Сон смешного человека

The Dream of a Ridiculous Man

C2 · Proficient · fiction · 35 scenes · Premium story

Dostoevsky's 1877 story, unadapted — the library's second authentic literary text. A Petersburg man to whom nothing matters any more sets out to shoot himself, drives away a child begging him for help on the way home, and then falls asleep in his chair and dreams his way to an earth exactly like ours where nobody has fallen. He ruins it. He wakes up, pushes the revolver away, and goes out to preach.

Read Сон смешного человека in Russian

Characters

The Ridiculous Man (Смешной человек) — The narrator
The Little Girl (Девочка) — The child on the street
The Companion (Спутник) — The being that carries him
The Children of the Sun (Дети солнца) — The people of the happy earth
The Captain (Отставной капитан) — The neighbour behind the partition

Vocabulary from this story

смешной — ridiculous
истина — the truth
сознание — consciousness
гордость — pride
тоска — anguish
сумасшедший — madman
нуль — a nought
стыд — shame
жалость — pity
мысль — an idea
ноябрь — November
вечер — evening