The Naked Civil Servant

The Naked Civil Servant

About the Book

A comical and poignant memoir of a gay man living life as he pleased in the 1930s

In 1931, gay liberation was not a movement—it was simply unthinkable. But in that year, Quentin Crisp made the courageous decision to "come out" as a homosexual. This exhibitionist with the henna-dyed hair was harrassed, ridiculed and beaten. Nevertheless, he claimed his right to be himself—whatever the consequences. The Naked Civil Servant is both a comic masterpiece and a unique testament to the resilience of the human spirit.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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Praise for The Naked Civil Servant

“This is a book that has fallen out of our consciousness and I think it could help many people today. It is best known for its sharp humour as Crisp charts his emancipation from a dull suburban childhood and begins his journey to become his authentic queer self. . . . In this time of continued hostility towards trans people, I really appreciate the enormous bravery it took for Crisp to be himself. What enormous courage to be gender nonconforming in 1930s Britain in the face of such mockery and loathing.” —Booker Prize–winning author of Shuggie Bain, Douglas Stuart, in The Observer (London)
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About the Author

Quentin Crisp
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About the Author

Michael Holroyd
Michael Holroyd has written acclaimed biographies of Ellen Terry and Henry Irving, Augustus John, George Bernard Shaw, and Lytton Strachey as well as two memoirs, Basil Street Blues, and Mosaic. Holroyd is the president emeritus of the Royal Society of Literature, knighted for his services to literature and the only nonfiction writer to have received the David Cohen British Prize for Literature. His book, A Strange Eventful History, won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography in 2009. He lives in London with his wife, the novelist Margaret Drabble. More by Michael Holroyd
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