John Kennedy Toole’s comic novel

(1980) recounts the misadventures of Ignatius Jacques Reilly, an obese, lazy, obnoxious, opinionated, erudite, quixotic thirty-year-old medievalist who views himself as “an anachronism” (Toole, 71): he criticizes, and alienates himself from, the contemporary reality of 1960s New Orleans, preferring, in the “Miltonic isolation” (139) of his bedroom, an idealized medieval worldview inspired by Boethius’

and determined by Fortuna, the goddess of fortune.

The book opens with Ignatius waiting for his mother Irene outside a New Orleans department store. Sporting his signature “bushy black moustache” and “green hunting cap”, the “elephantine” (13) Ignatius arouses the suspicion of Patrolman

3761 words

Citation: Fachard, Alexandre. "A Confederacy of Dunces". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 July 2016 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35744, accessed 23 November 2024.]