Oblomov (Penguin Classics)

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The novel can be read as a parable of Russia in terminal pre-revolutionary decay. Or it can be read as high comedy (which is how Spike Milligan travestied it in his long-running 1960s stage version). Or one can read Oblomov as a profound allegory of the human condition. "Oblomov? C'est moi."

Ivan Gontšarov – Wikipedia

Stoltz, in contrast, exemplifies society's expectations for adulthood in his eagerness to move forward. His own childhood is marked heavily by his father's insistence on treating him as an adult and teaching him the importance of accomplishment, which carries into his adulthood. Stoltz, unlike Oblomov, sees his life as a straight line and is therefore driven by the desire to continually move forward. [6] Oblomovism [ edit ] As for Stolz himself, his own line of work remains suspiciously vague. “He owned part of a company that sent goods abroad,” Goncharov writes. “If they needed someone to write a draft or put a new idea into practice, they chose him.” Stolz drags Oblomov “here and there” while he tends “to affairs.” Whatever Stolz does, it seems, must be so tedious that Goncharov can’t bear to describe it. Stolz represents an idea that we instinctively hold dear, but would be hard-pressed to prove: that work and effort are salutary in themselves, even in the absence of a noble goal. He has a descendant in Tolstoy’s Levin in Anna Karenina—after a day now and then spent mowing rye with his peasants, Levin feels vastly superior to his brother, who maintains his genteel repose. The Romantic characters of Pushkin, Lermontov, and the early Turgenev are immobile, purposeless, and contemptuous of practical activity. Liberal critics had long called for a positively depicted, businesslike nobleman, and they accepted Alexander in his final guise enthusiastically as such. The careful reader is left questioning both men’s aspirations and sharing Lizaveta’s wistful awareness that St. Petersburg’s progress is far from ideal. The alternative of seeking that ideal in Russia’s past surfaces only in Goncharov’s later works, although the absence of a criticalstand against serfdom and landowner privileges already serves to modify the seeming victory of Westernization. Oblomov Oblomov ( rusky Обломов) je světoznámý román ruského spisovatele Ivana Alexandroviče Gončarova, poprvé vydaný v roce 1858. Podstatná část románu vznikla při Gončarovově pobytu v Mariánských Lázních. But few know about the time he took a gun into the Comedy Theatre after a member of the cast annoyed him.Spike is today remembered for calling his friend Prince Charles "a grovelling little bastard" at the British Comedy Awards. The first part of the book finds Oblomov in bed one morning. He receives a letter from the manager of his country estate, Oblomovka, explaining that the financial situation is deteriorating and that he must visit to make some major decisions. But Oblomov can barely leave his bedroom, much less journey a thousand miles into the country. Ivan Aleksandrovich Goncharov, (born June 18 [June 6, old style], 1812, Simbirsk [now Ulyanovsk], Russia—died Sept. 27 [Sept. 15, O.S.], 1891, St. Petersburg), Russian novelist and travel writer, whose highly esteemed novels dramatize social change in Russia and contain some of Russian literature’s most vivid and memorable characters. At the University, with its atmosphere of intellectual freedom and lively debate, Goncharov's spirit thrived. One episode proved to be especially memorable: when his then idol Alexander Pushkin arrived as a guest lecturer to have a public debate with professor Mikhail T. Katchenovsky on the authenticity of The Tale of Igor's Campaign. "It was as if sunlight lit up the auditorium. I was enchanted by his poetry at the time...it was his genius that formed my aesthetic ideas – although the same, I think, could be said of all the young people of the time who were interested in poetry," Goncharov wrote. [8] Unlike Alexander Herzen, Vissarion Belinsky, or Nikolay Ogaryov, his fellow Moscow University students, Goncharov remained indifferent to the ideas of political and social change that were gaining popularity at the time. Reading and translating were his main occupations. In 1832, the Telescope magazine published two chapters of Eugene Sue's novel Atar-Gull (1831), translated by Goncharov. This was his debut publication. [7]

Ivan Goncharov - Wikipedia Ivan Goncharov - Wikipedia

In all, he seems to have wrested more from life than one could have expected. Where Bartleby, Oblomov’s exact contemporary, effectively starves himself to death, Oblomov finds a way to do nothing and still get fed. The hero needs only a mild pro forma reproach from his author (“he had gotten off cheaply in life, and made a profit from it”), and we can delight in his fortune. Because the management were scared of upsetting Spike, the cast had been forbidden from coming out of role.Spike pushed all boundaries in the play just like he gave birth to a new brand of comedy. No one was immune from his irreverence for conventions, not even royalty. Goncharov, who never married, spent his last days absorbed in lonely and bitter recriminations because of the negative criticism some of his work had received. [17] He died in Saint Petersburg on 27 September 1891, of pneumonia. [ citation needed] He was buried at the Novoye Nikolskoe Cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. In 1956 his ashes were moved to the Volkovo Cemetery in Leningrad. [18] Selected bibliography [ edit ] That was typical of Spike, he was a compassionate man who loathed conventions. He cut through every piece of red tape with his razor mind." Gontšarov kirjoitti monipuolisesti romaaneja, novelleja, esseitä ja matkakertomuksia. Hän kirjoitti kolme romaania: Tavallinen juttu ( ven. Обыкновенная история, Obyknovennaja istorija 1847), Oblomov ( ven. Обломов 1859) ja Obryv ( ven. Обрыв, Äkkijyrkänne 1869), joita hän myöhemmin itse piti trilogiana. Romaanien lisäksi hän kirjoitti muun muassa matkakuvauksen Fregat Pallada ( ven. Фрегаты Паллада, Fregatti Pallas 1855-1857), joka kertoo tekijän kolme vuotta kestäneestä Kaukoitään ja Japaniin suuntautuneesta matkasta. [1]

Oblomov Son of Oblomov

Dobrolyubov, Nikolay (1859). Что такое обломовщина?[What is Oblomovism?]. Отеч. записки (in Russian) (I–IV) . Retrieved 9 November 2006. Goncharov was born into a wealthy merchant family and, after graduating from Moscow University in 1834, served for nearly 30 years as an official, first in the Ministry of Finance and afterward in the Ministry of Censorship. The only unusual event in his uneventful life was his voyage to Japan made in 1852–55 as secretary to a Russian admiral; this was described in Fregat Pallada (1858; “The Frigate Pallas”). Renato Poggioli, ‘On Goncharov and His Oblomov’, in The Phoenix and the Spider: A Book of Essays about Some Russian Writers and their Views of the Self (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1957), 33–48 (44). Goncharov's first novel, The Same Old Story, was published in Sovremennik in 1847. It dealt with the conflict between the excessive romanticism of a young Russian nobleman who has recently arrived in Saint Petersburg from the provinces, and the sober pragmatism of the emerging commercial class of the capital. The Same Old Story polarized critics and made its author famous. The novel was a direct response to Vissarion Belinsky's call for exposing a new type, that of the complacent romantic, common at the time; it was lavishly praised by the famous critic as one of the best Russian books of the year. [6] The term aduyevschina (after the novel's protagonist Aduyev) became popular with reviewers who saw it as synonymous with vain romantic aspirations. Leo Tolstoy, who liked the novel, used the same word to describe social egotism and the inability of some people to see beyond their immediate interests. [7]

Keynote line: VS Pritchett catches the charm of this novel, and of the long-day fiction of Goncharov and his ilk. It can stand as the novel's keynote line: "In all those Russian novels we seem to hear a voice saying: 'The meaning of life? One day all that will be revealed to us – probably on a Thursday.'" a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Mashinsky, S. Goncharov and His Legacy. Foreword to The Works of I.A.Goncharov in 6 Volumes. Ogonyok's Library. Pravda Publishers. Moscow, 1972. Pp. 3–54 Pessoa, a minor figure in the minor Lisbon literary world, kept body and soul together during his lifetime by office servitude. It was not a long lifetime. He died in 1935, aged 47, of cirrhosis. He was a "discreet alcoholic" – a discreet everything, in fact. In his remains was found a large trunk stuffed with 25,000 sheets of manuscript. The sheets were jigsawed together – rather like the Dead Sea scrolls – by a troupe of Pessoan disciples, who delivered it to the world half a century after the author's death. There is no plot, merely a thematically arranged series of world-weary aperçus and epigrams, of the deepest Portuguese gloom and existential perplexity – eg "Who will save me from existence? It isn't death I want, or life, it's the other thing." The other thing? Answers, please, to a clerk mournfully drinking himself to death in Lisbon.

Oblomov From Bildungsroman to Schlafroman: Goncharov’s Oblomov

Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov ( / ˈ ɡ ɒ n tʃ ə r ɒ f/, [1] also US: /- r ɔː f/; [2] Russian: Ива́н Алекса́ндрович Гончаро́в, tr. Iván Aleksándrovich Goncharóv, IPA: [ɪˈvan ɐlʲɪkˈsandrəvʲɪdʑ ɡənʲtɕɪˈrof]; 18 June[ O.S. 6 June]1812 – 27 September[ O.S. 15 September]1891 [3]) was a Russian novelist best known for his novels The Same Old Story (1847), Oblomov (1859), and The Precipice (1869, also translated as Malinovka Heights). He also served in many official capacities, including the position of censor. a b под ред. Прохоров, A. M. / toim. Prokhorov, A. M.: Гончаров Иван Александрович. Большая советская энциклопедия: [в 30 т.] / 3-е изд. / Gontšarov Ivan Aleksandrovitš. Suuri Neuvostoliiton tietosanakirja: [30 nidettä], 3. painos. Москва: Советская энциклопедия / Moskova, Neuvostoliiton tietosanakirja, 1969.The novel was popular when it came out, and some of its characters and devices have imprinted on Russian culture and language. This misperception attests Goncharov’s balancing skill. Alexander is lured from his peaceful, idyllic estate, lovingly presented in the fragrance of its lilacs, berries, bushes, and forests, by visions of cosmopolitan dazzle. Once he is taken in hand by a “new man,” his coldly efficient, philistine uncle, Peter, one disappointmentsucceeds another. Like an early Oblomov, Alexander adjusts only superficially, never able to integrate his rustic values with St. Petersburg’s diverse phenomena. Like a young Goncharov, Alexander blunders from one unsuccessful love affair to another. His literary endeavors, characterized by overblown sentimental clichés, are equally fruitless. Despite all efforts by Peter, he turns into a rather ridiculous figure, an out-of-place relic in the bustling city. Goncharov’s ambiguous attitude, however, gives enough scope to elicit a measure of pity from the reader, to mark the young man’s discomforts and his inability to cope. He even admitted to having slept with three of the lead ladies in the play in his autobiography The Family Album.