Ivan Goncharov
Ivan Aleksandrovich Goncharov, (b. June
18 [June 6, old style], 1812, Simbirsk
[now Ulyanovsk], Russia—d. Sept. 27
[Sept. 15, O.S.], 1891, St. Petersburg),
Russian novelist and travel writer,
whose highly esteemed novels dramatize
social change in Russia and contain some
of Russian literature’s most vivid and
memorable characters.
Goncharov was born into a wealthy
merchant family and, after graduating
from Moscow University in 1834, served
for nearly 30 years as an official,
first in the Ministry of Finance and
afterward in the Ministry of Censorship.
The only unusual event in his uneventful
life was his voyage to Japan made in
1852–55 as secretary to a Russian
admiral; this was described in Fregat
Pallada (1858; “The Frigate Pallas”).
Goncharov’s most notable achievement
lies in his three novels, of which the
first was Obyknovennaya istoriya (1847;
A Common Story, 1917), a novel that
immediately made his reputation when it
was acclaimed by the influential critic
Vissarion Belinsky. Oblomov (1859; Eng.
trans., 1954), a more mature work,
generally accepted as one of the most
important Russian novels, draws a
powerful contrast between the
aristocratic and capitalistic classes in
Russia and attacks the way of life based
on serfdom. Its hero, Oblomov, a
generous but indecisive young nobleman
who loses the woman he loves to a
vigorous, pragmatic friend, is a triumph
of characterization. From this character
derives the Russian term oblomovshchina,
epitomizing the backwardness, inertia,
and futility of 19th-century Russian
society. Goncharov’s third novel, Obryv
(1869; The Precipice, 1915), though a
remarkable book, is inferior to Oblomov.
In all three novels Goncharov contrasts
an easygoing dreamer with an opposing
character who typifies businesslike
efficiency; the contrast illumines
social conditions in Russia at a time
when rising capitalism and
industrialization uneasily coexisted
with the aristocratic traditions of old
Russia.
Of Goncharov’s minor writings, the most
influential was an essay on Aleksandr
Griboyedov’s play Gore ot uma (Wit Works
Woe).
