The Naked Civil Servant (Penguin Classics) by Quentin Crisp
|
List Price: Our Price: $9.08 You Save: $6.92 (43%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $4.99 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of The Naked Civil Servant (Penguin Classics)
Book Review: The story of a funny, fascinating, melancholy life.
Summary: 5 Stars
Rereading "The Naked Civil Servant" after many years, I find Quentin Crisp's melancholy wit just as bracing as I did when I first encountered the book. The chiseled perfection of Crisp's aphorisms recall Oscar Wilde (though Crisp's distaste for Wilde was famous; Wilde's hubris and subsequent downfall made life that much harder for the gay men, such as Crisp, who came after him). One famous example: "I would have been tempted to say that he was ill did I not know that health consists of having the same diseases as one's neighbors." Another: "'Immaturity' is one more word that requires definition. To men it means the inability to stand on one's own two feet. A woman flings it at anyone who doesn't want to marry her. Here I find myself for once inclined toward the masculine view." Yet despite the humor, the overwhelming mood of "The Naked Civil Servant" is of loneliness. Crisp, who outed himself flamboyantly forty years before Stonewall, presents himself as a wildly contradictory character: exhibitionistic yet inherently and Englishly modest, too honest to present himself as anything other than he was, yet realizing fully the opprobrium and loss of companionship he would suffer by doing so. Reading his autobiography shows a younger generation of gay men precisely the mindset a hidebound society instilled in homosexuals in the early 20th century. Crisp, despite his flamboyance, was not immune to it: "Homosexuals were ashamed. They resented not being in the mainstream of life. The feeling varied from irritation to the anguish of irrevocable exile. It had little to do with God or the neighbors or the police. It was private and irremediable." In subsequent years--he lived to be ninety, outliving the publication of "The Naked Civil Servant" by three decades--Crisp found a measure of public acceptance and acclaim he would have thought impossible in the 1930s. Yet the loneliness and melancholy never really left him. To read "The Naked Civil Servant" is to be impressed by a great personality and a brilliant, acute observer of sex and society. But, at the same time, you wish he could have found a little more happiness for himself.Book Review: HEROES COME IN ALL SHAPES AND SIZES (AND HAIR COLOURS)
Summary: 5 Stars
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.Book Review: I don't give five-star reviews
Summary: 5 Stars
What kind of title is that? Well, for 35 years, he was a nude model for art classes. So there you go. A naked civil servant. Now there's a career choice my high school guidance counselor never told me about.
Quentin is the quintessential outsider. He outed himself as flamboyantly gay in 1931, and manages to be both sincere and parody at the same time. Forget the gay part. Focus on the outsider part. His writing style is quite crisp, ho ho!
Time to scan the cover again, as opposed to being original.
"His wit is brilliant, his observations acute, his self-mockery undiluted by the need to sentimentalize."
"'As soon as I stepped out of my mother's womb... I realized that I had made a mistake,' Quentin declares, giving a small hint of the witty and wry approach he takes toward the life he describes with undiluted exuberance in this classic autobiography, which is both a comic masterpiece and a unique testament to the resilience of the human spirit."
"His hilarious descriptions of encounters with parents, friends, employers, soldiers and sailors, and the law reveal the strength and humor of an honest man, determined to face the world with the uncensored, unapologetic truth about himself."
"A work of great wit, intelligence and sensitivity."
Quite.
Book Review: Quentin Crisp was not a homosexual...
Summary: 5 Stars
...well, okay, YES he preferred the company of men, and he cringed at the thought of carnal relations with women, but I'd argue that *The Naked Civil Servant* isn't actually about anything as obvious as sexuality. It's clearly more about living on the fringes of mainstream society--even on the fringes of a fringe society, as the homo subculture was in Mr. Crisp's salad days (and still is, in some places).Throughout the book, Crisp makes it quite clear that he's not your average gay man. The makeup, the hair, the nails: these bits of frippery aren't for every homo. In fact, he talks at length about the fact that many of his gay friends wouldn't even be seen with him during the day because of his flambuoyant appearance. Crisp was doing his own thing.
In the end (if you'll pardon the expression), Crisp wasn't out to champion gay rights. Rather, he was arguing for widespread tolerance of individuals who don't live up to the hegemonic standard. Whether that means tolerance of three-headed Siberian pygmies or of flaming, screechingly effeminate creatures such as himself, I don't think his arguments would change much.
Book Review: An Unusually Riveting, Exuberant Autobiography
Summary: 5 Stars
"This is an unusually riveting, exuberant autobiography of a man who, in 1931, 'came out' in the streets of London as a self-confessed and self-evident homosexual. At a time when the slightest sign of homosexuality aroused immediate disgust, Quentin Crisp made the courageous decision to be true to his nature. He adopted an outrageously effeminate manner and appearance ('I wore makeup at a time when even on women eye shadow was sinful'), and his flamboyant exhibitionism, henna-dyed hair, and unconventional behavior shocked London society of the thirties. Though he was harassed, ridiculed, and beaten, he was determined to spread the message that homosexuality did not exclude him or anyone else from the human race. ¶ Quentin Crisp has become a cult celebrity since the highly acclaimed dramatization of The Naked Civil Servant was first aired on American television. His is a unique life story. One feels the strength and humor of an honest man, determined to face the world with the truth about himself."--© zebraz