisp's story should not be read as the folly of a man whose personal behavior was too far afield to be successfully reconciled with acceptable social standards. Quentin Crisp did not dress flamboyantly merely because he wanted attention or abuse; he dressed his way because he felt he HAD to. In being himself, he was obeying the most fundamental law of human existence: to thine own self be true. And in doing so at the risk (and indeed the consquence) of complete social ostracism and peril of his life. How, I would like to know, can anybody see Quentin Crisp as anything but a hero in the greatest, noblest sense of word? He did not compromise his sense of honesty or his personal integrity, no matter how violently the tides of societal ignorance and hatred swept against him. A hero stands his ground, never retreats, and presses on with what he knows in his heart to be right; he fights for truth, he fights with courage. Quentin Crisp fought hard, without the comforting knowledge that one day his sacrifices would lay the groundwork for new understanding between persons of conventional and alternative lifestyles. In every generation there is always one person who cannot be content with the way things are, who challenges society, bucks the establishment, shakes the boat. In his pursuit of happiness, Quentin did just that. Not because he WANTED to, but because he HAD to.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars What a hoot! March 1, 2004

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

By far, one of the funniest books I've ever read, and I read quite a bit. The writing is dry and witty, like Sedaris in ME TALK PRETTY or McCrae in BARK OF THE DOGWOOD, and Crip's insights into things are at once hysterical and also tinged with sadness.

My favorite quote in the book? "My parents hated me chiefly because I was expensive." Or something along those lines.

Do yourself a favor and read this. Like CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES or NAKED this is one you'll want to keep on your bookshelves to pull out from time to time when you need a good laugh. Highly recommended.