Ivan Goncharov (1812–1891)
Author of Oblomov
About the Author
Born into a wealthy merchant family, Goncharov pursued a career in the civil service; first in the ministry of finance, and later, during more liberal times after 1855, in the censorship department. Most of his life was very placid, troubled only once by an extended sea voyage to Japan, which show more resulted in a smoothly written travel narrative, The Frigate Pallas (1855--57). In his later years, he suffered from paranoia, having become obsessed with the notion that Ivan Turgenev and such foreign writers as Flaubert had plagiarized elements of his last work. Goncharov's solid reputation as a major realist writer rests, above all, on his second novel, Oblomov (1859). The fame of this work derives from its unmatched depiction of human slothfulness and boredom, embodied in the book's likable hero. Oblomov is now a literary and cultural archetype, while the term Oblomovism has entered the Russian language, denoting indolence and inertia of epic proportions. Goncharov's other works are of lesser stature. A Common Story (1847) is an entertaining bildungsroman about a young man's gradual abandonment of his early ideals. The Precipice (1869), on which Goncharov worked for almost 20 years, is a massive portrayal of gentry life in the country. Although its antiradical plot is not terribly successful, the book contains a gallery of striking social and psychological types: particularly memorable are the novel's women. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Works by Ivan Goncharov
Собрание сочинений : в восьми томах 5 copies
Il Burrone (volume II) 4 copies
Tutte le opere narrative di Ivan Aleksandrovic Goncarov (Vol. 1) : Oblomov (1859). Il burrone (1869) 3 copies
Sobranie sochineniĭ 2 copies
Ponor 1 copy
Собрание сочинений в 8 томах 1 copy
Собрание сочинений. Том 2 1 copy
Собрание сочинений. Том 3 1 copy
Собрание сочинений. Том 5 1 copy
Собрание сочинений. Том 6 1 copy
Oblomov : romaani. 1 1 copy
Собрание сочинений. Том 1 1 copy
Briefe an Anatolij F. Koni Und Andere Materialien: Ausgewahlt, Ubersetzt Und Kommentiert Von Vera Bischitzky (Bausteine… (2016) 1 copy
El declive Tomo I 1 copy
Обломов : роман 1 copy
El declive Tomo II 1 copy
Обломов ч. 3-4 1 copy
Cliff 1 copy
Yamaç 1 copy
Associated Works
The Portable Nineteenth-Century Russian Reader (1993) — Author, some editions — 208 copies, 1 review
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Goncharov, Ivan
- Legal name
- Goncharov, Ivan Aleksandrovich
Гончаро́в, Ива́н Алекса́ндрович - Other names
- Gontscharow, Iwan
Gontscharow, I. A. - Birthdate
- 1812-06-18
- Date of death
- 1891-09-27
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- Russia
- Birthplace
- Simbirsk, Russian Empire
- Place of death
- St Petersburg, Russian Empire
- Places of residence
- St. Petersburg, Russia
Moscow, Russia
Simbirsk, Russia - Education
- Moscow State University (1834)
- Occupations
- novelist
travel writer
government official
Members
Reviews
Lists
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 55
- Also by
- 3
- Members
- 4,063
- Popularity
- #6,195
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 77
- ISBNs
- 336
- Languages
- 21
- Favorited
- 18