Italo Svevo Leopold Bloom, the protagonist of Joyce's seminal novel "Ulysses". "Confessions of Zeno" never looks outside the narrow confines of Trieste, much like Joyce's work, which rarely left Dublin in the last years of Ireland's time as part of the United Kingdom. Svevo brings a keenly sardonic wit to his observations of Trieste and, in particular, to his hero, an indifferent man who cheats on his wife, lies to his psychoanalyst and is trying to explain himself to his psychoanalyst by revisiting his memories. There is a final connection between Svevo and the character Cosini. Cosini sought psychoanalysis, he said, in
Races and creatures in His Dark Materials Gallivespians are Lord Roke, commander of the spies in Lord Asriel's Adamant Tower, the central fortress for the rebellion, and Madame Oxentiel, who succeeds to Lord Roke's position after his death. The name "Gallivespian" echoes that of the gall wasp. The word gall means both an abnormal outgrowth and is a synonym for impudence or bile, whilst "vespa" is Latin for "wasp". The name also recalls the protagonist of "Gulliver's Travels", who encounters a world of tiny people. Cliff-ghasts are the more prominent type of ghasts in "His Dark Materials". Since many of the characters grow up in the same