Becoming The Muse

The Diary Of A Superfluous Man

The Diary of a Superfluous Man is an 1850 novella by the Russian author Ivan Turgenev and translated into English by David Patterson

The story is about a man who upon receiving a prognosis of having days left to live, recounts his life experiences in the form of diary he is writing with an aim to show his superfluous nature.

The Good

At 88 pages, its a short enough read that one can complete in a single seating or during a bus ride as I did, after bumping into a Bookstooge review of the book.

For a novella, the protagonist’s character is surprisingly complex with his inner turmoil and introspection dealt with sensitivity.

While a man is living he is not conscious of his own life; it becomes audible to him, like a sound, after the lapse of time.

While the book is a 19^th century body of work, The Superfluous Man could be easily identified as a satirical social commentary on today’s world with social media where people can be extra, yet unnecessary, becoming more detached and anti-social with their increasing social circles, blaming everyone and everything but themselves for their predicament….

The story is regarded as the archetype for the Russian literary concept of the superfluous man; a character archetype in which the individual can often times be presented as well-to-do and intelligent, yet doesn’t hold much respect for the structures of society or to the base social norms, exhibiting cynicism and or existential angst..

Though the protagonist takes himself very seriously, with a morbid outlook, the story comes across as hilarious yet ironic as The Superfluous Man piles himself with misery, blind to how he is the architect of that misery. Misery does love company even in the mind of a man soon to die…

“But I had absolutely lost all sense of personal dignity, and could not tear myself away from the spectacle of my own misery.”

The Bad

It takes a bit of effort to fully get into the flow of the story, which has a descriptive and verbose writing style, some nuances of the body of work would go over the head of one who isn’t well-versed in mid- 19^th century Russia, its literature, culture and history.

The pacing is slow and the protagonist rambles without quite getting to the point and what should be a recollection of his various experiences is singularly focused on one specific event as the protagonist tries to push across the point of his superfluousness… with the word superfluous used almost twenty times..

The Ugly

The novella could be said to have rather tragic outlook on life and love from the perspective of a character with 14 days left to live, alienated from humanity save for his mortality, while wallowing in an existential crisis… One might find the story dark, grim and cynical.

“In the presence of death all the last earthly vanities disappear. I feel that I am quieting down; I am becoming more simple, more clear. I have acquired sense, but too late!”

Final Thoughts

The Superfluous Man is a hilarious body of work that is a poetic masterpiece despite its seemingly dark outlook that may leave you thinking about your haves and havenots and glad you are not superfluous, you arent right?