Records of a madman

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Depiction of Poprishchins in a painting by Ilya Eefimowitsch Repin (1882)

Notes of a Madman ( Russian Записки сумасшедшего , Sapiski sumasschedschewo ) is a story in the form of diary entries by the Russian poet Nikolai Wassiljewitsch Gogol from 1835.

This work is one of the best known by Gogol (together with The Nose and The Coat ) and is also used as a reference by his Russian colleagues ( Fyodor Michailowitsch Dostojewski : Aufschriften aus dem Kellerloch ). In 1918, the Chinese writer Lu Xun published a short story inspired by Gogol's work entitled The Diary of a Madman .

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Oppressed and tormented at work and hopelessly in love, titular councilor Poprishchin takes refuge in his own world. The impression of a healthy person acquired at the beginning of the story is visibly transformed into the image of a hopeless dreamer and madman. While the initial fantasies only contain talking dogs, the protagonist falls into increasingly strong delusions as his illness progresses. He reads in the newspaper about the death of the Spanish King Ferdinand VII , who died without a male heir to the throne, and believes that he himself will be the next Spanish king.

Dating also begins to change dramatically as the disease increases. It changes from normal data, for example “4. October ”, to abstruse forms such as“ Date, year, February 349 ”.

Due to his illness, Poprishchin quits his job in the course of the story and finally proclaims pathetically, in the presence of others, that he is the King of Spain. Thereupon he is admitted to a mental hospital, which the protagonist believes to be the Inquisition , although this cannot be read out openly .

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