Diary of a Lunatic

Last updated

"Diary of a Lunatic" (sometimes translated as "Memoirs of a Madman" and "The Diary of a Madman") is a short story by Leo Tolstoy written in 1884.

Contents

According to literary critic Janko Lavrin, in August, 1869, Tolstoy travelled from Nizhny Novgorod (AKA: Gorky) to the Penza district and slept overnight in the town of Arzamas. But he couldn't sleep, though, and was overwhelmed with a maddening fear of death. [1] Many years later he recounted this experience in written form, and Diary of a Lunatic was the result. The title of the story is a reference to Nikolai Gogol's story "Diary of a Madman".

Literary analysis

According to literature professor Inessa Medzhibovskaya, this unfinished work uses an encounter with possible death as a flame to a spiritual awakening, though the conflict remains of misunderstanding between the real world and the spiritual one. [2] According to the editors at the Berkeley Undergraduate Journal, this work was an unfinished fragment, a deeply personal, autobiographical or autobiographical-like, first-person narrative whose resolution exists only within the Death of Ivan Ilyich, as Ivan Ilyich is just Diary of a Lunatic "prefigured in a different form." [3] According to the Cambridge Companions, this is a work which describes Tolstoy's crises in veiled form. [4]

This work is elsewhere very popular in literary analysis in universities, such as with professors and authors Henry W. Pickford at Duke University, [5] and Ernest J. Simmons at Cornell, Harvard, and Columbia. [6]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fyodor Dostoevsky</span> Russian novelist (1821–1881)

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, sometimes transliterated as Dostoyevsky, was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist. Numerous literary critics regard him as one of the greatest novelists in all of world literature, as many of his works are considered highly influential masterpieces. Dostoevsky's literary works explore the human condition in the troubled political, social, and spiritual atmospheres of 19th-century Russia, and engage with a variety of philosophical and religious themes. His most acclaimed novels include Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1869), Demons (1872), and The Brothers Karamazov (1880). His 1864 novella Notes from Underground is considered to be one of the first works of existentialist literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ivan Bunin</span> Russian author (1870–1953)

Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin was the first Russian writer awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1933. He was noted for the strict artistry with which he carried on the classical Russian traditions in the writing of prose and poetry. The texture of his poems and stories, sometimes referred to as "Bunin brocade", is considered to be one of the richest in the language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Constance Garnett</span> English translator of Russian literature (1861–1946)

Constance Clara Garnett was an English translator of nineteenth-century Russian literature. She was the first English translator to render numerous volumes of Anton Chekhov's work into English and the first to translate almost all of Fyodor Dostoevsky's fiction into English. She also rendered works by Ivan Turgenev, Leo Tolstoy, Nikolai Gogol, Ivan Goncharov, Alexander Ostrovsky, and Alexander Herzen into English. Altogether, she translated 71 volumes of Russian literature, many of which are still in print today.

<i>The Death of Ivan Ilyich</i> 1886 novella by Leo Tolstoy

The Death of Ivan Ilyich, first published in 1886, is a novella by Leo Tolstoy, considered one of the masterpieces of his late fiction, written shortly after his religious conversion of the late 1870s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leo Tolstoy bibliography</span> Bibliography of Russian author Leo Tolstoy

This is a list of works by Russian writer Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910), including his novels, novellas, short stories, fables and parables, plays, and nonfiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Croesus and Fate</span> 1886 short story by Tolstoy

"Croesus and Fate" is a short story by Leo Tolstoy that is a retelling of a Greek legend, classically told by Herodotus, and Plutarch, about the king Croesus. It was first published in 1886 by Tolstoy's publishing company The Intermediary. Tolstoy's version is shorter than that by Herodotus, and Tolstoy's characterization of Croesus was designed to parallel the title character in his 1886 novella The Death of Ivan Ilych.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leo Tolstoy</span> Russian writer (1828–1910)

Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, usually referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy, was a Russian writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential authors of all time. He received nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature every year from 1902 to 1906 and for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1901, 1902, and 1909.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sophia Tolstaya</span> Russian diarist and copyist

Countess Sophia Andreyevna Tolstaya, sometimes anglicised as Sofia Tolstoy, Sophia Tolstoy and Sonya Tolstoy, was a Russian diarist, and the wife of writer Count Leo Tolstoy.

Rosemary Lilian Edmonds, née Dickie, was a British translator of Russian literature whose versions of the novels of Leo Tolstoy have been in print for 50 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">After the Ball (short story)</span> Short story by Leo Tolstoy

"After the Ball" is a short story by the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, written in the year 1903 and published posthumously in 1911. The short story serves as an example of Tolstoy's commentary on high culture and social governance, as explored through one man's experience with love.

"The Two Brothers and the Gold" is a short story by Leo Tolstoy written in 1885.

"Evil Allures, But Good Endures" is a short story by Leo Tolstoy written in 1885. It is commonly included in the massively-reproduced collection Twenty-three Tales.

"Lucerne: From the Recollections of Prince D. Nekhliudoff" is a first person narrative, in the form of diary and based on personal experiences, written by Leo Tolstoy in 1857 and translated into English in 1899 by Nathan Haskell Dole. It takes the form of a travel diary of someone in Lucerne, Switzerland

"The Bear Hunt" is a short story by Leo Tolstoy written in 1872. It was translated as Desire Stronger than Necessity in 1888 by Nathan Haskell Dole.

"A Dialogue Among Clever People" is a short story by Leo Tolstoy published in 1892. Aylmer Maude was one of the first translators.

"There Are No Guilty People" is a short story by Leo Tolstoy written in 1909. According to the Cambridge Companion on Tolstoy, the work is directed against the death penalty. It was incomplete, and when published after Tolstoy's death, resulted in a flood of letters, the reaction mixed. The government tried to censor the work, sentencing one person distributing copies of it to prison.

"Three Days in the Village" is a short story by Leo Tolstoy written in 1909, one year before Tolstoy's death. Although classified as fiction, it is autobiographical in nature and details Tolstoy's life on his estate and his travels to nearby villages, and the contrasts between the two. It was translated by Louise Maude and Aylmer Maude.

"The Godson" is a short story by Leo Tolstoy published in 1886. Inessa Medzhibovskaya, professor of English at New School for Social Research, describes the short story as the tale of a godson who is forbidden to open a certain sealed room in his godfather's palace, but then opens it and is banished, leading to his need for redemption.

Twenty-Three Tales is a popular compilation of short stories by Leo Tolstoy. According to its publisher, Oxford University Press, the collection is about contemporary classes in Russia during Tolstoy's time, written in a brief, morality-tale style. It was translated into English by Louise Maude and Aylmer Maude.

"Ilyás" is a short story by Leo Tolstoy written in 1885. It is the story of the farmer, Ilyas, who grew up successful but loses his fortune through mistake, in the end only finding peace without having property.

References

  1. Janko Lavrin (2014). Tolstoy: An Approach Bound with Dostoevsky: A Study. Taylor & Francis. p. 82.
  2. Inessa Medzhibovskaya (2009). Tolstoy and the Religious Culture of His Time: A Biography of a Long Conversion, 1845-1885. Lexington Books. p. 297.
  3. The Berkeley Undergraduate Journal. University of California, Berkeley. Undergraduate Programs. 1990.
  4. Orwin (2002). The Cambridge Companion to Tolstoy. Cambridge University Press. p. 173.
  5. Henry W. Pickford (2015). Thinking with Tolstoy and Wittgenstein: Expression, Emotion, and Art. Northwestern University Press.
  6. Ernest Joseph Simmons (2014). Tolstoy. Taylor & Francis. p. 151.