Ivan Goncharov
Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov (
June 18,
1812 –
September 27,
1891;
June 6 1812 –
September 15 1891,
O.S.) was a
Russian novelist best known as the author of
Oblomov (
1859). He was born in Simbirsk (now
Ulyanovsk); his father was a wealthy grain merchant. After graduating from
Moscow University in
1834 Goncharov served for thirty years as a minor government official.
In
1847, Goncharov's first novel,
A Common Story, was published; it dealt with the conflicts between the decadent Russian nobility and the rising merchant class. It was followed by
Ivan Savvich Podzhabrin (
1848), a naturalist psychological sketch. Between
1852 and
1855 Goncharov voyaged to
England,
Africa,
Japan, and back to Russia via
Siberia as the secretary of Admiral Putyatin. His travelogue, a chronicle of the trip,
The Frigate Pallada(
The Frigate Pallas), was published in
1858 ("Pallada" is the Russian spelling of "
Pallas"). His wildly successful novel
Oblomov was published the following year and the main character was compared to
Shakespeare's
Hamlet who answers 'No!" to the question 'To be or not to be?".
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, among others, considered Goncharov as a noteworthy author of high stature.
In
1867 Goncharov retired from his post as a government censor and then published his last novel;
The Precipice (1869) is the story of a rivalry between three men who seek the love of a woman of mystery. Goncharov also wrote short stories, critiques, essays and memoirs that were only published posthumously in
1919. He spent the rest of his days travelling in lonely and bitter recriminations because of the negative criticism some of his work received. Goncharov never married. He died in
St. Petersburg.
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