The Dream of a Ridiculous Man is a short story published in 1877 by Fyodor Dostoevsky. It is practically a complete encyclopedia of Dostoevsky’s most important themes.
Most of Dostoevsky’s major characters always have “something ridiculous” about them, but they are simultaneously highly self-conscious and capable of deep insight into themselves and the world.
The story opens with the narrator contemplating the ridiculousness of his own life, and his recent realisation that there is nothing of any value in the world, everything to him appears as indifferent.
Dostoevsky's The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, explores the dangers of nihilism and rational egoism, as well as the importance of suffering.
"The consciousness of life is higher than life, the knowledge of happiness is higher than happiness – that is what we have to fight against!”