When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him -Jonathan Swift With this epigraph, thus begins the novel A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. This particular confederacy is not formed in the antebellum American south, but rather in 1960's New Orleans and is in aforementioned confederacy against a one Ignatius Reilly. Though his name may spark images of fire and fury, Ignatius is about as far from fiery or impassioned as one can get. In essence, this slothful and selfish man and the wide range of characters that get sucked into his veritable whirlpool of influence stand to reflect the shortcomings of a very troubled man and his struggle to find security in his life. Though published in 1980, the actual manuscript for the novel was written over a decade before then, before Toole committed suicide in 1969. This is an interesting detail to note, as reading a character like Ignatius Reilly as a ...