Oblomov

(Hardback)

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Description

Set at the beginning of the 19th century, when idleness was still looked upon by Russia's serf-owning gentry as a viable and worthy goal, there was Oblomov. Indolent, inattentive, incurious and given over to daydreaming, Oblomov is hardly the ideal hero, yet he is not impossible to admire. The image of this gentle daydreamer, roused to action for one brief period of ardent but begotten love, is a fixture of Russian culture. Goncharov's masterpiece is an ingenious social satire and also a sharp criticism of 19th century Russian society.

Reviews

Oblomovis a truly great work, the likes of which one has not seen for a long time. I am in rapture overOblomovand keep reading it. Leo Tolstoy

[Goncharov is] ten heads above me in talent. Anton Chekhov

Author Bio

The Russian novelist IVAN GONCHAROV (1812-1891) was born in Simbirsk, Russia. He served for thirty years as a minor government official and traveled widely. His short stories, critiques, essays, and memoirs were published posthumously in 1919. Oblomov was his most popular and critically acclaimed novel during his lifetime. MARIAN SCHWARTZ has translated Russian literature for over thirty years. She has published over two dozen book-length translations, along with twenty issues of Russian Studies in Literature. She is the principal English translator of the works of Nina Berberova and is a past president of the American Literary Translators Association.