The Fourth of June

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.


‘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