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First published in 1859, Oblomov is an indisputable classic of
Russian literature, comparable in its stature to such masterpieces
as Gogol's Dead Souls, Tolstoy's Anna Karenina and Dostoevsky's
Brothers Karamazov. The book centres on the figure of Ilya Ilyich
Oblomov, a member of the dying class of the landed gentry, who
spends most of his time lying in bed gazing at life in an apathetic
daze, encouraged by his equally lazy servant Zakhar and routinely
swindled by his acquaintances. But this torpid existence comes to
an end when, spurred on by his crumbling finances, the love of a
woman and the reproaches of his friend, the hard-working Stoltz,
Oblomov finds that he must engage with the real world and face up
to his commitments. Rich in situational comedy, psychological
complexity and social satire, Oblomov - here presented in Stephen
Pearl's award-winning translation, the first major English-language
version of the novel in more than fifty years - is a timeless novel
and a monument to human idleness.
It is a winter evening, and Yegor Aduyev, the scion of a wealthy
family from the landed gentry, slips into the house of Baron
Neilein with the intention of asking his beautiful daughter, the
eighteen-year-old Yelena, to be his wife. Will the besotted lover
be successful in his pursuit or will the young coquette – who
seems at times to reciprocate his feelings, but who lavished
lingering looks on two dashing princes during a recent ball –
shatter his hopes, his dreams and his entire world? A Serendipitous
Error, an early novella of 1839, written when Goncharov was still
in his twenties, is accompanied here by Two Incidents at Sea, a
story penned almost twenty years later and based on two dangerous
scrapes the author survived during his recent voyage on the frigate
Pallada. Taken together, these two stories – translated for the
first time into English by Stephen Pearl – are further proof of
the eclectic narrative skills of the celebrated author of Oblomov.
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Oblomov (Paperback)
Ivan Goncharov; Translated by David Magarshack
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R408
R347
Discovery Miles 3 470
Save R61 (15%)
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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Written with sympathetic humor and compassion, this masterful
portrait of upper-class decline made Ivan Goncharov famous
throughout Russia on its publication in 1859. 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.Includes a new introduction and chronology of Goncharov's
life and works
After his university studies and a short stint in the army and the
civil service, thirty-something Boris Pavlovich Raisky enjoys the
life of an artist, frequenting St Petersburg's elegant circles,
dabbing at his paintings, playing a little music and entertaining
thoughts of writing a novel. But for a man like him, who has
achieved nothing so far and by his own admission is "not born to
work", the bustle of the capital proves too much, so he decides to
visit his country estate of Malinovka. There he hopes to rediscover
the joys of a simpler and more authentic life - but when he becomes
emotionally involved with his beautiful cousin Vera and meets the
dangerous freethinker Mark Volokhov, the scene is set for a chain
of events that will lead to disappointment, confrontation and,
ultimately, tragedy. Conceived twenty years before its initial
publication in 1869, and regarded by its author as his best work,
Malinovka Heights (previously translated in English as The
Precipice) is Goncharov's crowning achievement as a novelist and a
triumph of psychological insight. Here presented for the first time
in unabridged form in a sparkling new translation by Stephen Pearl,
Goncharov's final novel deserves to be reassessed as one of the
most important classics of nineteenth-century Russian literature.
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Oblomov (Paperback)
Ivan Goncharov; Translated by C.J. Hogarth
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R267
Discovery Miles 2 670
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Out of stock
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Filled with dreams of pursuing a career as a poet, the young
Alexander Aduev moves from the country to St Petersburg, where he
takes up lodgings next to his uncle Pyotr, a shrewd and world-weary
businessman. As his ideals are challenged by disappointment in the
fields of love, friendship and poetical ambition, Alexander must
decide whether to return to the homely values he has left behind or
adapt to the ruthless rules and morals of city life. Told in the
author's trademark humorous style and presented in a sparkling new
translation by Stephen Pearl, The Same Old Story - Goncharov's
first novel, preceding his masterpiece Oblomov by twelve years - is
a study of lost illusions and rude spiritual awakening in the
modern world.
Goncharov was the leading Russian writer of the 1850s and, as the
author of The Same Old Story, was regarded as “the real heir to
Nikolai Gogol”. But the publication of Turgenev’s first
full-length novel, A Nest of the Gentry, in 1859, at around the
same time as Goncharov’s Oblomov, which had been more than ten
years in the making, suddenly changed the public’s perception.
Turgenev’s success was eyed with suspicion by his rival, who
started to believe that his work in progress, Malinovka Heights,
had been plagiarized by his former friend. Goncharov had in fact
discussed in detail with Turgenev the plot of his new novel, and
the latter later admitted that, being very impressionable, he may
have been influenced by some of its elements, but his friend’s
charges went further: he accused the younger writer of stealing his
ideas, his characters and even some of his plotlines. As
Turgenev’s success increased over the years, so did Goncharov’s
resentment, and the two novelists, although later reconciled,
stopped communicating with each other. An Uncommon Story, published
posthumously in 1924, contrary to its author’s wishes, is an
extraordinary document that lays bare the jealousies felt but
rarely expressed by writers, and an eternal monument to literary
paranoia.
Based on a novel by the Russian writer Ivan Goncharov, this
dramatic comedy features his eponymous hero, Oblomov. A young man
of considerable decency and kindness (with a "soul as clear as
crystal"), Oblomov has fallen into such a state of lethargy that he
resists even getting out of bed, finding every excuse possible to
do absolutely nothing. All the efforts of his male and female
friends to energize him ultimately fail in various hilarious ways.
Goncharov's character became so identifiable, so emblematic of a
particular subset of the upper classes, that it became a byword
(olbomovism) for self-imposed laziness and indolence.
The less Raisky appeared to notice Vera, the more friendly Vera was
to him, although, in spite of her aunt's wishes she neither kissed
him nor addressed him as "thou." But as soon as he looked at her
overmuch or seemed to hang on her words, she became suspicious,
careful and reserved. Her coming made a change in the quiet circle,
putting everything in a different light. It might happen that she
said nothing, and was hardly seen for a couple of days, yet Raisky
was conscious every moment of her whereabouts and her doings.
The less Raisky appeared to notice Vera, the more friendly Vera was
to him, although, in spite of her aunt's wishes she neither kissed
him nor addressed him as "thou." But as soon as he looked at her
overmuch or seemed to hang on her words, she became suspicious,
careful and reserved. Her coming made a change in the quiet circle,
putting everything in a different light. It might happen that she
said nothing, and was hardly seen for a couple of days, yet Raisky
was conscious every moment of her whereabouts and her doings.
Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov (1812-1891) was one of the leading
members of the great circle of Russian writers who, in the middle
of the nineteenth century, gathered around the SOVREMMENIK
(Contemporary) under Nekrasov's editorship -- a circle including
Turgenev, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Byelinsky, and Herzen. He had not
the marked genius of the first three of these; but that he is so
much less known to the western reader is perhaps also due to the
fact that there was nothing sensational either in his life or his
literary method. His strength was in the steady delineation of
character, conscious of, but not deeply disturbed by, the problems
which were obsessing and distracting smaller and greater minds.
Goncharov had passed many years in Governmental service and had, in
fact, reached the age of thirty-five when his first work, A Common
Story, was published. The Frigate Pallada, which followed, is a
lengthy descriptive account of an official expedition to Japan and
Siberia in which Goncharov took part. essay, Better Late Than
Never, in which he attempted to explain that the purpose of his
three novels was to present the eternal struggle between East and
West -- the lethargy of the Russian and the ferment of foreign
influences. Thus he ranged himself more closely with the great
figures among his contemporaries. Two other volumes consist of
critical study and reminiscence.
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Oblomov (Paperback)
Ivan Goncharov; Translated by Marian Schwartz
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R547
Discovery Miles 5 470
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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Set at the beginning of the nineteenth century, when idleness
was still looked upon by Russia's serf-owning rural gentry as a
plausible and worthy goal, Ivan Goncharov's "Oblomov" follows the
travails of an unlikely hero, a young aristocrat incapable of
making a decision. Indolent, inattentive, incurious, given to
daydreaming and procrastination, Oblomov clearly predates the ideal
of the industrious modern man, yet he is impossible not to admire
through Goncharov's masterful prose. Translator Marian Schwartz
breathes new life into this Russian masterpiece in this, the first
translation from the generally recognized definitive edition of the
original, as well the first to attempt to replicate in English
Goncharov's wry humor and all-embracing humanity. Replete with
ingenious social satire and cutting criticism of nineteenth-century
Russian society, this edition of "Oblomov" will introduce new
readers to the novel that Leo Tolstoy praised as "a truly great
work, the likes of which one has not seen for a long, long
time."
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Oblomov (Hardcover, Reissue)
Ivan Goncharov; Translated by Nathalie Duddington; Introduction by Richard Freeborn
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R522
Discovery Miles 5 220
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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Goncharov's gentle satire on the failings of 19th-century Russian
gentry and bureaucracy turns into something deeper and richer than
satire, as he probes the character of a protagonist whose
constitutional lethargy becomes a symbol for the malaise of the
human spirit in an alienating world.
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