ゴーゴリ ニコライ. 狂人日記 / Gogol H.B. Diary of a Madman

Language: Japanese. 11 p.
Translator into Japanese: Hirai Hajime.
Year: 1938.
Publisher: 岩波文庫。
“Notes of a Madman” is a story by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, written by him in 1834. The story was first published in 1835 in the collection “Arabesques” with the title “Scraps from the Notes of a Madman.” Later it was included in the collection “Petersburg Tales”.
The story is a diary of the main character. At the beginning, he describes his life and work, as well as the people around him. He further writes about his feelings for the director's daughter, and soon after this, signs of madness begin to appear - he talks to her dog Medji, after which he gets hold of letters that Medji wrote to another dog. A few days later he is completely detached from reality - he realizes that he is the king of Spain. His madness can be seen even by the numbers in the diary - if the diary begins on October 3, then the understanding that he is the king of Spain comes from his dates on April 43, 2000. And the further the hero plunges deeper into his fantasy. He ends up in a madhouse, but perceives it as arriving in Spain. At the end, the recordings completely lose their meaning, turning into a bunch of phrases. The last phrase of the story: “Do you know that the Algerian dey has a bump right under his nose?”