Gogol wrote Diary of a Madman in the autumn of 1834, towards the end of a two-year period in which he also wrote Viy, Nevsky Prospect and the first version of The Portrait. It has some elements (the theme of ambition, the petty bureaucratic setting) in common with an unfinished comedy, The Order of St Vladimir, Third Class, which Gogol worked on between 1833 and 1835, at the same time as The Suitors, the future Marriage, and when he was beginning The Government Inspector and The Gamblers.