The Fourth of June (1962)
David Benedictus
With an introduction by the author
Book Description
David Benedictus was only twenty-three when this shock-filled, highly controversial first novel was published in 1962. In The Fourth of June, Benedictus shows what it was like to have attended Eton College, one of England’s most prestigious schools. Among its hallowed buildings, a boy is savagely beaten into paralysis by his House Captain, a bishop spends his evening spying on a chaplain’s half-dressed daughter, and a housemaster is seduced by a desperate mother. Condemned by some reviewers as a farrago of sex, snobbery, and sadism, The Fourth of June nonetheless met with rave reviews from other critics – who proclaimed Benedictus one of the most promising new novelists of his generation – and was a bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic. This new edition, the first in more than 30 years, includes an introduction by the author.
David Benedictus
With an introduction by the author
Book Description
David Benedictus was only twenty-three when this shock-filled, highly controversial first novel was published in 1962. In The Fourth of June, Benedictus shows what it was like to have attended Eton College, one of England’s most prestigious schools. Among its hallowed buildings, a boy is savagely beaten into paralysis by his House Captain, a bishop spends his evening spying on a chaplain’s half-dressed daughter, and a housemaster is seduced by a desperate mother. Condemned by some reviewers as a farrago of sex, snobbery, and sadism, The Fourth of June nonetheless met with rave reviews from other critics – who proclaimed Benedictus one of the most promising new novelists of his generation – and was a bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic. This new edition, the first in more than 30 years, includes an introduction by the author.
reviews
‘Brilliantly clever . . . mercilessly funny.’ - Kenneth Allsop, Daily Mail
‘One of the most brilliantly written books since the war.’ - Ian Fleming, Sunday Times
‘[A] clever and pitiless novel.’ - Neil Ascherson, Observer
‘[An] extremely promising and funny first novel.’ - New Yorker
‘I laughed until I cried. Benedictus is a dazzling new wit and a blazing new talent.’ - Patrick Dennis
‘Uncommonly well-written.’ - Life Magazine
‘One of the most brilliantly written books since the war.’ - Ian Fleming, Sunday Times
‘[A] clever and pitiless novel.’ - Neil Ascherson, Observer
‘[An] extremely promising and funny first novel.’ - New Yorker
‘I laughed until I cried. Benedictus is a dazzling new wit and a blazing new talent.’ - Patrick Dennis
‘Uncommonly well-written.’ - Life Magazine
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BOOK DETAILS
ISBN: 1939140218 ISBN-13: 978-1939140210 $16.99 US, 190 pp. Trade paper Published 2013 |
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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
David Benedictus was born in London in 1938. He attended Eton College, Balliol College, Oxford and the University of Iowa. His experiences at Eton provided the inspiration for his first novel, The Fourth of June (1962), which became a bestseller. His second novel, You’re a Big Boy Now (1963), was filmed in 1966 by Francis Ford Coppola. His other novels include The Rabbi’s Wife (1977), Floating Down to Camelot (1985), and The Stamp Collector (1994). He published an autobiography, Dropping Names, in 2005, and most recently wrote the first original Winnie-the-Pooh book in more than eighty years, Return to the Hundred Acre Wood (2009). He has worked for the Royal Shakespeare Company as an assistant director, for the BBC on numerous occasions, and as a commissioning editor for drama series at Channel 4. He has run a horse-racing system and, as a London tour guide, has filled tourists with a mine of misinformation. Every summer he teaches Creative Writing at Corpus Christi College in Oxford. He lives in some squalor in London.