- Diary of a Madman (short story)
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For other uses, see Diary of a Madman.
Diary of a Madman (1835; Russian: Записки сумасшедшего, Zapiski sumasshedshego) is a farcical short story by Nikolai Gogol. Along with The Overcoat and The Nose, Diary of a Madman is considered to be one of Gogol's greatest short stories. The tale centers on the life of a minor civil servant during the repressive era of Nicholas I. Following the format of a diary, the story shows the descent of the protagonist, Poprishchin, into insanity. Diary of a Madman, the only one of Gogol's works written in first person, follows diary-entry format.
Plot summary
Diary of a Madman centers on the life of Poprishchin, a low-ranking civil servant and titular counsellor who yearns to be noticed by a beautiful woman, the daughter of a senior official, with whom he has fallen in love. His diary records his gradual slide into insanity. As his madness deepens, he begins to suspect two dogs of having a love affair and believes he has discovered letters sent between them. Finally, he begins to believe himself to be the heir to the throne of Spain. When he is hauled off and maltreated in the asylum, the madman believes he is taking part in a strange coronation to the Spanish throne. Only in his madness does the lowly anti-hero attain greatness. As he said in his first sight of her, just after being a beast of a civil servant himself, “A footman opened the carriage door and out she fluttered, just like a little bird.”
The story satirizes the rampant petty officialdom of the bureaucracy in the 1830s in St Petersburg, and some have interpreted it as going beyond this to become an allegory about the political state of Russia at the time, revealing Gogol's view of the government from the standpoint of a lowly citizen. The story also portrays the average man's quest for individuality in a seemingly indifferent, urban city.
Adaptations
The short story has been adapted for the stage by David Holman, Geoffrey Rush and Neil Armfield for the Belvoir St Theatre in Sydney, Australia, and this production has also been presented at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in the United States.[1]
References
Works by Nikolai Gogol Novels Plays Short story
collectionsShort stories Preface to Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka · "The Fair at Sorochyntsi" · "St. John's Eve" · "May Night, or the Drowned Maiden" · "The Lost Letter: A Tale Told by the Sexton of the N...Church" · "Christmas Eve" · "A Terrible Vengeance" · "Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka and His Aunt" · "A Bewitched Place" · "The Old World Landowners" · "Taras Bulba" · "Viy" · "The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich" · "The Portrait" · "A Chapter from an Historical Novel" · "Nevsky Prospect" · "The Prisoner" · "Diary of a Madman" · "The Nose" · "The Carriage" · "The Overcoat"Poetry Ode to Italy · Hans KüchelgartenEssays "Woman" · Selected Passages from Correspondence with his Friends · Meditations on the Divine LiturgyCategories:- Short stories by Nikolai Gogol
- 1835 short stories
- Fictional diaries
- Story stubs
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