Oblomov
SynopsisPlot
Ilya Ilyich Oblomov is a member of Russia’s dying aristocracy—a man so lazy that he has given up his job in the Civil Service, neglected his books, insulted his friends, and found himself in debt. Too apathetic to do anything about his problems, he lives in a grubby, crumbling apartment, waited on by Zakhar, his equally idle servant. Terrified by the activity necessary to participate in the real world, Oblomov manages to avoid work, postpones change, and—finally—risks losing the love of his life. This superb translation by David Magarshack captures all the subtle comedy and near-tragedy of the original.
Story
About this book
Oblomov, published in 1859, is Ivan Goncharov's novel about a Russian landowner who has largely stopped participating in life. Ilya Ilyich Oblomov has left the Civil Service, let his finances slide, and fallen into debt. He passes his days in a neglected apartment, attended by Zakhar, a servant as idle as his master. The opening chapters follow his effort to leave his bed.
The story turns on Oblomov's friendship with Stolz, an energetic man of German and Russian parentage whose steady activity marks him out from his friend. Through Stolz, Oblomov meets Olga Ilyinskaya, and their growing attachment tests whether affection can move a man who postpones everything. Goncharov treats his central figure with humour and sympathy, tracing the inertia back to upbringing, class, and a landowning world in decline.
The novel made Goncharov widely known in Russia, and the term Oblomovism entered Russian discussion soon after, describing a wider pattern of aristocratic stagnation. The critic Nikolai Dobrolyubov gave the idea currency in an essay published in 1859. This edition uses David Magarshack's English translation, which carries the mixture of comedy and near-tragedy in Goncharov's original.
