The Unexpurgated Code. A Complete Manual Of Survival & Manners. London: Willwood House, 1975. First Edition. Pp xviii, 283, uncut. Quarter cloth over green paper boards, signature of author in gilt to upper cofer & title lettered along spine. In publisher’s dust jacket. Jacket lightly age-toned along the edges but otherwise a nice bright copy.

Signed by the Author verso title page.

One of Donleavy’s most idiosyncratic works, uncommon in this condition and with the author’s signature.

Donleavy—American-born but long associated with Ireland—built his reputation on a distinctive blend of acerbic wit, theatricality, and mock-genteel mischief. Works like The Ginger Man established him as a writer who delighted in puncturing social pretensions while simultaneously revelling in them. The Unexpurgated Code is perhaps the purest expression of that impulse.