Which 1981 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by John Kennedy Toole follows Ignatius J. Reilly in New Orleans?

John Kennedy Toole’s 1981 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is A Confederacy of Dunces.

Set mainly in New Orleans, the comic novel follows Ignatius J. Reilly, an educated but eccentric man whose grand theories and refusal to work repeatedly cause trouble for his mother and the people around him.

The novel is known for its vivid New Orleans setting, broad satire, and distinctive central character. Its title comes from a Jonathan Swift quotation: “When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that all the dunces are in confederacy against him.”

Toole died in 1969, and the novel was published in 1980 after his mother brought the manuscript to writer Walker Percy. The book won the Pulitzer Prize posthumously in 1981.