Aksenty Ivanovich Poprishchin Timeline and Summary

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• Poprishchin is late to work at his dead-end job where he hates everyone, obsesses about how unappreciated he is and fantasizes about the lifestyles of the rich and famous—his boss, mostly. Then he runs into his crush, the director's daughter, Sophie. He feels he is looking kind of unfashionable, so he hides from her.
• So far, he seems insecure, bitter, silly, and a bit weird, but where's this "Madman" we're supposed to be reading about?
• When Sophie goes into a store, he hears her dog Medji talking to another dog, Fidele, outside about writing one another letters. Hmm, that does sound a bit mad, but maybe he just has an overactive imagination.
• The next day, Sophie comes into the office to see daddy, but Poprishchin still can't manage to talk to her.
• His very friendly section chief finds a moment to pull Poprishchin aside and lay it to him like it is: he is worthless and should forget about marrying Sophie.
• Being your average civil servant, Poprishchin goes to the office more or less regularly at this point. Nothing too strange in that.
• Since he's not getting anywhere with Sophie, he decides to go talk to the dog Fidele. Oh. Forget what we just said about this being only his active imagination.
• Poprishchin shows up at the apartment where Fidele lives, but she won't talk to him, so he steals a bundle of papers from under her basket.
• Back home, he reads the letters and finds out that Sophie will get married to the kammerjunker Teplov. He's furious.
• Things start falling apart pretty quickly at this point—and by "things" we mean his sanity. Losing Sophie seems to be the final blow in his depressing life.
• Some days later, Poprishchin is reading the papers and finds out the Spanish throne is empty. He realizes in a flash of insight that he is the king of Spain. Crazy! No, we actually mean it. He has finally gone completely crazy.
• After the manager comes all the way to his home to tell him to go to the office, he agrees, but signs his work papers as "Ferdinand VIII."
• Then he storms off, marches over to Sophie's apartment, and tells her such happiness awaits her as she could not even imagine and leaves before she can say anything.
• Next, he cuts up his clothes to make himself a royal robe and awaits the arrival of the Spanish deputies who will escort him to his throne.
• Finally, he thinks he's in Spain. In fact, he's in an insane asylum.
• He gets his head shaven, is beaten up by the guards and tortured with water.
• Poor Poprishchin believes that he is being persecuted by the Spanish Inquisition.
• The last we hear of him, he is pleading for his mother to come save him.