Question about analepsis from The Eyre Affair

Cafe Society
1

There’s a bit from The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde that I’m not getting. And I’m sure it’s hilarious, so it’s troubling me.

The bit is: “What about Keens? He could handle something as big as this.”
“Milton’s no longer with us. Caught analepsy in the library at Parkhurst. Stone-cold dead in a fortnight.”

Now, several online dictionaries define analepsis as:
(a) Recovery of strength after sickness. (b) A species of epileptic attack, originating from gastric disorder.

I’m pretty sure there’s some connection that I’m not getting. Any help? I’d really like to laugh at this.

I’ve also tried googling Milton Keens, with no luck, although it did turn up an English town by that name.

2

If I were looking for a hidden joke in there, I’d fixate on the library as the place where the victim succumbed and infer a pun on “analepsis” of the narratological sort. That’s only because I ruined my mind with too much Joyce, though.

I think it’s more likely that it’s just to make the character out to be a bit of an ignorant ass.

3

I imagine the character was named after the town of Milton Keens, just as Ford Prefect (in HHGTTG) was named after a car,

4

Thanks, guys. When I google for analepsis AND narrative I get the flashback definition of analepsis. That makes sense. He was flashbacked to death, an ironic reversal of ‘recovery of strength’. I wonder why the online dictionaries didn’t include that usage.

And a lot of the characters have names that are puns, so that would fit, too. (Another character is Braxton Hicks. The main character is Thursday Next.)