"I am a ridiculous man. They call me a madman now." So begins Dostoevsky's last short story that he wrote just before his death. It is a story of a despairing nihilist who is convinced that nothing of true value exists in the world. He makes up his mind to commit a suicide. However, a chance encounter with a little girl inspires a dream vision of a mythic Golden Age of humanity, a golden age which is unattainable but which paradoxically makes life worth living.
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