Russian Classics PDF EPUB

Oblomov

First published: 1859
Pages: 181

Read online EPUB Download Save

About this book

Ilya Ilyich Oblomov has turned doing nothing into something close to a philosophy. A landowner in his thirties, he spends whole days in his dressing gown, unable to answer a letter or visit his neglected estate, while his sharp friend Stolz and the lively Olga try to rouse him into ordinary life. Goncharov built a whole novel out of a man who cannot get off his sofa, and somehow made it tender, funny, and quietly devastating. The word oblomovshchina entered Russian to name exactly this kind of paralysis. Beneath the comedy sits a real question about will, love, and the pull of comfort. This free PDF and EPUB edition offers one of the great character studies in Russian fiction.

About the author

Ivan Aleksandrovich Goncharov

Ivan Goncharov (1812-1891) was a Russian novelist and travel writer who spent much of his career as a government censor. Though he published only three novels, Oblomov secured his lasting fame and gave the Russian language a word for idle stagnation.

Open the author page