Novel
Oblomov
Обломов
Ivan Goncharov · 1859
Opening lines
В Гороховой улице, в одном из больших домов, народонаселения которого стало бы на целый уездный город, лежал утром в постели, на своей квартире, Илья Ильич Обломов.
In Gorokhovaya Street, in one of those large houses whose population would have been enough for a whole district town, Ilya Ilyich Oblomov lay in bed one morning in his flat.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from ru.wikisource.org
Synopsis
In Saint Petersburg, on Gorokhovaya Street, Ilya Ilyich Oblomov, owner of the estate of Oblomovka, spends his days lying on his divan, served by his old valet Zakhar. A letter from his steward tells him that the estate is faring badly and that he ought to go there; he puts off the decision and dreams of the peaceful life of his childhood. His childhood friend, Andrei Stolz, an active man born of a German father, comes to shake him up, takes him out into society and introduces him to Olga Ilinskaya, an intelligent young woman, with whom he falls in love.
Context
Conceived as early as 1847, the book took twelve years. One chapter, Oblomov's Dream, appeared separately before 1850, before becoming the ninth of the first part. The work, interrupted by the voyage around the world, resumed at Marienbad in the summer of 1857, where most of it was written in a few weeks, then the author rewrote it throughout the following year. The novel appeared in 1859 in the review Otechestvennye zapiski, and the critic Dobrolyubov immediately devoted an article to it, What Is Oblomovism?
Who it is for
A long novel in four parts; the first, almost motionless, settles the hero in his room.
Prizes and reception
The hero's name gave Russian a common word, oblomovism; Nikita Mikhalkov brought the novel to the screen in 1980.