“Man is such a wondrous being that it is never possible to count up all his merits at once. The more you study him, the more new particulars appear, and their descriptions would be endless.”

As the name suggests, this particular iconic story of Nikolai Gogol's chronicles a man's descent into madness.

Aksenty Ivanovich Poprishchin is a minor civil servant, who appears to be under constant ridicule from his peers and his superiors. He appears to have a very high opinion of himself and thinks of others as lowly beings compared to him. Porishchin's desire to achieve dignity makes him delusional and alienates him from society bit by bit. The story is told in the form of diary entries that become increasingly chaotic, so much so that the dates of the entries stop making sense. To make matters even more interesting, our protagonist appears to be infatuated with his boss's daughter, driving him further into a spiral of lunacy, as he suspects her of having an affair while listening to dogs "converse" among themselves. Sofi, the lady in question, remains oblivious of his emotions.

By the end of the story, our central character appears to have completely lost it. His diary entry is of an impossible date, he believes himself to be royalty and his sense of disillusionment peaks as he appears to be mistreated in an asylum of some sort. The story really makes the reader feel at one with the thriving imagination of our madman, with very detailed accounts of his emotions and his world-view. The changes in tone and the absurdist elements really keep you hooked and in a daze throughout the experience.