A Confederacy of Dunces - wikipedia A Confederacy of Dunces A Confederacy of Dunces Author John Kennedy Toole Country United States Language English Genre Comedy, tragicomedy Published 1980 ( Louisiana State University Press ) Media type Print ( hardback, paperback ), audiobook, e-book Pages 405 pp ( paperback ) ISBN 0 - 8071 - 0657 - 7 OCLC 5336849 Dewey Decimal 813 /. 5 / 4 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 suicide. Published through the efforts of writer Walker Percy ( who also contributed a foreword ) and Toole 's mother, the book became first 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 modern literature of the Southern United States. The book 's title refers to an epigram from Jonathan Swift 's essay, Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting : `` When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him. '' Its central character, Ignatius J. Reilly, is an educated but 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 various adventures with colorful French Quarter characters. Toole wrote the novel in 1963 during his last few months in Puerto Rico. Contents 1 Major characters 1.1 Ignatius J. Reilly 1.2 Myrna Minkoff 1.3 Irene Reilly 1.4 Others 2 Ignatius at the movies 3 Confederacy and New Orleans 4 Structure 5 The difficult path to publication 6 Adaptations 7 See also 8 Notes 9 Sources 10 Further reading 11 External links Major characters Ignatius J. Reilly Ignatius Jacques Reilly is something of a modern Don Quixote -- eccentric, idealistic, and creative, sometimes to the point of delusion. 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, particularly pop culture. The disdain becomes his obsession : he goes to movies in order to mock their perversity and express his outrage with the contemporary world 's lack of `` theology and geometry ''. He prefers the scholastic philosophy of the Middle Ages, and the Early Medieval philosopher Boethius in particular. However, he also enjoys many modern comforts and conveniences and is given to claiming that the rednecks of rural Louisiana hate all modern technology which they associate with progress. The workings of his pyloric valve play an important role in his life, reacting strongly to incidents in a fashion that he likens to Cassandra in terms of prophetic significance. Ignatius is of the mindset that he does not belong in the world and that his numerous failings are the work of some higher power. He continually refers to the goddess Fortuna as having spun him downwards on her wheel of fortune. Ignatius loves to eat, and his masturbatory fantasies lead in strange directions. His mockery of obscene images is portrayed as a defensive posture to hide their titillating effect on him. Although considering himself to have 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, abortive journey out of New Orleans, a trip to Baton Rouge on a Greyhound Scenicruiser bus, which Ignatius recounts as a traumatic ordeal of extreme horror. Myrna Minkoff Myrna Minkoff, referred to by Ignatius as `` that minx '', is a Jewish beatnik from New York City, whom Ignatius met while she was in college in New Orleans. Though their political, social, religious, and personal orientations could hardly be more different, Myrna and Ignatius fascinate one another. 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 by Ignatius. Officially, they both deplore everything the other stands for. Though neither of them will admit it, their correspondence indicates that, separated though they are by half a continent, many of their actions are meant to impress one another. Irene Reilly 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 go, but throughout the course of the novel she learns to stand up for herself. She also has a drinking problem, most frequently indulging in muscatel, although Ignatius exaggerates that she is a raving, abusive drunk. She falls for Claude Robichaux, a fairly 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 only recently become Mrs. Reilly 's new best friend, but also harbors an intense dislike for Ignatius ) that Ignatius is insane and arranges to have him sent to a mental hospital. Others Santa Battaglia, a `` grammaw '' who is friends with Mrs. Reilly, and has a marked disdain for Ignatius Claude Robichaux, an old man constantly on the lookout for any `` communiss '' who might infiltrate America ; he takes an interest in protecting Irene Angelo Mancuso, an inept police officer, the nephew of Santa Battaglia Lana Lee, a pornographic model who runs the `` Night Of Joy '', a downscale French Quarter strip club George, Lana 's distributor who sells photographs of her to high - school children of his age Darlene, the `` Night Of Joy 's '' goodhearted but none - too - bright stripper who has a pet cockatoo Burma Jones, black janitor for the `` Night Of Joy '' who holds on to his below - minimum wage job only to avoid being arrested for vagrancy Mr. Clyde, the frustrated owner of Paradise Vendors, a hot dog vendor business Gus Levy, the owner of Levy Pants, a family business in the Bywater neighborhood Mrs. Levy, Gus 's wife, who attempts to psychoanalyze her husband and Miss Trixie despite being completely unqualified to do 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 Club, 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 Toole provides comical descriptions of two of the films Ignatius watches without naming them ; they can be recognized as Billy Rose 's Jumbo and That Touch of Mink, both Doris Day features released in 1962. In another passage, Ignatius declines to see another film, a `` widely praised Swedish drama about a man who was losing his soul ''. This is most likely Ingmar Bergman 's Winter Light, also released in 1962. In another passage, Irene Reilly recalls the night Ignatius was conceived : after she and her husband viewed Red Dust, released in October 1932. Confederacy and New Orleans Canal Street, New Orleans in the late 1950s ; the D.H. Holmes store at right A `` Lucky Dogs '' cart from the era of the novel The book is famous for its rich depiction of New Orleans and the city 's dialects, including Yat. Many locals and writers think that it is the best and most accurate depiction of the city in a work of fiction. The city described in the novel differs in some ways from the actual New Orleans. The first chapter mentions the sun setting over the Mississippi River at the foot of Canal Street. As this direction is to the south - east, this is clearly impossible in reality. Possibly this is a joke by Toole related to the fact that the area across the river is known as the `` West Bank '', despite the fact that because of the twists of the river it is actually to the south or east from parts of central New Orleans. Such details are not likely to be noticed by people who are not familiar with New Orleans. A bronze statue of Ignatius J. Reilly can be found under the clock on the down - river side of the 800 block of Canal Street, New Orleans, the former site of the D.H. Holmes Department Store, now the Hyatt French Quarter Hotel. The statue mimics the opening scene : Ignatius waits for his mother 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 actor John `` Spud '' McConnell, who portrayed Ignatius in a stage version of the novel. Various local businesses are mentioned in addition to D.H. Holmes, including Werlein 's Music Store and local cinemas such as the Prytania Theater. Some readers from elsewhere assume Ignatius 's favorite soft drink, Dr. Nut, to be fictitious, but it was an actual local soft drink brand of the era. The `` Paradise Hot Dogs '' vending carts are an easily recognized satire of those actually branded `` Lucky Dogs ''. Structure The structure of A Confederacy of Dunces reflects the structure of Ignatius 's favorite book, Boethius ' Consolation of Philosophy. Like Boethius ' book, A Confederacy of Dunces is divided into chapters that are further divided into a varying number of subchapters. Key parts of some chapters are outside of the main narrative. In Consolation, sections of narrative prose alternate with metrical verse. In Confederacy, such narrative interludes vary more widely in form and include light verse, journal entries by Ignatius, and also letters between himself and Myrna. A copy of the Consolation of Philosophy within the narrative itself also becomes an explicit plot device in several ways. The difficult path to publication As outlined in the introduction to a later revised edition, the book would never have been published if Toole 's mother had not found a smeared carbon copy of the manuscript left in the house following Toole 's 1969 suicide, 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 book 's foreword :... the lady was persistent, and it somehow came to pass that she stood in my office handing me the hefty manuscript. There was no getting out of it ; only 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 do just that. Indeed the first paragraph often suffices. My only fear was that this one might not be bad enough, or might be just good enough, 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, then a growing excitement, and finally an incredulity : surely it was not possible that it was so good. The book was published by LSU Press in 1980. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981. In 2005, Blackstone Audio 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 have been found, the location of the original manuscript is unknown. Adaptations In March 1984, LSU staged a musical comedy production of the book, with actor Scott Harlan in the role of Ignatius. Kerry Shale read the book for BBC Radio 4 's Book at Bedtime in 1982, and later adapted the book into a one - man show which he performed at the Adelaide Festival in 1990, at the Gate Theatre in London, and for BBC Radio. There have been repeated attempts to turn the book into a film. In 1982, Harold Ramis was to write and direct an adaptation, starring John Belushi and Richard Pryor, but Belushi 's death prevented this. Later, John Candy and Chris Farley were touted for the lead, but both of them, like Belushi, also died at an early age, leading many to ascribe a curse to the role. Director John Waters was interested in directing an adaptation starring Divine, who also died at an early age, as Ignatius. British performer and writer Stephen Fry was at one point commissioned to adapt Toole 's book for the screen. He was sent to New Orleans by Paramount Studios in 1997 to get background for a screenplay adaptation. John Goodman, a longtime resident of New Orleans, was slated to play Ignatius at one point. A version adapted by Steven Soderbergh and Scott Kramer, and slated to be directed by David Gordon Green, was scheduled for release in 2005. The film was to star Will Ferrell as Ignatius and Lily Tomlin as Ignatius 's mother. A staged reading of the script took place at the 8th Nantucket Film Festival, with Ferrell as Ignatius, Anne Meara as his mother, Paul Rudd as 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 as Myrna, Alan Cumming as Dorian Greene, John Shea as Gonzales, Jesse Eisenberg as George, John Conlon as Claude Robichaux, Jace Alexander as Bartender Ben, Celia Weston as Miss Annie, Miss Inez & Mrs. Levy, and Dan Hedaya as Mr. Levy. Various reasons are cited as to why the Soderbergh version has yet to be filmed. They include disorganization and lack of interest at Paramount Pictures, the head of the Louisiana State Film Commission being murdered, and the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans. When asked why the film was never made, Will Ferrell has said it is a `` mystery ''. In 2012, there was a version in negotiation with director James Bobin and potentially starring Zach Galifianakis. In a 2013 interview, Steven Soderbergh remarked `` I think it 's cursed. I 'm not prone to superstition, but that project has got bad mojo on it. '' In November 2015, Huntington Theatre Company debuted the world - premiere of a stage version of A Confederacy of Dunces written by Jeffrey Hatcher in their Avenue of the Arts / BU Theatre location in Boston, with Nick Offerman starring as Ignatius J. Reilly. It set a record as the company 's highest - grossing production. See also List of works published posthumously New Orleans portal Novels portal Notes Jump up ^ `` Amazon.com : A Confederacy of Dunces ''. Amazon.com. Retrieved 11 November 2014. ^ Jump up to : Podgorski, Daniel ( August 23, 2016 ). `` Peopling Picaresque : On the Well - drawn Characters of John Kennedy Toole 's A Confederacy of Dunces ''. The Gemsbok. Retrieved November 29, 2016. Jump up ^ Giemza, Bryan ( Spring 2004 ). `` Ignatius Rising : The Life of John Kennedy Toole ''. Southern Cultures ( review ). Cambridge : Chadwyck - Healey. 10 ( 1 ) : 97 -- 9. ISSN 1534 - 1488. Jump up ^ Miller, Karl ( 1999 - 03 - 05 ). `` An American tragedy. A lifetime of rejection broke John Kennedy Toole. But his aged mother believed in his talent, found a publisher for his novel and rescued his memory from oblivion ''. www.newstatesman.com. Retrieved 2018 - 06 - 09. Jump up ^ Lowe, John ( December 2008 ). Louisiana culture from the colonial era to Katrina. LSU Press. p. 164. ISBN 978 - 0 - 8071 - 3337 - 8. Retrieved 15 March 2011. Jump up ^ Patteson, Richard F ( 1982 ), `` Ignatius Goes to the Movies : The Films in Toole 's ' A Confederacy of Dunces ' '', NMAL : Notes on Modern American Literature, 6 ( 2 ), item 14. Jump up ^ Toole 1980, p. 136. Jump up ^ Nagle, Stephen J ; Sanders, Sara L ( 2003 ). English in the southern United States. Cambridge University Press. p. 181. Jump up ^ Heilman, Heather ; DeMocker, Michael ( November 26, 2001 ). `` Ignatius Comes of Age ''. Tulanian. Tulane University. Archived from the original on 2010 - 06 - 06. Retrieved 2010 - 02 - 05. Jump up ^ Miller, Elizabeth ' Liz '. `` An Interview with Poppy Z. Brite ''. Bookslut. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 2011 - 08 - 01. Jump up ^ 1937 - 1969., Toole, John Kennedy,. A confederacy of dunces. Percy, Walker, 1916 - 1990,. Baton Rouge. p. 288. ISBN 0807106577. OCLC 5336849. Jump up ^ Percy, Walker ( 1980 ), Preface in Toole 1980. Jump up ^ MacLauchlin, Cory ( March 26, 2012 ). `` The Lost Manuscript to ' A Confederacy of Dunces ' '' ( online magazine ). The Millions. Retrieved 2012 - 04 - 18. Jump up ^ https://digitallibrary.tulane.edu/islandora/object/tulane%3A51513/datastream/PDF/view Jump up ^ https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/198254900?q&versionId=217061488 Jump up ^ https://www.kerryshale.com/actor/ ^ Jump up to : Hyman, Peter ( December 14, 2006 ). `` The development hell of ' A Confederacy of Dunces ' ''. Slate. Archived from the original on 22 January 2009. Retrieved 2009 - 01 - 29. Jump up ^ Allman, Kevin. `` John Waters '' ( interview ). Gambit New Orleans News and Entertainment. Best of New Orleans. Retrieved 2011 - 08 - 01. Jump up ^ Fry, Stephen ( 2005 - 09 - 06 ). `` The great stink of 2005 ''. Huffington post. Archived from the original on 2009 - 09 - 15. Retrieved 2011 - 08 - 01. Jump up ^ Fry, Stephen ( 2008 ), Stephen Fry in America, Harper Collins, p. 138. Jump up ^ Fretts, Bruce ( 19 May 2000 ). `` A Confederacy of Dunces celebrates its 20th anniversary ''. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 25 July 2015. Jump up ^ Head, Steve ( 2003 - 06 - 25 ). `` Filmforce ''. IGN. Archived from the original on September 11, 2005. Retrieved 2011 - 08 - 01. Jump up ^ Stephenson, Hunter ( February 29, 2008 ). `` Will Ferrell Talks Land of the Lost, Old School 2, Elf 2 and A Confederacy of Dunces ''. Slashfilm. Archived from the original on 24 January 2009. Retrieved 2009 - 01 - 29. Jump up ^ Brodesser - Akner, Claude ( 2012 - 05 - 22 ), `` Exclusive : ' Dunces ' Finds Its Ignatius in Galifianakis '', Vulture. Jump up ^ `` Soderbergh in Vulture ''. vulture.com. Retrieved January 30, 2013. Jump up ^ Shanahan, Mark ( 23 December 2015 ). `` ' Confederacy of Dunces ' sets Huntington Theatre record ''. The Boston Globe. Sources Toole, John Kennedy ( 1980 ), A Confederacy of Dunces, LSU Press, ISBN 0 - 8021 - 3020 - 8. Further reading Scholarly studies Clark, William Bedford ( 1987 ), `` All Toole 's children : A reading of ' A Confederacy of Dunces ' '', Essays in Literature, 14 : 269 -- 80. Dunne, Sara L ( 2005 ), `` Moviegoing in the Modern Novel : Holden, Binx, Ignatius '', Studies in Popular Culture, 28 ( 1 ) : 37 -- 47. Kline, Michael ( 1999 ), `` Narrating the Grotesque : The Rhetoric of Humor in John Kennedy Toole 's A Confederacy of Dunces '', Southern Quarterly, 37 ( 3 -- 4 ) : 283 -- 91. Leighton, H Vernon ( 2007 -- 2012 ), John Kennedy Toole Research, Winona, three scholarly articles ( including one free full text ) and other materials. Lowe, John ( 2008 ), `` The Carnival Voices of ' A Confederacy of Dunces ' '', Louisiana Culture from the Colonial Era to Katrina, Baton Rouge, LA : Louisiana State UP, pp. 159 -- 90. MacLauchlin, Cory ( 2012 ), Butterfly in the Typewriter : The Tragic Life of John Kennedy Toole and the Remarkable Story of ' A Confederacy of Dunces ' ( biography ), Da Capo Press, ISBN 978 - 0 - 306 - 82040 - 3 ( literary analysis, chapter 15 ). Marsh, Leslie ( 2013 ), Critical Notice of Butterfly in the Typewriter : The Tragic Life of John Kennedy Toole and the Remarkable Story of A Confederacy of Dunces ' ( review ), Journal of Mind and Behavior, ISSN 0271 - 0137 McNeil, David ( 1984 ), `` A Confederacy of Dunces as Reverse Satire : The American Subgenre '', Mississippi Quarterly, 38 : 33 -- 47. Palumbo, Carmine D ( 1995 ), `` John Kennedy Toole and His Confederacy of Dunces '', Louisiana Folklore Miscellany, 10 : 59 -- 77. Patteson, Richard F ; Sauret, Thomas ( 1983 ), `` The Consolation of Illusion : John Kennedy Toole 's ' A Confederacy of Dunces ' '', Texas Review, 4 ( 1 -- 2 ) : 77 -- 87. Pugh, Tison ( 2006 ), `` ' It 's Prolly Fulla Dirty Stories ' : Masturbatory Allegory and Queer Medievalism in John Kennedy Toole 's ' A Confederacy of Dunces ' '', Studies in Medievalism, 15 : 77 -- 100. Rudnicki, Robert ( 2009 ), `` Euphues and the Anatomy of Influence : John Lyly, Harold Bloom, James Olney, and the Construction of John Kennedy Toole 's Ignatius '', Mississippi Quarterly, 62 ( 1 -- 2 ) : 281 -- 302. Simmons, Jonathan ( 1989 ), `` Ignatius Reilly and the Concept of the Grotesque in John Kennedy Toole 's ' A Confederacy of Dunces ' '', Mississippi Quarterly, 43 ( 1 ) : 33 -- 43. Simon, Richard K ( 1994 ), `` John Kennedy Toole and Walker Percy : Fiction and Repetition in ' A Confederacy of Dunces ' '', Texas Studies in Literature & Language, 36 ( 1 ) : 99 -- 116, JSTOR 40755032. Zaenker, Karl A ( 1987 ), `` Hrotsvit and the Moderns : Her Impact on John Kennedy Toole and Peter Hacks '', in Wilson, Katharina M, Hrotsvit of Gandersheim : Rara Avis in Saxonia ?, Ann Arbor, MI : Marc, pp. 275 -- 85. External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to A Confederacy of Dunces. `` John Kennedy Toole '' ( review ), Spike. Written when the latest film adaptation was still scheduled to go ahead. Slate on the problems plaguing the film adaptation. PPrize ( photos ) of first edition Confederacy of Dunces. ignatius ' ghost, Google. A tour of Confederacy locations. 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Question: when does a confederacy of dunces take place
Answer: early-1960s