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Knight has taken the novel’s Gothic elements and smeared them over whatever was light or comical or ironical in the original.

“I don’t know if it’s ironical, or a blessing, but I had 20 years of experience being around disabled athletes, so I have an understanding of what’s going on,” he said.

“Puny and insignificant, you mean. You are dreaming, sir,—or you are sneering. For God’s sake, don’t be ironical!”

Adams became increasingly ironical in his observations on the impotence of individuals set against the relentless movement of history — a progress toward chaos, as he saw it.

"Say something ironical. Make some crack about Primo de Rivera."