I learned a new word yesterday: "rodomontade."

It means: "A vainglorious brag or boast; an extravagantly boastful, arrogant, or bombastic speech or piece of writing... Extravagant boasting or bragging; bravado; boastful or bombastic language" (OED).

The word is based on the name Rodomonte — "a character in the Italian romantic epic poems Orlando innamorato by Matteo Maria Boiardo and Orlando furioso by Ludovico Ariosto" (Wikipedia).

Gustave Doré illustrates the character:

It's a useful word — "rodomontade" — don't you think? It's also spelled "rhodomontade," which is how I saw it, in the wonderful book I just started reading, "I Am a Cat" by Natsume Soseki:

[Asked “How many rats have you caught so far?”] I answered “Actually, though I’m always thinking of catching one, I’ve never yet caught any.”

Blacky laughed immoderately, quivering the long whiskers, which stuck out stiffly round his muzzle. Blacky, like all true braggarts, is somewhat weak in the head. As long as you purr and listen attentively, pretending to be impressed by his rhodomontade, he is a more or less manageable cat.

I had "I Am a Cat" in my Kindle ready to read when I finished "Kafka on the Shore," in which the main character reads and talks about Soseki (and in which there are a lot of talking cats)

According to Wikipedia, Soseki (1867-1916) is "becoming trendy" because he is Murakami's favorite author.