Diary of a Madman (1835) is a farcical short story that ranks with “The Overcoat” and “The Nose” as among Gogol’s best. The madman of the tale is a low-ranking Russian civil servant in the time of Nicholas I, Aksenty Ivanovich Poprishchin. An underachiever who yearns for power and dignity but lacks both competence and motivation, he is constantly and rightly belittled by the Section Chief. He responds with anger and resentment, is unhappy about his lot in life, frustrated at his inability to change, and envious of those who are better off, which is basically everybody. He has fallen in love with Sophie, the beautiful daughter of his boss, and yearns for her attention. Naturally, she finds him irritating and unattractive. It is no wonder that he becomes acutely alienated and must resort to illusions and delusions to invent an acceptable alternate reality. His diary records his gradual dissent into insanity. He hears and understands conversations between two dogs and believes he has discovered letters written between them, which reveal information about Sophie, such as her engagement to another man. Before long he is making entries with dates such as April 43, 2000; he has lost all sense of time. He believes he is heir to the throne of Spain, makes himself a Spanish royal uniform, and waits for Spanish deputies to arrive. By then, however, he believes Spain and China are the same country. The brilliance of the narrative is how Gogol compels us to surrender to Proprischin’s delusional world and feel that it is perfectly logical, given the circumstances. 

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