way to blame others for his personal frustrations, and consequently treats them with the aggression he believes they deserve. This behavior fuels a vicious cycle that justifies the negative perception and treatment that society exerts toward Poprishchin. Numbers There have been many analyses of Poprishchin's unique diary entries attempting to interpret their meaning, with special interest taken in the entry: 43 April 2000. A Freudian analysis performed by Ermakov hypothesized that Poprishchin used this absurd date to avoid May 13, because the word maja suggests majat'sja, which in Russian means suffering. Richard Gustafson's analysis of the entry title is more grounded in the contents of the story. He agrees that Poprishchin is indeed trying to avoid May 13, but his reasoning is that the letters from the dogs that exposed the grave reality of Sofi and the Director were presented exactly half a year earlier on November 13. Influence The Chinese writer Lu Xun was well acquainted with Russian literature and wrote a story with a similar premise to, and the same title as, Gogol's. The story's name was reflected in Lina Kostenko's novel Notes of a Ukrainian Madman, which makes frequent references to Gogol's writings. Adaptions David Holman adapted it into a play; the 2010 production in Sydney starred Geoffrey Rush. References External links Online text (Russian) from public-library.ru Translation of the story on Project Gutenberg Short stories by Nikolai Gogol 1835 short stories Fictional diaries Fiction with unreliable narrators Short stories set in the Russian Empire