A Confederacy Of Dunces Characters

1980 novel by John Kennedy Toole

A Confederacy of Dunces

Author	John Kennedy Toole
Country	Usa
Linguistic communication	English
Genre	Comedy, tragicomedy
Published	1980
Publisher	Louisiana State University Press
Media type	Print (hardback & paperback), audiobook, e-book
Pages	405 (paperback)^[1]
Award	Pulitzer Prize (1981)
ISBN	0-8071-0657-7
OCLC	5336849
Dewey Decimal	813/.5/iv
LC Class	PS3570.O54 C66 1980

A Confederacy of Dunces is a picaresque novel by American novelist John Kennedy Toole which reached publication in 1980, eleven years after Toole's death.^[two] Published through the efforts of writer Walker Percy (who also contributed a foreword) and Toole's female parent, Thelma, the book became offset a cult classic, then a mainstream success; it earned Toole a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981, and is now considered a canonical work of modernistic literature of the Southern United States.^[iii]

The book's title refers to an epigram from Jonathan Swift'southward essay Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting: "When a true genius appears in the globe, you may know him past this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him." Its central character, Ignatius J. Reilly, is an educated just slothful 30-year-old man living with his mother in the Uptown neighborhood of early-1960s New Orleans who, in his quest for employment, has diverse adventures with colorful French Quarter characters. Toole wrote the novel in 1963 during his last few months in Puerto Rico.

Synopsis [edit]

Ignatius Jacques Reilly is an overweight and unemployed thirty-yr-old with a degree in Medieval History who still lives with his mother, Irene Reilly. He lives in utter loathing of the world around him, which he feels has lost the values of geometry and theology. I afternoon, Reilly'southward female parent drives him 'downtown in the old Plymouth, and while she was at the doctor'due south seeing about her arthritis, Ignatius had bought some sheet music at Werlein'south for his trumpet and a new string for his lute.' While Reilly waits for his mother, Officer Angelo Mancuso approaches Reilly and demands that the latter produce identification. Affronted and outraged past Mancuso'due south unwarranted zeal and officious manner, Reilly protests his innocence to the crowd while denouncing the city's vices and the graft of the local police. An elderly man, Claude Robichaux, takes Reilly's side, denouncing Officer Mancuso and the law equally communists. In the resulting uproar, Reilly and his embarrassed mother escape, taking refuge in a bar in example Officer Mancuso is still in hot pursuit.

In the bar, Mrs. Reilly then drinks too much. As a result, she crashes her car. The fallout for the accident totals $1020, a sizable amount of coin in early on 1960s New Orleans. Ignatius is forced to piece of work for the first time in many years in society to help his female parent pay for the blow.

What follows is a series of adventures that introduce an assorted bandage of characters and their interactions with each other due to, or with, Ignatius as he moves from depression wage task to chore. Throughout the novel, Ignatius obsesses over his wardrobe, verbally abuses his female parent, and frequents motion-picture show theaters simply to yell and condemn the actors and actresses on screen. The novel explores the psyche of a human being who is devitalized every time he is stressed out due to a rare stomach condition and an adversarial human relationship maybe disguised as flirtation with the politically liberal abet Myrna Minkoff, his only friend from college.

Major characters [edit]

Ignatius J. Reilly [edit]

Ignatius Jacques Reilly is something of a modern Don Quixote—eccentric, idealistic, and creative, sometimes to the point of delusion.^[2] In his foreword to the book, Walker Percy describes Ignatius as a "slob extraordinary, a mad Oliver Hardy, a fat Don Quixote, a perverse Thomas Aquinas rolled into one". He disdains modernity, especially pop civilization. The disdain becomes his obsession: he goes to movies in order to mock their perversity and express his outrage with the contemporary globe's lack of "theology and geometry". He prefers the scholastic philosophy of the Middle Ages, and the Early Medieval philosopher Boethius in particular.^[4] However, he also enjoys many modern comforts and conveniences and is given to challenge that the rednecks of rural Louisiana hate all modern technology, which they associate with unwanted change. The workings of his pyloric valve play an important role in his life, reacting strongly to incidents in a style that he likens to Cassandra in terms of prophetic significance.^[5]

Ignatius is of the mindset that he does not vest in the earth and that his numerous failings are the work of some higher power. He continually refers to the goddess Fortuna as having spun him downwardly on her bicycle of fortune. Ignatius loves to swallow, and his masturbatory fantasies atomic number 82 in strange directions. His mockery of obscene images is portrayed equally a defensive posture to hibernate their titillating event on him. Although considering himself to accept an expansive and learned worldview, Ignatius has an aversion to ever leaving the town of his birth, and frequently bores friends and strangers with the story of his sole, bootless journey out of New Orleans, a trip to Baton Rouge on a Greyhound Scenicruiser omnibus, which Ignatius recounts as a traumatic ordeal of extreme horror.

Myrna Minkoff [edit]

Myrna Minkoff, referred to past Ignatius as "that minx," is a Jewish beatnik from New York City, whom Ignatius met while she was in higher in New Orleans.^[2] Though their political, social, religious, and personal orientations could hardly exist more different, Myrna and Ignatius fascinate 1 some other. The novel repeatedly refers to Myrna and Ignatius having engaged in tag-team attacks on the teachings of their college professors. For most of the novel, she is seen only in the regular correspondence which the two sustain since her return to New York, a correspondence heavily weighted with sexual analysis on the part of Myrna and contempt for her apparent sacrilegious activity past Ignatius. Officially, they both deplore everything the other stands for. Though neither of them volition admit it, their correspondence indicates that, separated though they are by half a continent, many of their actions are meant to print one some other.

Irene Reilly [edit]

Mrs. Irene Reilly is the mother of Ignatius. She has been widowed for 21 years. At first, she allows Ignatius his space and drives him where he needs to get, but over the grade of the novel she learns to stand up up for herself. She too has a drinking problem, most frequently indulging in muscatel, although Ignatius exaggerates that she is a raving, abusive drunk.^[2]

She falls for Claude Robichaux, a adequately well-off man with a railroad pension and rental properties. At the end of the novel, she decides she will marry Claude. But first, she agrees with Santa Battaglia (who has not merely recently become Mrs. Reilly'southward new best friend, but besides harbors an intense dislike for Ignatius) that Ignatius is insane and arranges to take him sent to a mental infirmary.

Others [edit]

Santa Battaglia, a "grammaw" who is friends with Mrs. Reilly and has a marked disdain for Ignatius
Claude Robichaux, an former homo constantly on the watch for any "communiss" who might infiltrate the United States; he takes an interest in protecting Irene
Angelo Mancuso, an inept law officer, the nephew of Santa Battaglia, who, after an abortive attempt to arrest Ignatius as a "suspicious graphic symbol," features prominently in the novel as Ignatius's self-perceived nemesis
Lana Lee, a pornographic model who runs the "Night of Joy," a downscale French Quarter strip club
George, Lana'southward distributor, who sells photographs of her to high-schoolhouse children
Darlene, a goodhearted merely none-too-brilliant girl, who aspires to be a "Night of Joy" stripper, with a pet cockatoo
Burma Jones, a black janitor for the "Night of Joy" who holds on to his below-minimum wage job simply to avoid being arrested for vagrancy
Mr. Clyde, the frustrated owner of Paradise Vendors, a hot dog vendor business organization, who inadvisably employs Ignatius as a vendor
Gus Levy, the reluctant, mostly absentee possessor of Levy Pants, an inherited family unit business in the Bywater neighborhood where Ignatius briefly works
Mrs. Levy, Gus's wife, who attempts to psychoanalyze her husband and Miss Trixie despite beingness completely unqualified to practice so
Miss Trixie, an aged clerk at Levy Pants who suffers from dementia and compulsive hoarding
Mr. Gonzalez, the meek office manager at Levy Pants
Dorian Greene, a flamboyant French Quarter homosexual who puts on elaborate parties
Frieda Lodge, Betty Bumper, and Liz Steele, a trio of aggressive lesbians who run afoul of Ignatius
Dr. Talc, a mediocre professor at Tulane who had the misfortune of teaching Myrna and Ignatius
Miss Annie, the disgruntled neighbor of the Reillys who professes an addiction to headache medicine

Ignatius at the movies [edit]

Toole provides comical descriptions of two of the films Ignatius watches without naming them; they can be recognized every bit Baton Rose's Jumbo and That Touch of Mink, both Doris Day features released in 1962.^[6] In another passage, Ignatius declines to see another flick, a "widely praised Swedish drama well-nigh a human who was losing his soul". This is most likely Ingmar Bergman's Winter Lite, released in early 1963. In another passage, Irene Reilly recalls the nighttime Ignatius was conceived: after she and her husband viewed Crimson Grit, released in Oct 1932.^[7]

Confederacy and New Orleans [edit]

A "Lucky Dogs" cart from the era of the novel

The book is famous for its rich depiction of New Orleans and the metropolis's dialects, including Yat.^[eight] ^[nine] Many locals and writers think that it is the best and most authentic delineation of the city in a piece of work of fiction.^[10]

A statuary statue of Ignatius J. Reilly can be establish under the clock on the downward-river side of the 800 block of Canal Street, New Orleans, the former site of the D. H. Holmes Department Shop, now the Hyatt French Quarter Hotel. The statue mimics the opening scene: Ignatius waits for his female parent under the D.H. Holmes clock, clutching a Werlein's shopping bag, dressed in a hunting cap, flannel shirt, baggy pants and scarf, 'studying the crowd of people for signs of bad taste.' The statue is modeled on New Orleans thespian John "Spud" McConnell, who portrayed Ignatius in a stage version of the novel.

Diverse local businesses are mentioned in addition to D. H. Holmes, including Werlein'due south Music Shop and local cinemas such equally the Prytania Theater. Some readers from elsewhere presume Ignatius'southward favorite soft drink, Dr. Nut, to be fictitious, but it was an actual local soft potable brand of the era. The "Paradise Hot Dogs" vending carts are an easily recognized satire of those actually branded "Lucky Dogs".

Construction [edit]

The structure of A Confederacy of Dunces reflects the structure of Ignatius'southward favorite book, Boethius' The Alleviation of Philosophy.^[11] Similar Boethius' book, A Confederacy of Dunces is divided into chapters that are further divided into a varying number of subchapters. Central parts of some chapters are exterior of the principal narrative. In Alleviation, sections of narrative prose alternate with metrical poetry. In Confederacy, such narrative interludes vary more widely in course and include light verse, periodical entries past Ignatius, and too letters between himself and Myrna. A copy of The Consolation of Philosophy inside the narrative itself besides becomes an explicit plot device in several ways.

The hard path to publication [edit]

As outlined in the introduction to a later revised edition, the volume would never have been published if Toole's mother had not found a smeared carbon re-create of the manuscript left in the house following Toole's 1969 death at 31. She was persistent and tried several different publishers, to no avail.

Thelma repeatedly called Walker Percy, an author and college instructor at Loyola University New Orleans, to demand for him to read it. He initially resisted; however, as he recounts in the volume's foreword:

...the lady was persistent, and information technology somehow came to pass that she stood in my office handing me the hefty manuscript. There was no getting out of information technology; merely one hope remained—that I could read a few pages and that they would be bad enough for me, in good conscience, to read no farther. Usually I can exercise but that. Indeed the kickoff paragraph often suffices. My only fright was that this one might not exist bad enough, or might exist just good plenty, so that I would have to keep reading. In this case I read on. And on. First with the sinking feeling that it was not bad enough to quit, then with a prickle of interest, so a growing excitement, and finally an incredulity: surely it was not possible that it was so expert.^[12]

The book was published by LSU Printing in 1980. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981. In 2005, Blackstone Sound released an unabridged audiobook of the novel, read by Barrett Whitener.

While Tulane University in New Orleans retains a collection of Toole's papers, and some early drafts accept been found, the location of the original manuscript is unknown.^[13]

Adaptations [edit]

In March 1984, LSU staged a musical one-act production of the book, with histrion Scott Harlan playing Ignatius.^[14]

Kerry Shale read the book for BBC Radio 4's Book at Bedtime in 1982, and later adapted the book into a 1-human prove which he performed at the Adelaide Festival in 1990,^[15] at the Gate Theatre in London, and for BBC Radio.^[16]

There have been repeated attempts to turn the book into a film. In 1982, Harold Ramis was to write and directly an adaptation, starring John Belushi as Ignatius and Richard Pryor as Burma Jones, but Belushi's death prevented this. Later, John Candy and Chris Farley were touted for the pb, but both of them, similar Belushi, as well died at an early age, leading many to ascribe a expletive to the function of Ignatius.^[17]

Manager John Waters was interested in directing an accommodation that would take starred Divine, who also died at an early age, as Ignatius.^[18]

British performer and writer Stephen Fry was at one point commissioned to conform Toole's book for the screen.^[nineteen] He was sent to New Orleans past Paramount Studios in 1997 to get background for a screenplay adaptation.^[20]

John Goodman, a longtime resident of New Orleans, was slated to play Ignatius at one point.^[21]

A version adapted past Steven Soderbergh and Scott Kramer, and slated to exist directed by David Gordon Light-green, was scheduled for release in 2005. The film was to star Will Ferrell as Ignatius and Lily Tomlin as Irene. A staged reading of the script took identify at the 8th Nantucket Film Festival, with Ferrell as Ignatius, Anne Meara every bit Irene, Paul Rudd equally Officer Mancuso, Kristen Johnston as Lana Lee, Mos Def as Burma Jones, Rosie Perez as Darlene, Olympia Dukakis as Santa Battaglia and Miss Trixie, Natasha Lyonne every bit Myrna, Alan Cumming equally Dorian Greene, John Shea every bit Gonzales, Jesse Eisenberg as George, John Conlon as Claude Robichaux, Jace Alexander as Bartender Ben, Celia Weston every bit Miss Annie, Miss Inez & Mrs. Levy, and Dan Hedaya every bit Mr. Levy.^[22]

Various reasons are cited as to why the Soderbergh version has still to be filmed. They include disorganization and lack of involvement at Paramount Pictures, Helen Hill the head of the Louisiana State Film Commission being murdered, and the devastating furnishings of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans.^[17] When asked why the pic was never made, Volition Ferrell has said it is a "mystery".^[23]

In 2012, there was a version in negotiation with director James Bobin and potentially starring Zach Galifianakis.^[24]

In a 2013 interview, Steven Soderbergh remarked "I recall information technology'south cursed. I'm not decumbent to superstition, but that project has got bad mojo on it."^[25]

In November 2015, Huntington Theatre Company introduced a stage version of A Confederacy of Dunces written by Jeffrey Hatcher in their Avenue of the Arts/BU Theatre location in Boston, starring Nick Offerman as Ignatius J. Reilly. It set a record as the company'south highest-grossing product.^[26]

Critical reception [edit]

On Nov five, 2019, the BBC News included A Confederacy of Dunces on its list of the 100 most influential novels.^[27] Confederacy of Dunces is regularly included on lists of 'most funny' or 'best comedic novel'.^[28]

References [edit]

^ Toole 1980.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Podgorski, Daniel (August 23, 2016). "Peopling Picaresque: On the Well-drawn Characters of John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces". The Gemsbok. Archived from the original on November xxx, 2016. Retrieved November 29, 2016.
^ Giemza, Bryan (Spring 2004). "Ignatius Rising: The Life of John Kennedy Toole". Southern Cultures (review). Cambridge: Chadwyck-Healey. 10 (1): 97–9. doi:10.1353/scu.2004.0007. ISSN 1534-1488. S2CID 145576623. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2020-01-xxx .
^ Miller, Karl (1999-03-05). "An American tragedy. A lifetime of rejection broke John Kennedy Toole. But his aged female parent believed in his talent, constitute a publisher for his novel and rescued his memory from oblivion". www.newstatesman.com. Archived from the original on 2018-06-12. Retrieved 2018-06-09 .
^ Lowe, John (Dec 2008). Louisiana civilisation from the colonial era to Katrina. LSU Press. p. 164. ISBN978-0-8071-3337-8 . Retrieved xv March 2011.
^ Patteson, Richard F (1982), "Ignatius Goes to the Movies: The Films in Toole's 'A Confederacy of Dunces'", NMAL: Notes on Mod American Literature, six (2), item 14 .
^ Toole 1980, p. 136.
^ Nagle, Stephen J; Sanders, Sara L (2003). English in the southern U.s.a.. Cambridge Academy Press. p. 181.
^ Heilman, Heather; DeMocker, Michael (Nov 26, 2001). "Ignatius Comes of Historic period". Tulanian. Tulane University. Archived from the original on 2010-06-06. Retrieved 2010-02-05 .
^ Miller, Elizabeth 'Liz'. "An Interview with Poppy Z. Brite". Bookslut. Archived from the original on xvi July 2011. Retrieved 2011-08-01 .
^ Toole, John Kennedy; Percy, Walker (1980). A confederacy of dunces. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Academy Printing. pp. 288. ISBN0807106577. OCLC 5336849.
^ Percy, Walker (1980), Preface in Toole 1980.
^ MacLauchlin, Cory (March 26, 2012). "The Lost Manuscript to 'A Confederacy of Dunces'" (online mag). The Millions. Archived from the original on April 28, 2012. Retrieved 2012-04-18 .
^ "Confederacy Of Dunces Play May Wind Up On Broadway" (PDF). Digitallibrary.tulane.edu . Retrieved fifteen January 2019.
^ Toole, John Kennedy; Shale, Kerry (15 January 1990). "A confederacy of dunces: [theatre program], 1990 Adelaide Festival" – via Trove.
^ "Actor". Kerryshale.com. sixteen April 2015. Archived from the original on 4 April 2018. Retrieved 1 April 2018.
^ ^a ^b Hyman, Peter (Dec 14, 2006). "The development hell of 'A Confederacy of Dunces'". Slate. Archived from the original on 22 Jan 2009. Retrieved 2009-01-29 .
^ Allman, Kevin. "John Waters". Gambit New Orleans News and Amusement. Best of New Orleans. Archived from the original (interview) on 2010-06-12. Retrieved 2011-08-01 .
^ Fry, Stephen (2005-09-06). "The bully stink of 2005". Huffington Post. Archived from the original on 2009-09-15. Retrieved 2011-08-01 .
^ Fry, Stephen (2008), Stephen Fry in America, Harper Collins, p. 138 .
^ Fretts, Bruce (19 May 2000). "A Confederacy of Dunces celebrates its 20th anniversary". Amusement Weekly. Archived from the original on 23 August 2015. Retrieved 25 July 2015.
^ Head, Steve (2003-06-25). "Photos: Staged Reading of A Confederacy of Dunces". IGN. Archived from the original on September eleven, 2005. Retrieved 2022-01-xix .
^ Stephenson, Hunter (Feb 29, 2008). "Volition Ferrell Talks Country of the Lost, Onetime School ii, Elf 2 and A Confederacy of Dunces". Slashfilm. Archived from the original on 2009-01-24. Retrieved January 19, 2022.
^ Brodesser-Akner, Claude (2012-05-22), "Exclusive: 'Dunces' Finds Its Ignatius in Galifianakis", Vulture, archived from the original on 2012-06-xiv, retrieved 2012-06-09 .
^ "Soderbergh in Vulture". Vulture.com. Archived from the original on July 3, 2013. Retrieved Jan 30, 2013.
^ Shanahan, Marking (23 Dec 2015). "'Confederacy of Dunces' sets Huntington Theatre record". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on 24 October 2016. Retrieved 21 June 2017.
^ "100 'almost inspiring' novels revealed by BBC Arts". BBC News. 2019-11-05. Archived from the original on 2019-xi-08. Retrieved 2019-11-ten . The reveal kickstarts the BBC's yr-long celebration of literature.
^ "Book Reconsideration: "A Confederacy of Dunces" - All the same an American Comic Masterpiece?". 29 June 2020.

Sources [edit]

Toole, John Kennedy (1980), A Confederacy of Dunces , LSU Printing, ISBN0-8021-3020-8

External links [edit]

"John Kennedy Toole" (review), Spike . Written when the latest film adaptation was still scheduled to go ahead.
"A Conspiracy of Dunces", Slate, 14 December 2006 on the problems plaguing the picture show adaptation.
PPrize (photos) of get-go edition Confederacy of Dunces.
ignatius' ghost . A tour of Confederacy locations.