Man wakes up physically transformed. Then what?
Kafka answers, in "The Metamorphosis," that his universe starts shrinking, then vanishes. (R.I.P., Gregor Samsa.) Gogol's, in "The Nose," is that it explodes, then settles back to normal. (Gesundheit, Collegiate Assessor Kovalyev!)
Shakespearean grandeur. Mozartean grace. Proustian memories. A Freudian slip. How come some culture heroes rate an adjective, while some do not? Really, there is no answer. Sometimes a proper adjective points to a quality that is pervasive, vague, and diffuse (Dickensian squalor), sometimes to a detail that is specific but hardly all-defining (Homeric epithets). Rarely, though, do opposing world views mirror each other so exactly. The Kafkaesque, the Gogolesque: two sides of a single coin. The grotesque.