About

This Substack is dedicated to the exploration and annotation of the works of the American author Alexander Theroux. Therouviana aims to become a comprehensive resource for readers navigating the rich, challenging, and often encyclopedic prose of Theroux.

After I wrote my thesis on Intertextuality and Maximalism in Theroux’s Darconville’s Cat back in 2016, I thought that I would be finished with this novel for good. However, this proved to be wrong. I continue to return to the novel every few years, and the research notes I took while writing my thesis have bloomed into what you can now find in front of you.

My aim is an annotation that is as complete as possible, which might seem excessive. If I seem to ramble, please remember that not every annotation is of use to every reader - sometimes it’s about a single passage, a word misunderstood or difficult to find, a hidden link uncovered - which might interest you, or not. I believe that Theroux’s writing is, at it’s core, immensely funny and a worthwhile erudite endeavour, even without a guide. I have started reading Darconville’s Cat in my second year of university, and it continues to be a fountain of knowledge. And while Theroux himself proclaims that “there are only 2400 people in the world worth writing for” (in an interview with Steven Moore (1991): 33), I would love for his writing to reach a larger audience. Not an easy task! Let’s keep our fingers crossed for a reprint of the Cat.

The “dense web of allusions” within these pages is often too vast for a single set of eyes. I would like to extend a special note of gratitude to Walt Zalenski for his invaluable research and tireless philological detective work in identifying the recondite sources that anchor this project. I am also indebted to other readers whose comments and corrections have refined this analysis - many of them part of the Alexander Theroux Ville group on Goodreads. I owe a significant debt to Steven Moore for his peerless literary guidance and for being Theroux’s foremost champion. Most importantly, this work is a humble response to the creative fire of Alexander Theroux; without his relentless pursuit of the ‘Word’ and his incandescent contribution to American letters, this entire undertaking would remain a silent void.

I hope this resource is of use to you.

-- Sam Endrigkeit, 2025