- Mass Market Paperback: 192 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Classic; Reprint edition (Jan 1 1972)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0140442731
- ISBN-13: 978-0140442731
- Product Dimensions: 17.8 x 10.9 x 1.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 113 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #2,129,755 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
Book Description
Illuminates the Russian writer's thoughts on madness, bureaucracy, and illusion in these five tales.
About the Author
Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol was born in 1809; his family were small gentry of Ukrainian cossack extraction, and his father was the author of a number of plays based on Ukrainian popular tales. He attended school in Nézhin and gained a reputation for his theatrical abilities. He went to St Petersburg in 1829 and with the help of a friend gained a post in one of the government ministries. Gogol was introduced to Zhukovsky, the romantic poet, and to Pushkin, and with the publication of Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka(1831) he had an entrée to all the leading literary salons. He even managed for a short period to be Professor of History at the University of St. Petersburg (1834-5).
Diary of a Madman and The Story of the Quarrel between Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich appeared in 1934, The Nose in 1836, and The Overcoat in 1842. Gogol also wrote the play The Inspector (1836), Dead Souls (1842), and several moralizing essays defending the Tsarist regime, to the horror of his liberal and radical friends. He lived a great deal abroad, mostly in Rome, and in his last years became increasingly prey to religious mania and despair. He made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1848, but was bitterly disappointed in the lack of feeling that the journey kindled. He returned to Russia and fell under the influence of a spiritual director who told him to destroy his writings as they were sinful. He burned the second part of Dead Souls, and died in 1852 after subjecting himself to a severe regime of fasting.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Great Classic,
By Sergey Vasilev (Albany, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Signet Classics Diary Of A Madman (Paperback)
The DIARY OF A MAD MAN is an insightful story by Gogol that is full of humor, sadness, tragedy and hope. The literary style is first class and fully exposes the inner turmoil of a man with a conflict in his soul. HOUSE OF THE DEAD, UNION MOUJIK, POOR FOLKS, explore that depth of human suffering that leads to depravity for individuals or groups of people.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Short stories from the Russian heartland.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Penguin Classics Diary Of A Madman (Mass Market Paperback)
I am not as enamored of these Russian short stories as some of the other reviewers are. The last story about Bulba depicted Jews in a very demeaning way, and you can see the stereotypes of the Eastern European Jew written into a very interesting story.Gogol was one of the great Russian writers, but the inclusion of this shows him to be an anti-Semite. Otherwise the stories are interesting and humorous of the Tsarist times. The story of the Russian bureaucrat pretending to be Fernando VIII of Spain starts out this book and is by far the best. The others are silly stories, and the last one about Bulba shows the Polish occupation of the Ukraine in medieval times. The first and last stories are by far the best, if you can stomach the anti-Semite tone in the latter story. Overall, an interesting and slightly humorous read. This book gives you a picture of Russia in the times of the Tsar.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gogol classic,
By adgblue "adgblue" (Tarzana, CA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Penguin Classics Diary Of A Madman (Mass Market Paperback)
Gogol has the uncanny ability to write deep, beautiful and simultaneously hilarious stories. "Diary of a Madman and Other Stories" is a great example of Gogol's style of writing to anyone interested in a premier in Gogol's literary style. Caution: if you read this book at night when everyone else is asleep, you may wake everyone up as you'll find yourself laughing out loud.
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