A Confederacy of Dunces is a novel by John Kennedy Toole, set in New Orleans. The story follows the protagonist, Ignatius J. Reilly, who wanders aimlessly through the city, a city he detests yet loves. After Toole’s death in 1969, he left behind two unpublished novels. A film adaptation of the novel has been rumored for years, but it seems to be under way at Miramax.
The novel has been trying to be adapted for almost 40 years, with actors like John Belushi and Will Ferrell attached. However, the deaths of four leading actors, the murder of one financier, and Hurricane Katrina have all intervened to prevent the cameras from rolling. The book’s monstrous slob of an anti-hero, Ignatius J. Reilly, is a comic masterpiece that Hollywood has been trying to adapt for almost 40 years.
Set to be directed by David Gordon Green, the film features a phenomenal cast including Will Ferrell as Ignatius, Lily Tomlin as his mother Irene, and Mos Def as Mos Def. However, adapting Dunces for both stage and screen has proven difficult and has eluded several top writers and directors.
A Confederacy of Dunces introduces the unforgettable Ignatius J. Reilly, whose outrageous antics in New Orleans are both hilarious and thought-provoking. The project is categorized as in development, with data only available on IMDbPro and subject to change.
📹 Billy Connolly on A Confederacy Of Dunces
From BBC’s Billy Connolly – Made in Scotland Series 1 Episode 2 Billy espouses the act of libraries and book giving then …
What jobs did Ignatius J. Reilly have?
Walker Percy’s foreword to the book describes Ignatius’s “succession of jobs”, but Ignatius works only two jobs to help Irene. The first is in the front office of Levy Pants, a fading clothing factory, where he works to wrest a living from an unthinking and uncaring society. His true goal is to impress his “passionless flame”, Myrna Minkoff, a self-styled New York City revolutionary who briefly lived in New Orleans and exchanges letters with Ignatius throughout the book.
Ignatius starts at Levy Pants, agitating Black factory workers into joining a Crusade for Moorish Dignity. He later plots to turn all armies of the world gay, so that opposing warriors will decide only to have dances and balls and learn some foreign dance steps. He is also dyspeptic and offensive outside of the workplace, such as watching “American Bandstand” on television and pineking for the emergence of a good, authoritarian pope.
However, Ignatius is not compelling enough to make lovable the repulsive qualities that his creator takes immense pains to describe, such as the smell of his body, filthy bedsheets, or his volcanic flatulence. By the time Ignatius feels “worse and worse” and describes how great belches tipped out of the gas pockets of his stomach and tore through his digestive tract, the novel is repellent. It is not that I don’t like or can’t relate to Ignatius, but that he is exactly the character you expect him to be.
What is the point of A Confederacy of Dunces?
A Confederacy of Dunces is a satirical novel that follows the adventures of Ignatius J. Reilly, a medieval scholar who seeks a mysterious woman in the Night of Joy strip bar. The novel is a satirical picaresque, similar to Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote, which details the adventures of a foolish noble who believes he is a knight. Other examples of picaresque novels include Laurence Sterne’s Tristam Shandy and William Thackeray’s Vanity Fair.
The novel was written between 1963-1964 in Puerto Rico and New Orleans, and published in 1980. The literary period was postmodern, and the genre was picaresque. The climax of the novel is when Ignatius finds himself in the strip bar, leading to a commotion that exposes the corrupt nightclub owner, Lana Lee, who has been distributing pornography.
The character of Ignatius J. Reilly is partially based on Bob Byrne, a college professor who Toole befriended while teaching at the University of Southwestern Louisiana. Byrne was a notoriously misanthropic, anti-modern medieval scholar, and they formed a friendship. A Confederacy of Dunces is a modern satire that is similar to darkly comedic novels like Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 and postmodern novels like Don DeLillo’s White Noise.
How old is Ignatius J. Reilly?
A Confederacy of Dunces is a picaresque novel by American novelist John Kennedy Toole, published in 1980. The story follows Ignatius J. Reilly, a 30-year-old overweight and unemployed scholar living in New Orleans with his mother. The novel, which was written in 1963 during his last months in Puerto Rico, is renowned for its accurate depictions of New Orleans dialects. Toole based Reilly in part on his college professor friend Bob Byrne, who had eccentric behavior, and Reilly mirrored him.
The character was also based on Toole himself, and several personal experiences served as inspiration for passages in the novel. Toole filled in for a friend at a hot tamale cart vendor and worked at a family-owned and operated clothing factory, which were later adopted into his fiction. The book’s title refers to an epigram from Jonathan Swift’s essay, Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting.
Is there a movie of A Confederacy of Dunces?
The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel ACOD has never been adapted for the screen. In 1982, Harold Ramis was commissioned to write the screenplay for the film, which was to feature John Belushi and Richard Pryor. However, the project was ultimately abandoned following Belushi’s untimely demise.
What is the main theme of A Confederacy of Dunces?
In A Confederacy of Dunces, Toole uses the story of Burma Jones, a marginalized black man, to illustrate the impact of the American South’s historical legacy of slavery and racial prejudice on the lives of black people during the 1960s. The novel draws heavily from medieval culture and philosophy, with Ignatius J. Reilly’s interest in medieval philosopher Boethius, who wrote The Consolation of Philosophy. Ignatius feels deeply connected to Boethius, who was imprisoned by the Ostrogoths, a barbaric people compared to the civilized Romans.
The novel takes place in New Orleans, which had segregation laws in place until the 1960s. The novel explores the themes of slavery, racial prejudice, and the impact of slavery on the lives of black people in the South during this time.
What should I read if I liked Confederacy of Dunces?
Those with an affinity for works such as Lucky Jim or The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy may find A Confederacy of Dunces to be an appealing read. Additionally, Corey MacLauchlin’s Butterfly in the Typewriter offers a deeper perspective on the life and work of John Kennedy Toole.
Who is the character Ignatius in the book?
A Confederacy of Dunces, a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, chronicles the experiences of Ignatius J. Reilly, an obese, unemployed scholar in New Orleans, who initiates a campaign against modernity, perceiving it as a destructive force for humanity.
What books did JFK like to read?
David Cecil’s “The Young Melbourne and Lord M” and Winston S. Churchill’s “Marlborough” are noteworthy works in the history of British literature. Other notable works include Talleyrand, Byron in Italy, The Red and the Black, From Russia with Love, and The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
Is Confederacy of Dunces absurdist?
Despite its publication four decades ago, A Confederacy of Dunces continues to captivate readers with its witty and absurd humor.
Is Ignatius a mystic?
Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus, is a prominent Christian mystic and mystagogue. However, his apostolic achievements and the Society of Jesus’s past have often overshadowed his mysticism. Ignatius experienced four foundational mystical events during his recuperation from leg wounds from the battle of Pamplona. He daydreamed about courtly love stories and the lives of saints in The Golden Legend and the Life of Christ, which left him unhappy and dry. His experiences led him to understand that joy comes from God and sadness from the devil, leading to the development of his famous rules for discerning spirits.
Another significant mystical experience occurred during his recuperation at Loyola: a vision of the Virgin Mary holding the Child Jesus. This vision instilled in Ignatius a disgust for his past life, particularly sins of the flesh, that it erased all images that had been imprinted on his mind. He never again consented to the motions of the flesh, concluding that this had been God’s doing. Ignatius’ transformative visions are crucial for understanding his mysticism and the importance of his apostolic successes.
Is Confederacy of Dunces a satire?
Jonathan Rosenbaum, a critic of A Confederacy of Dunces, argued that the book is a “reactionary satire” that portrays human personality as an unalterable given, incapable of development or improvement. He argued that this narrow philosophy, a form of Southern comfort, leads to the conclusion that one’s character is as inescapable as one’s skeleton. Rosenbaum disagreed, stating that Toole’s preposterous characters seem to be trapped in this condition, benefiting only from the author’s despairing, affectionate scorn and slapstick.
📹 JK Toole – A Confederacy of Dunces (full book)
I stumbled upon ‘A Confederacy of Dunces’ about 10 years ago in a bookshop I had never visited before. It was a small place barely hanging on in a rough part of San Diego (it was close enough to San Diego State University that I think it got by). Like all bookshops, I found the fiction section and scoured the shelves. It was an old battered copy of a book I’d never heard of, by an author I’d never heard of. The cover said it had won the Pulitzer Prize, and when I leafed through it I read something about the author having died and his mother working diligently to get the book published. I figured what the hell, let’s give this a go. I don’t think I put the book down until I finished it. Discovering a book like this is such a magical experience. It takes me back to being 8 years old and reading ‘The Hobbit’ for the first time. It pains me that John Toole never was able to know how much laughter and joy he brought by his writing this book.
I came across the book roughly 30 odd years ago, around 1985 in a books section of some big shop, in Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso Texas, uI was just trying to kill time. I picked up the book, read a few lines here and a few lines there. I figured it was too good a book to let go, so I bought it. I did not put the book down until i had finished it. I loved it. Then I gave this book to a good friend and a colleague of mine, who in some ways reminded me of Ignatius, being heavy built, a committed bachelor, intellectually inclined, electrical engineer working in a macquiladora / factory across in Mexico. He got the joke, but he read it too. He also loved it. Later on, same year he went to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. He struck up conversations with the hotdog vendors over there in the city, and they too had read the book. This book is a classic. One of my very favorite books. .I had my children read it too. They also loved it.
There were times during my first reading of this book when I was laughing so hard I was gasping for air. At one point the dog ran over thinking I was in pain. He kept licking my face and I was too powerless to even push him away or get him to stop. I was in an online book forum and we members all knew one another from interacting all the time. When they learned that I had not read the book several INSISTED that I leave the computer and go buy the book – “don’t order it, get in your car and go buy it right now” were my orders. At the time there was a Borders 5 miles away and I went and picked it up. I didn’t put it down till two o’clock in the morning when I had finished it. I had never laughed so hard, so many times, and for so long in my entire life.
Re-reading this book again after discovering a dog eared copy in an English bookstore in South Coast town. It reminded of the time when I first discovered the book in Powell’s city of books in Portland and it bought back fond memories and happy times. I think it was one of the most funniest books I have read.
Billy would have made an interesting Ignatius J. Reilly in a movie adaptation 😆 I just read Stephan Eicke’s new book, “The Unfilmable Confederacy of Duces – How Ignatius J. Reilly Defeated Hollywood”, about the attempts to film an adaptation, and it’s a riot… Robin Williams, Jonathan Winters, John Candy and Divine were considered, but apparently no Billy Connolly
I can see Thelma Toole’s house from my porch. I, too have bought more copies of C.O.D. than any other book, yet, I currently only have two copies. Ken Toole killed himself over unrequited love after seeing the revulsion in his best friend’s eyes when he spoke of his love out loud, on a road trip in Mississippi. A copy of one of his suicide notes is in the late Kenneth Holditch’s collection, which is currently being boxed and catalogued. Professor Holditch, another neighbor here in the Fauborg Marigny, said Ken Toole returned to the same small town soon after, and ended his life. Thelma destroyed her copy of the note, but, there were others.
Billy Connolly said he “left school at 15 and worked at a book store where he discovered A Confederacy of Dunces.” Connolly was born in 1942, so he turned 15 in 1957. A Confederacy of Dunces was completed in 1963, but it wasn’t published until 1980. At any rate, Connolly turned 38-years-old in 1980, which is the earliest time he could have discovered John Kennedy Toole’s posthumous masterpiece. I’m very confused because the dates don’t line up.
Excellent uploading thank you .. A real marvellously funny engaging book .. expertly and brilliantly narrated by Barrett Whitener .. by far .. the best .. most expressive reader I’ve heard .. a real treat .. never gets dull or boring .. I almost died laughing several times .. .. laughter is the best medicine … and for anyone overwhelmed by today’s insane times it’s a welcome break .. ✨ 10/10 ..
There is a moment where Ignacius is looking at the great articles he wrote for magazines, and wonders why he never bothered to actually mail any of them in even once. Considering that the author published a few unsuccesfull books, and considering that one book he published posthumously just managed to win the pullitzer prize, I think that moment is very introspective, and that Ignacius is in part a comedic gross donquehotian (quixotic) distortion of how the author saw himself.
Audiobook: youtube.com/watch?v=iQudlUHN7hU&t=1497s PDF: 0ducks.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/john-kennedy-toole-a-confederacy-of-dunces.pdf Foreword (0:16) Chapter 1 (6:40) Chapter 2 (1:01:28) Chapter 3 (2:05:15) Chapter 4 (2:53:32) Chapter 5 (3:39:23) Chapter 6 (4:36:49) Chapter 7 (5:21:44) Chapter 8 (6:25:36) Chapter 9 (7:10:59) Chapter 10 (8:09:45) Chapter 11 (9:03:21) Chapter 12 (10:29:31) Chapter 13 (11:36:22) Chapter 14 (13:03:18)
Can you even IMAGINE how great a sequel would have been?! In Toole’s hands anything was possible. It is my understanding that Toole eventually taught literature at the university level for a short time and that his lectures were packed with people. Keep in mind he had not published this book and was not famous at the time. His lectures must have been better than the best stand-up comedy routines anywhere. I would have paid good money just to be able to listen to them through an open window. (EDIT) What breaks my heart more than anything is knowing that Toole, like Vincent Van Gogh, never lived to know how much their work would be loved and admired by later generations.
I just completed a 63 mile hike over the course of five days on the Appalachian Trail yesterday. Unexpectedly, I had a health issue that forced me to end my trip by one day. As I drove home crossing four States, I was tired & worried. A few stops to splash water on my face, a few bites to eat and this splendid audiobook insured that I stayed awake, laughing out loud several times. Thank you so much for uploading this amazing classic 🙏
I listened to this entire novel after having read it some years earlier. I find myself listening to it again. I have been having some trouble with my valve and the narrator, who is surely connected to Ignatius on some level as Fortuna herself could not have chosen a more perfect guide allows me to remove myself from any thoughts about my faltering internal organs and apparatus and smile at the prospect of once again spending time unburdening myself at a pace and duration that suits me. Now if I can only acquire an abundantly frosty Dr. Nut.
I’ve met the Ignatius J Reilly of our world, right down to the absurd Elmer Fudd hat and mother-son relationship. A swarthy, egg-like person with the same rotundity and deportment of the fictional character which is perhaps why he is the only one I know who doesn’t like the book. He won’t have it mentioned in earshot, and takes umbrage at any whiff of a resemblance.
While I can conceive that it might be possible to produce a film that is acceptable, it would remain inferior to the book for one primary reason: this is one of the few books where you actually laugh out loud at points. It’s the rare writer that can put together written words that way. I had to leave a Denny’s one morning when I was first reading it I was laughing so hard. I though they were going to call the police!
AAAAUGH! Great book. No doubt about that. But no sooner does the narrator talk about the similarity between accents of downtown New Orleans and Hoboken or Astoria, Long Island, than he launches into (presumably) the only Southern accent he knows, which is some sort of terrible Foghorn Leghorn. HOW is that like somebody from JERSEY? He’s butchering it with something like a south Georgia drawl. It is NOT the New Orleans accent that Toole intends, and it’s a crying shame. When the book is read to oneself, the accents may not be as critical. But when read aloud, these accents really deserve to be read properly by a native New Orleanian. This is a mistake made by the audiobook publisher in choosing this narrator. Here’s a sample of what these voices should sound like: youtube.com/watch?v=tpFDNTo4DNg
My GOD this book kills me! What talent the author had! I read the book years ago. And came across it on audio and I thought I’d listen to this comedy again! The narrator’s wonderful. I cannot believe that he destroyed himself it makes me wonder what became so bad that he had to do that. But what a great book
His Wikipedia bio is worth reading. Had a promising academic career until he was drafted. He did get much of this fine book written while a successful instructor in the army, and then taught at a university in New Orleans, but it seems he got depressed when this book was turned down. He was a witty much liked person at his universities and then his depression changed him.
I couldn’t get into this book at all, until the essay to the British history teacher. Now that I’ve just read up to that point, I understand why I couldn’t get into it. I remind myself too much of Ignatius!! And I haven’t finished the work yet, obviously, but I get the impression that if you remind yourself too much of Ignatius J. Riley, that might be on you–not on the rest of society lol.
I was told by an old Woman in 1993 in NY that this book was laugh out loud funny,riotious and a riproaring tale that l just had to read it before l die. I was reading Catcher in the Rye at the time and was actually laughing out loud reading it. It’s still one of my favourite books so 27 years later l have finally decided to take her advice and read ( listen) to this legendary book….2 hours in and l have yet to laugh once,i’ll stick with it though,so far it’s just ..O…K….But it ain’t no Catcher in the Rye.
Great book, good lifr lessons, but personaly i didnt like the fact that the autor was writing to much about Misses Reilly, Santa and that old man, they were pretty much talking about non sense and elderly stuff which its pointless .Overall a great book, Mr.Levy and Mancuso the only OGs and “inteligent” characters lmao
So took me about 90 minute and then I realized what I found insufferable this book: it’s vicious in a way that reminds me of Atlas Shrugged. See all you need to know is that our disgusting, slovenly, idiotic, deluded, gluttonous, pathetic protagonist is exactly all of those things. He is truly and sincerely a worthless human being when his talents (?) aren’t being bent towards actual destructive goals. Ignacious is as shit a person as has drawn breath and that’s all there is to him. That’s also all there is to his wheedling, whining, enabling mother. And that’s the joke. If you’re laughing you’re in good shape but I kept waiting for the fucking point to arrive. It’s not funny it’s voyeuristic; these people suck and are disgusting and poor and this is where Atlas Shrugged came to mind are so devoid of value that they aren’t even good for each other. That’s a real Rand-brand move, to have the “enemy” be so repugnant they even disgust each other and are only united in their greater hatred of …well in this book I don’t know who else since there are no “Herculean Industrialists” to idolize. And that’s my input. This is a hatchet job on people who don’t exist. I do not get it, and I am done with A Confederacy of Dunces.
The book is too good for this reading of the book…the book is such a colorful work of art – that takes place in one of the most colorful cities on planet Earth….and it’s read by a monotone bore. Read it on your own – or find a more enthusiastic reading. Dude literally ruined one of my favorite books lmaoo