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Diary of A Madman and Other Stories

by Nikolai Gogol, Andrew MacAndrew (Translator)

4.12 of 5 stars 4.12 · rating details · 3,915 ratings · 194 reviews

This 19th-century author created "some of the most colorful and haunting fiction of his century" (Kirkus Reviews). And with his special blend of comedy, social commentary, and fantasy, he paved the way for Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky.

Paperback, 80 pages

Published January 1st 1961 by Signet Classics (first published 1835)

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Apr 18, 2012 Prashant rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: e-book

This is the second Gogol that I read and it's so so so much fun to live in his world.

If The Overcoat had the poise and permanence of a man who understands the tribulations of his fellow human being, in this one Gogol sits in the mind of a madman to make us understand the thinking process of the person behind the facade.

The story is the journey of a man from the normal state of search of his place in this world to the extreme of delusion and confusion leading to madness.

The craving to be wanted...more

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Mar 02, 2007 Bahman rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

اگر داستان کوتاه دوست دارید، اگر ادبیات روسیه را دوست دارید، اگر چخوف دوست دارید و هزار تا اگر دیگر:
یادداشت‌های یک دیوانه را از دست ندهید.
راستش مطمئن نیستم که قبلاً این کتاب را این‌جا معرفی نکرده‌ام. اگر تکراری است، شرمنده.
یادداشت‌های یک دیوانه مجموعه داستانی است از نیکلای گوگول، نویسنده روس که از ۱۸۰۹ تا ۱۸۵۲ زندگی کرده. یعنی کاملاً قبل از بزرگان ادبیات روسیه مثل داستایفسکی و تولستوی، تورگنیف و چخوف. می‌گویند همه این نویسندگان و اساساً بیشتر نویسندگان روس بعد از گوگول تحت تأثیر او بوده‌اند. تور...more اگر داستان کوتاه دوست دارید، اگر ادبیات روسیه را دوست دارید، اگر چخوف دوست دارید و هزار تا اگر دیگر:
یادداشت‌های یک دیوانه را از دست ندهید.
راستش مطمئن نیستم که قبلاً این کتاب را این‌جا معرفی نکرده‌ام. اگر تکراری است، شرمنده.
یادداشت‌های یک دیوانه مجموعه داستانی است از نیکلای گوگول، نویسنده روس که از ۱۸۰۹ تا ۱۸۵۲ زندگی کرده. یعنی کاملاً قبل از بزرگان ادبیات روسیه مثل داستایفسکی و تولستوی، تورگنیف و چخوف. می‌گویند همه این نویسندگان و اساساً بیشتر نویسندگان روس بعد از گوگول تحت تأثیر او بوده‌اند. تورگنیف گفته: «همه ما از زیر شنل گوگول بیرون آمده‌ایم» و شنل نام یکی از مشهورترین داستان‌های کوتاه گوگول است.
در این کتاب ۸ تا از مهم‌ترین داستان‌های کوتاه گوگول چاپ شده. از جمله شنل، دماغ، بلوار نیفسکی و یادداشت‌های یک دیوانه.
کتاب را خشایار دیهیمی در سال ۱۳۶۳ ترجمه کرده و ظاهراً اولین کار (و یا یکی از اولین کارهای) اوست. این کتاب در سال ۱۳۸۱ برای دومین بار و این بار بوسیه نشر نی چاپ شد و در این چهار سال -اگر اشتباه نکنم- شش بار تجدید چاپ شده است.
یک نوع طنز سیاه خاص روسی در داستان‌های گوگول هست که واقعاً جذاب و تأثیرگذارشان می‌کند. خواندن این کتاب را جداً توصیه می‌کنم.

یادداشت‌های یک دیوانه و هفت قصه دیگر
نیکلای گوگول
مترجم: خشایار دیهیمی
نشر نی
۳۰۴ ص
قیمت چاپ جدیدش را نمی‌دانم ولی قاعدتاً زیر ۳۰۰۰ تومان است(less)

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Aug 21, 2011 Gloria Mundi rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: anti-hero-es, insane-in-the-membrane, russian, short-stories, unreliable-narrator, i-think-this-is-funny, social-commentary, humorous

The Diary of a Madman is a short story about a man's descent into madness. The hero, Poprishchin, is a middle aged minor civil servant obsessed with Sophie, the young and beautiful daughter of his boss, a senior official who stands on a much higher rank of the social ladder. As he begins to slide into insanity, the hero believes that he can hear a conversation between Madgie, Sophie's dog, and another dog and later steals letters written by Madgie to the other dog. The extracts from these letter...more

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Jul 12, 2007 Namrirru rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: russian

This book forever changed my view of little dogs.

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Aug 04, 2011 Jacob Aitken added it · review of another edition

Where Russian authors are concerned Gogol often is overshadowed by Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. While Dostoevsky is still the Master, Gogol is a better storyteller. While Tolstoy powerfully captures the human dimension, Gogol has a tighter grip on his narrative. Gogol's outlook is tough to pin down. While he is a Petersburg urbanite, he knows that the Masonic civilization a la Peter the Great is an imposition of matter upon reality. The true life is found in hearth, home, and (as in the case of the C...more Where Russian authors are concerned Gogol often is overshadowed by Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. While Dostoevsky is still the Master, Gogol is a better storyteller. While Tolstoy powerfully captures the human dimension, Gogol has a tighter grip on his narrative. Gogol's outlook is tough to pin down. While he is a Petersburg urbanite, he knows that the Masonic civilization a la Peter the Great is an imposition of matter upon reality. The true life is found in hearth, home, and (as in the case of the Cossacks) on horse.

In "Diary of a Madman" Gogol exposes our vain pretensions. Yes, the story is silly and absurd. The man is a bureacrat (and note how similar government workers are in every society). His job is a joke. He does nothing but drain the resources of society (like the US Congress). And he knows it. And the audience knows it.

The book climaxes in "Taras Bulba." This makes readers uncomfortable on many levels. 1) Gogol praises Russian Orthodoxy. 2) Gogol describes the brutalities commited by the Cossacks. 3) Gogol has the Cossacks as the good guys. What do we make of this? Gogol does not justify the Cossacks' brutality, but the question looms in the background: which is worse--waging a defensive (albeit very brutal) war in defense of your home and to keep your churches from being desecrated OR to destroy the lives of thousands from a government office in the capital city, divorced from the hard and painful realities of human life? Gogol is not merely writing a short story about Ukrainian nationalism, but he is showing two types of barbarity--cold, heartless bureacracy and heated, contextualized warfare. Which is worse, then? That question is getting harder to answer (the situation could easily be the NATO officials in the Balkans in 1999 and the Serbs fighting a savage war defending their people against Muslims, but I digress).

Given the question, the Cossacks' actions take on a more meaningful role (and accordingly, the government bureacracy is delegitimized). On another level, Gogol may very well have solved the problem of different types of nationalisms working together despite themselves. These Cossacks are not Russian, but Ukrainian, but as Bulba is burned alive he shouts his faith in Christ and in the Russian Tsar. One realizes that a stronger country like Russia should protect and nurture Ukrainian nationalism but never force the Ukrainians to become Russians. In short, Gogol is hinting at a Slavic federation which sees Russia as its leader (simply out of necessity).(less)

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May 03, 2013 Jenny Devildoll rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classic-lit, fiction, mental-health, social-satire

The story "Diary Of A Madman" is sometimes referred to as humorous and indeed there is comedy here--the protagonist's imagined conversations between dogs, or his pomp about his station in the same rigid social structure that seems to also contribute to his agitations. Still, the ending of this short story is to me rather heartbreaking, a chilling reminder of how the mentally ill were once treated(and abuses still exist.) In a similar vein was the story "The Overcoat", detailing the alienation of...more

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Apr 16, 2013 Hiroshi Tomita rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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May 09, 2012 Salomé rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Wenn Thomas Mann einst sagte, dass „seit Gogol die russische Literatur komisch“ sei, so herrschte entweder damals ein anderes Verständnis von Komik vor, oder die Auswahl der beiden Geschichten war nicht wirklich komisch. Oder es liegt schlichtweg an mir.

Die erste Erzählung um den irren Poprischtschin war sehr interessant und spannend. Besonders der Schreibstil, der sich im Laufe der Aufzeichnungen noch gravierend ändern wird, war hochspannend und unterstrich eine beklemmende Atmosphäre.
Auch wenn...more Wenn Thomas Mann einst sagte, dass „seit Gogol die russische Literatur komisch“ sei, so herrschte entweder damals ein anderes Verständnis von Komik vor, oder die Auswahl der beiden Geschichten war nicht wirklich komisch. Oder es liegt schlichtweg an mir.

Die erste Erzählung um den irren Poprischtschin war sehr interessant und spannend. Besonders der Schreibstil, der sich im Laufe der Aufzeichnungen noch gravierend ändern wird, war hochspannend und unterstrich eine beklemmende Atmosphäre.
Auch wenn anfangs die Schilderungen noch komisch waren, wenn der Titularrat völlig überzeugend von sprechenden, sich untereinander Briefe schreibenden Hunden erzählt, schlug das doch spätestens ab der Hälfte um und ich fühlte mich eher traurig, wenn ich die Berichte um seinen Irrenhausaufenthalt las, die er anfänglich für einen Königspalast und später, als man ihn quälte, um seinen Geist wieder zu „normalisieren“, für ein Inquisitionsgericht hielt. Unterstrichen wurde dies auch durch den Textcharakter, in dem die Erzählung wie Tagebucheinträge aufgebaut ist, wodurch ich als Leser Einsicht in die innere, zerrüttete Gefühlswelt des Protagonisten nehmen konnte.
Die Geschichte ist sehr kurzweilig und wenig umfangreich, allerdings beginnt sie auch sehr abrupt ohne großartige Einleitungen. Schon am Anfang wird der Leser mit dem beginnend einsetzenden Wahnsinn konfrontiert. Es ist aber sehr fesselnd, Poprischtschin zu folgen und selbst zu rätseln, was er wohl mit seinen Äußerungen gesehen oder gemeint haben könnte und was er wirklich erlebte. Besonders gut umgesetzt fand ich, wie schon gesagt, die totale Zäsur in seinem Wahnsinn – der Punkt, an dem er von der verzerrten, aber noch halbwegs realistischen gesehenen Weltansicht in den totalen Irrsinn abgleitet.

Soweit also eine wirklich gelungene Erzählung, die ich auch sehr gern las.
Mit der Geschichte um das Newski-Prospekt konnte ich dagegen nicht wirklich viel beginnen. Im Vergleich zu den „Aufzeichnungen eines Wahnsinnigen“ haben wir hier eher eine nüchterne, distanzierte Schilderung der mondänen Scheinwelt, die sich auf dem beliebten Boulevard, dem Newski-Prospekt in St. Petersburg, zu treffen pflegt.
Zuerst bekommt der Leser eine minutiöse Schilderung aller auf dem Propsekt vertretenen Personenkreisen, die sich in meinen Augen doch als etwas zu gedehnt herausstellte und schlussendlich für die Geschichte, außer der Verdeutlichung einer Scheinwelt, keinen weiteren Nutzen hatte.

Die in sich geteilten Schilderungen um die Schicksale der beiden Männer, die dieser Scheinwelt verfallen, waren da schon interessanter zu lesen und auch nachfühlbar gestaltet. Es war berührend, mit anzusehen, wie sich diese Männer, in der Hoffnung, auf das Schöne, Mondäne und Glanzvolle zu stoßen, verführen ließen und am Ende doch schmerzvoll erkennen mussten, dass sie von dem Schein der schönen Welt getäuscht wurden. Wenn man über die detaillierten und doch etwas zähen Beschreibungen hinweggekommen ist und sich in die zwei Geschichte der beiden Männer begibt, wird es spannend und auch leicht und flüssig lesbar, da man gern erfahren möchte, ob die Männer nun doch noch den Schein der schönen Welt einfangen können.

Alles in allem ein unterhaltsames, sehr kurzweiliges Buch, das man durchaus an einem Abend durchschmökern kann. Allerdings hinterließen nur die „Aufzeichnungen eines Wahnsinnigen“ wirklich einen bleibenden Eindruck bei mir, das „Newski-Prospekt“ konnte mich nicht ganz überzeugen.(less)

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Aug 04, 2011 Greer rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

'The Overcoat' is one of the most beautiful Russian stories of all time, or so I believe anyway. Akaky Akakych still haunts me, and whenever I think of him it's like every sympathetic, maternal bone in my body just spasms. He was so adorably insulated and sweet and pathetic, with the enjoyment he took from copying... he would get home from work as a copyer, just to delight in copying some more for leisure. That alone was touching in that sad kind of way, and made me feel sort of protective over...more

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May 09, 2011 Amandine rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 19e-siècle, nouvelles-et-courts-récits

Le journal d'un fou: plutôt décevant, bien que réussi. Le titre me plaisait beaucoup et me semblait prometteur, mais le récit ne fut pas à la hauteur de mes attentes. La forme du journal était une bonne idée pour aborder le thème de la folie, mais certaines parties ne correspondaient pas à ce genre selon moi: les lettres du chien par exemple étaient retranscrites, ce qu'on ne fait généralement pas dans un journal selon moi. Bien que pas très bien exploitée, l'idée était bonne et montrait vraimen...more

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Apr 24, 2011 The Flooze rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: anthology-shorties, lit-fiction, vanquished_2011

I managed four of the five stories of this collection. Unfortunately, the last was so tedious and silly my patience utterly failed me and I couldn’t bear to read another.

Gogol’s Diary of a Madman is the starting point. Written at first in a conversational tone, it allows for easy entry into the mind of the narrator. He is a shabby man, desirous of acknowledgement, and supposes those around him jealous of the time he spends in the Director’s office sharpening quills.

Yes, quills.

It seems in the...more

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Sep 08, 2009 blake rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature-classic

Surprising and refreshing given my experience with other Russian writers. Gogol's stories are contrastingly light and comic, and his intrusive narration sometimes hilarious. His close to "The Nose," a completely absurd tale about a man losing and then finding his nose (which in the meantime has been disguising itself as a government official), made me laugh out loud:

. . . I cannot understand. It's absolutely beyond me. But strangest of all, the most incomprehensible thing, is that there are au

...more Surprising and refreshing given my experience with other Russian writers. Gogol's stories are contrastingly light and comic, and his intrusive narration sometimes hilarious. His close to "The Nose," a completely absurd tale about a man losing and then finding his nose (which in the meantime has been disguising itself as a government official), made me laugh out loud:

. . . I cannot understand. It's absolutely beyond me. But strangest of all, the most incomprehensible thing, is that there are authors who can choose such subjects to write about. This, I confess, is completely inexplicable. It's like. . . no, no, I can't understand it at all. In the first place, there is absolutely no advantage in it for our mother country. Secondly. . . well, what advantage is there in it at all? I simply cannot understand what it is. . .
However, when all is said and done, and although, of course, we conceive the possibility, one and the other, and maybe even. . . Well, but then what exists without consistencies? And still, if you give it a thought, there is something to it. Whatever you may say, such things do happen-- seldom, but they do.

"The Diary of a Madman" was intersting in its description of the rise of a man's insanity, and it was much funnier and more readable than something like Dostoyevsky's Notes from the Underground. "The Overcoat" is justifiably famous, and Gogol displays a gift for creating an incredibly sympathetic main character, however pathetic.

In all of the shorter stories, you see the typical characterization of Russian bureacracy and society as some huge immovable force, with ridiculous stratification and labrynthine channels for gaining an audience of a Very Important Personage. It struck me as trite until I realized that Gogol was writing before any other famous Russian writer, about 50 years before Dostoyevsky if I'm not mistaken. Also, it gave me the idea that if Russian society was so bureacratized and regimented in the 1830s, it's no wonder that Leninist and then Stalinist communism failed so spectacularly. There was never a chance in a society that has historically awarded social status based on whether one was an 8th or 7th level government clerk.

Gogol's St. Petersburg stories aside, the inclusion of the novela "Taras Bulba" at the end of the collection is masterful. After reading the short, whimsical exercises, I was astounded at the epic scope of the historical fiction of the Ukrainian Cossacks. While still retaining some occasional satiric jabs (whether at the Church, the Motherland, the "barbarians" themselves, or the Poles), and despite his blatant anti-semitism, Gogol nevertheless proves here an incredible range, able to move seamlessly from broad comedy to epic adventure.

Overall, I was very pleasantly surprised by this collection, my introduction to Gogol. I look forward to reading Dead Souls sooner rather than later.(less)

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Oct 02, 2009 Kebrit !!! rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

تاکنون هیچ کس نفهمیده است زن‏ها عاشق چه‏کسی هستند. من اولین کسی هستم که این معما را حل می‏کنم: عاشق شیطان‏اند. شوخی نمی‏کنم. با این‏که دکتر ها مدام چرند می‏بافند که زن‏ها چنین‏اند و چنان‏اند، حقیقت این است که زن‏ها عاشق شیطان هستند و نه هیچ کس دیگر. آن زنک را که در ردیف اول تیاتر نشسته و عینکی به دست دارد، می‏بینید؟ فکر می‏کنید به آن مردک چاق که مدالی روی سینه‏اش دارد نگاه می‏کند؟ نه، به عکس، به شیطانی که پشت سرش ایستاده است نگاه می‏کند. حالا آن شیطان خودش را پشت مدال مرد پنهان کرده و دارد با اش...more

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Sep 15, 2008 Ian Schenck rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is just simply excellent,

His stories really strike a chord with me. While I have given up on most impressionistic art out of boredom, Gogol's writing has been described as impressionistic, and I couldn't agree more. He paints landscapes as impressions, leaving much to the imagination, avoiding bogging down the reader but also bringing in an element of description and imagery that often-times drove me away from certain other authors.

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Oct 30, 2012 Hugo Emanuel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, owned

I had never read Gogol but after reading this collection, I became an absolut fan. It contains one short story from the collection "Evenings On a Farm Near Dikanka", one from "Mirgorod" collection and 6 from the editorial cycle "Tales of St. Petersburg. The latter are absolutly magnificent, as is the play "the Goverment Inspector". This collection's only flaw is that it does not include "The Portrait"(from the Petersburg cycle), but it remains however an amazing introduction to Gogol's work. Aft...more

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Jan 09, 2011 Anil rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature, classics, russian

You know what,I think the decision of making up with books in 2011 is probably one of my best decisions in my entire life. And it is a good start for me,I guess.

The second book of 2011 for me was kinda complicated for me.I mean,I was a little afraid when I got a glimpse of the book cover.I am not good at with Russian literature although it is obviously one of the most recognized literatures in the world.But when I see the thickness of the books and dense of the expression,it is not hard me to fo...more You know what,I think the decision of making up with books in 2011 is probably one of my best decisions in my entire life. And it is a good start for me,I guess.

The second book of 2011 for me was kinda complicated for me.I mean,I was a little afraid when I got a glimpse of the book cover.I am not good at with Russian literature although it is obviously one of the most recognized literatures in the world.But when I see the thickness of the books and dense of the expression,it is not hard me to foresee about thinking like "Oh God,I probably won't be able to finish that book." And there is also the fact I am going to read the stories of father of Dostoyevsky,Cehov and Tolstoy in the literatual way.

I started to read the book with this prejudice.And one note;actually I didn't read that Dover edition,it was a Turkish edition so contextually they are different books.There were 6 short stories including "Nevsky Prospect","The Nose","The Portrait","The Overcoat","Diary of a Madman" and "The Carriage",therefore my edition actually has 220 pages.(Its full name can be translated as "Petersburg Tales and The Carriage")

Gogol has known "the father of Realism in Russian literature". He usually chooses the plot from the daily Russian life,his street descriptions (Nevsky Prospekt has a good example itself) show how strong sight he has. His St. Petersburg Tales protagonists are mostly officer members from the Russian bureaucracy (The Overcoat,The Nose,Diary of a Madman) and we can also see that Gogol has an interest and knowledge about painters. (The Portrait,Nevsky Prospekt) In this tales,he likes to mention about the relationships between the social classes and hierarchies. How the human nature reacts when fame or ranks are earned is depicted skillfully,it sometimes makes the reader smile (The Nose) or ends with a tragic one. (The Portrait)

Gogol's light and humoristic expression aside,I think Gogol's major success is his absolute skill about putting absurdism into realism. If you think about it,the success rate is kinda low,when you read something like that,you'd probably say "What the hell was written in here?" so you'd find it weird. But Gogol overcomes this problem and gives a great example,my favourite tale called "The Nose." My top three is like that :

1.The Nose
2.The Overcoat
3.The Portrait

Among these stories,I found "The Carriage" is the weakest one among them. If it wasn't in the book, it would be better,or if I was the editor,I wouldn't add that story into the book.

Anyway I'm glad that I read that book and I can clearly say that Gogol becomes one of my favourite writers.(less)

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Aug 06, 2011 Sooz rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

so having read all but Taras Bulba - which has a much different flavour to it than stories like The Nose and The Overcoat - i decided to begin my review now. while reading these stories, i have been reading a collection of modern Russian stories called Moscow Noir. i've really enjoyed the mingling of the classic tales from the first half of the 19th century with the modern-day authors of the Noir collection.

Gogol himself perfectly sums up the theme of his short stories in The Nose: 'Perfect non...more

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Mar 19, 2012 C. Hollis Crossman rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It's the last story in this volume, a novella called Taras Bulba, that I really love. I remember the others were funny, and not much else.

Taras Bulba is about two Cossack brothers who go to war against Poland with their comrades. It's not really much more than historical romance, but the ending is one of the finest in literature.

None of these stories capture the scope and grandeur of Gogol's Dead Souls, about the plight of the Russian serfs, but they're all immensely smart and entertaining; Tara...more

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Aug 14, 2012 Diane rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This compilation of stories is an absolutely phenomenal introduction to Gogol and his writing. He is often presented as the Russian Mark Twain and with his dry humor and commentary on, mostly, Petersburg lifestyle, the analogy is not far off. Many other Russian writers took inspiration from Gogol and his wildly interesting stories and he is still influencing writers and readers to this day.

"The Diary of a Madman" is the first story that we are presented that watches the gradual disintegration of...more

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Aug 26, 2008 EvilNick rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: other-fiction

A lot of people think that Gogol is a master of mixing the everyday with the absurd - a subtle kink of the credible incredible. These people are the ones that are mad. What Gogol knows is that the reality of the everyday is absurd.
I would write more, but I am expecting a delegation from Spain...

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Dec 23, 2012 Marie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a collection of five long-ish stories. The first, "The Nose" if not the longest felt the longest. It's always hard to read humor in translation. Gogol seems to be an absurdist mostly. "Something weird happened! Why? I've no idea!" is the gist of a lot of passages. Of the stories, I liked "The Overcoat" for its sympathetic portrayal of an absurdly unassuming protagonist. I really felt for him and wanted more for him than the brief, bright love of an Overcoat, which of course, underscores...more

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Jan 10, 2010 Modern Hermeneut rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

These outlandish tales betray a strain of madness that ever-so-slightly exceeds the author's conscious intentions. It's as though Gogol's grotesque marionettes have managed to infect the puppeteer himself with their maniacal plots and schemes.

Of course, we should expect nothing less from a writer who ultimately burned all his writings and starved himself to death.
----------------------------------------------

Two random things I learned from this book:

1.) There were fourteen ranks in the civil se...more

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Aug 14, 2011 Benjamin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

19th Century Literature - you never really know what you are going to get into. Usually, I'm not the biggest fan. This is a collection of five short stories by Gogol. The last two stories were good enough, but the first three (Diary of a Madman, The Nose & The Overcoat) are terrific. Thoroughly entertaining, and Gogol undermines the expectations of the reader in so many small, clever ways. The Nose comes across as a particularly demented dream sequence, the type you have when you have someth...more

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Jan 10, 2012 Asli rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: russian-literature, short-stories

If you’re one of those folks who asks the question “can this really happen?” while you read, then I don’t recommend this book...

But if you like “weird” and “unconventional”, like a nose that one day decides to detach itself from the face and decides to live its own life, or a madman who can hear dogs talking and can read their letters to each other, then this might be the book for you.

If you can let go of the idea that these stories aren’t meant to be read as “possible things which may occur i...more

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Jul 14, 2009 Jaena Rae rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Solid group of short stories.

"Diary of a Madman"- Not my favorite of the three stories, but definitely a fascinating read. Although, the characterization of the clerk didn't help me feel much for him. The clerk's diary turned out to be fairly dry.

"The Nevski Prospect"- This was initially a bit confusing for me. I wasn't sure where the narrative was going, and eventually it branched into two stories that had the same beginning, but decidedly different endings. I enjoyed the painter's story the mo...more

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Aug 12, 2007 Jacob rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

Gogol's two most well-known stories, "The Nose" and "The Overcoat," might be my two most favorite stories by any author.

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Apr 09, 2008 Stella C rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Bureaucracy is truly hilarious, even after translation and time. The Nose was one of my favorites.

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Feb 18, 2013 Mike rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Nikolai Gogol is considered one of the first modernist writers. He uses fantasy and the absurd to portray pre-communist Russian society in which moving between one social strata to the next is nearly impossible. His most famous stories are "The Diary of a Madman," "The Nose," and "The Overcoat," all in this collection. His most famous novel is Dead Souls which portrays serfdom at a time in Russia when serfdom was losing its grip.

Gogol is very entertaining and, if you teach literature, will cause...more

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Sep 12, 2012 Tim Allen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Whilst studying drama at school as an 18 year old, my class adapted Diary of a Madman for a theatre project. We created a distinctly modernist style to the production and as a young man, it really helped me gain a greater understanding of the history of the arts. When I read the story, I was affected by the futility and boredom of the main character's featureless job. In his own mind he feels he is better than the life that fate has dealt him - he should be destined for greater things. This fuel...more

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May 15, 2013 James rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: i-own-a-copy, anthology, foreign, read-in-2013, read-in-teenties, 5-stars, father-improves-me, reviewed

I never really thought of myself as a 'Russian Literature' kind of guy. But this was another one of those books that my father bought me, during my university years, when he was, I assume, trying to improve me (I have since realised that this was a regular enough occurrence to create a shelf, father-improves-me, to immortalise the collection). Obviously, my university years are behind me now by some way, so I figure I've put reading this one off for long enough.

I came to Gogol's Diary of a Mada...more I never really thought of myself as a 'Russian Literature' kind of guy. But this was another one of those books that my father bought me, during my university years, when he was, I assume, trying to improve me (I have since realised that this was a regular enough occurrence to create a shelf, father-improves-me, to immortalise the collection). Obviously, my university years are behind me now by some way, so I figure I've put reading this one off for long enough.

I came to Gogol's Diary of a Madam and Other Stories with absolutely no idea what to expect. In fact, I hadn't even really considered that the title implied a short-story collection rather than a novel until I picked the book up to read it. I had however assumed that Russian meant heavy, dense writing, but instead I was in for a shock. The stories were simple, everyday ideas, almost folksy; given a witty narration and light on heaviness. The style felt almost British to me (like we're the only nation who do wit). Maybe the translator, Ronald Wilks, brings more to the stories than he gets credit for?

The collection comprises five shorter stories, and it opens with the good stuff. Diary of a Madman is definitely the story that brings the five stars for this book. It is told through the diary entries of a lowly civil servant as he descends into madness and over-imagination – he falls in love with his boss's daughter; reads letters written by her dog; and realises that he's next in line to the recently vacated throne of Spain. Again, my test of any awesome book is that I need to read bits out to people nearby (in a moment of serendipity this time it was my father) and while the later stories didn't quite pass that test, Diary of a Madman did in spades.

The collection continues with The Nose the story of a man who wakes up one morning missing his nose. As something of a cocksman, his nose is suggested to be a metaphor for his more sensitive area, but it seemed more to me to be a deliberately ridiculous and pointless story, one that he could use to cock a snoot at the censors of the day, suggesting that there is nothing left worth writing about if all literature is to be censored. The Overcoat is another one of Gogol's more famous stories, and is the tale of an inconsequential civil servant who saves for a new overcoat. While mocked for the old overcoat, the new one makes him popular. The story seemed a little too long in the build up, although I wondered if that was deliberate to drag out the tension. The last two stories, How Ivan Ivanovich Quarrelled with Ivan Nikiforovich and Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka and His Aunt were amusing, but didn't feel up to the standards of the first three. Maybe Gogol's more at home with stories of nobody civil servants that he is with more middle-class landowners.

All the stories are of everyday folk and strange personalities. Gogol seems to have something of a preoccupation with civil servants, noses, geese and overcoats, as each of these items feature in multiple stories. Also, all the stories feature some narration which breaks the fourth wall. Gogol is telling us the story, but it's also a conversation with us as well.(less)

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About Nikolai Gogol

Gogol (Николай Николай Гоголь) was born in the Ukrainian Cossack village of Sorochyntsi, in Poltava Governorate of the Russian Empire, present-day Ukraine. His mother was a descendant of Polish nobility. His father Vasily Gogol-Yanovsky, a descendant of Ukrainian Cossacks, belonged to the petty gentry, wrote poetry in Russian and Ukrainian, and was an amateur Ukrainian-language playwright who died...more Gogol (Николай Николай Гоголь) was born in the Ukrainian Cossack village of Sorochyntsi, in Poltava Governorate of the Russian Empire, present-day Ukraine. His mother was a descendant of Polish nobility. His father Vasily Gogol-Yanovsky, a descendant of Ukrainian Cossacks, belonged to the petty gentry, wrote poetry in Russian and Ukrainian, and was an amateur Ukrainian-language playwright who died when Gogol was 15 years old.

In 1820 Gogol went to a school of higher art in Nizhyn and remained there until 1828. It was there that he began writing. Very early he developed a dark and secretive disposition, marked by a painful self-consciousness and boundless ambition. Equally early he developed an extraordinary talent for mimicry which later on made him a matchless reader of his own works.

In 1828, on leaving school, Gogol came to Petersburg. He had hoped for literary fame and brought with him a Romantic poem of German idyllic life – Ganz Küchelgarten. He had it published, at his own expense, under the name of "V. Alov." The magazines he sent it to almost universally derided it. He bought all the copies and destroyed them, swearing never to write poetry again.

Gogol was one of the first masters of the short story, alongside Alexander Pushkin, Prosper Mérimée, E. T. A. Hoffmann, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. He was in touch with the "literary aristocracy", and was taken up by Vasily Zhukovsky and Pyotr Pletnyov, and (in 1831) was introduced to Pushkin.

In 1831, he brought out the first volume of his Ukrainian stories (Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka), which met with immediate success. He followed it in 1832 with a second volume, and in 1835 by two volumes of stories entitled Mirgorod, as well as by two volumes of miscellaneous prose entitled Arabesques. At this time, Gogol developed a passion for Ukrainian history and tried to obtain an appointment to the history department at Kiev University. His fictional story Taras Bulba, based on the history of Ukrainian cossacks, was the result of this phase in his interests.

Between 1832 and 1836 Gogol worked with great energy, though almost all his work has in one way or another its sources in his four years of contact with Pushkin. Only after the presentation, on 19 April 1836, of his comedy The Government Inspector (Revizor) that he finally came to believe in his literary vocation.

From 1836 to 1848 he lived abroad, travelling throughout Germany and Switzerland, as well as spending the winter of 1836–1837 in Paris.

Pushkin's death produced a strong impression on Gogol. His principal work during years following Pushkin's death was the satirical epic Dead Souls. Concurrently, he worked at other tasks – recast Taras Bulba and The Portrait, completed his second comedy, Marriage (Zhenitba), wrote the fragment Rome and his most famous short story, The Overcoat.

After the triumph of Dead Souls, Gogol came to be regarded as a great satirist who lampooned the unseemly sides of Imperial Russia. However, Dead Souls was but the first part of a counterpart to The Divine Comedy. The first part represented the Inferno; the second part was to depict the gradual purification and transformation of the rogue Chichikov under the influence of virtuous publicans and governors – Purgatory.

His last years were spent in restless movement throughout the country. He intensified his relationship with a church elder, Matvey Konstantinovsky. He seems to have strengthened in Gogol the fear of perdition by insisting on the sinfulness of all his imaginative work. His health was undermined by exaggerated ascetic practices and he fell into a state of deep depression. On the night of 24 February 1852, he burned some of his manuscripts, which contained most of the second part of Dead Souls. He explained this as a mistake, a practical joke played on him by the Devil. Soon thereafter he(less)

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“They don’t listen to me, they don’t hear me, they don’t see me.” — 28 people liked it

“Der Mond wird doch gewöhnlich in Hamburg hergestellt, und zwar sehr nachlässig. Ich wundere mich, dass England dem keine Aufmerksamkeit schenkt. Ein lahmer Böttcher stellt ihn her, und der Dummkopf hat offenbar keine Ahnung vom Mond. Er nimmt geteertes Tauwerk und einen Teil Baumöl, und davon verbreitet sich über die Erde entsetzlicher Gestank, so dass man die Nase zustopfen muss. Und daher ist der Mond eine so zerbrechliche Kugel, auf der kein Mensch leben kann, auf der nur Nasen leben. Und deshalb können wir unsere Nasen selber nicht sehen, weil sie sich auf dem Mond befinden.” — 2 people liked it

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