Goncharov's novel "Oblomov" is one of the iconic works of Russian literature of the 19th century. It is part of a trilogy with two other books by the writer - "An Ordinary Story" and "Cliff". The history of the creation of the novel Oblomov by Goncharov began long before the concept of the work appeared - the author had the idea of Oblomovism as an all-encompassing social phenomenon even before the appearance of the first novel of the trilogy - Ordinary History.
Researchers consider the story “Dashing Pain” written in 1838 to be the prototype of “Oblomovism” in Goncharov’s early work. The work described a strange epidemic, the main symptom of which was "spleen", patients began to build castles in the air and amuse themselves with empty dreams. Manifestations of a similar "disease" are also observed in the main character of the novel Oblomov.
However, the very history of the novel "Oblomov" begins in 1849, when Goncharov published in the "Literary Collection with Illustrations" one of the central chapters of the work - "Oblomov's Dream" with the subtitle "Episode from an unfinished novel".
During the writing of the chapter, the writer stayed at home, in Simbirsk, where, in the patriarchal life that retained the imprint of antiquity, Goncharov drew many examples of the “Oblomov dream”, which he depicted first in a printed passage, and then in the novel. At the same time, the writer had already prepared a briefly outlined plan for the future work and a draft version of the entire first part.
In 1850, Goncharov created a final version of the first part and worked on a continuation of the work. The writer writes little, but thinks a lot about the novel. In October 1852, the history of Oblomov was interrupted for five whole years - Goncharov, in the position of secretary under Admiral E.V. Putyatin, set off on the frigate Pallada on a round-the-world trip. Work on the work is resumed only in June 1857, when, while in Marienbard, the writer finishes almost the entire novel in seven weeks. As Goncharov later said, during the trip, the novel had already fully developed in his imagination, and it just needed to be transferred to paper.
In the autumn of 1858, Goncharov completely finished work on the manuscript of Oblomov, adding many scenes and completely reworking some chapters. In 1859, the novel was published in four issues of the journal Otechestvennye Zapiski.
The creative history of the novel "Oblomov" originates in the life of the author himself - Ivan Goncharov. For the writer, according to him, it was important to portray the true reality, without leaving the "thinker's soil".
That is why Goncharov wrote off the central character - Ilya Ilyich Oblomov from himself. According to the memoirs of the writer's contemporaries, there is a lot in common between the author and the character of the novel - they both come from the Russian outback with a patriarchal outdated life, both are slow and at first glance lazy, while they have a lively mind, artistic imagination and a certain daydreaming, which cannot be said at first impression.
The prototype of the main female image - Olga Ilyinskaya, Goncharov also drew from his own life. According to researchers, the prototypes of the girl are the writer's acquaintances - Elizaveta Vasilievna Tolstaya and Ekaterina Pavlovna Maykova. Goncharov was in love with E. Tolstaya - both Olga for Oblomov, and Elizaveta Vasilievna was for him the ideal of a woman, cordiality, female intelligence and beauty. The correspondence between Goncharov and E. Tolstoy is a parallel with the events of the novel - even the theory of love of the creator and the hero of the book is the same. The author endowed Olga with all those beautiful features that he saw in Elizabeth Vasilyevna, transferring his own feelings and experiences to paper. As Olga in the novel was not destined to marry Oblomov, so E. Tolstoy was expected to marry his cousin A. I. Musin-Pushkin.
Maikova, the wife of V. N. Maikov, becomes the prototype of the married heroine - Olga Stolz. Ekaterina Pavlovna and Goncharov were connected by a strong and lasting friendship, which began at one of the evenings of the literary salon of the Makovs. In the image of Maykova, the writer drew a completely different type of woman - constantly searching, striving forward, not satisfied with anything, for whom family life gradually became painful and cramped. However, as some researchers point out, after the last edition of the novel Oblomov, the image of Ilyinskaya looked more and more not like E. Tolstaya, but like Maykova.
The second important female image of the novel - the image of Agafya Matveevna Pshenitsyna, was written off by Goncharov from the memories of the writer's mother - Avdotya Matveevna. According to researchers, the tragedy of the marriage between Agafya and Oblomov was a reflection of the life drama of Goncharov's godfather, N. Tregubov.
The image of Stolz is not only a prefabricated character of the German type, a bearer of a different mentality and a different worldview. The description of the hero was based on the family history of Karl-Friedrich Rudolf, father of Elizaveta Goncharova, the wife of the writer's elder brother. This connection is also indicated by the fact that in draft editions the hero has two names - Andrei and Karl, and in lifetime editions in the scene of the character's first appearance, his name appears as Andrei Karlovich. However, there is a version that Stolz is also one of the personifications in the novel of one of the sides of the writer himself - his youthful aspirations and practicality.
The history of the creation of "Oblomov" allows you to better understand the ideological meaning of the novel, its inner deep and special importance for the author. "Carrying" the idea of the work for more than ten years, Goncharov created a brilliant work, which even today makes us think about the true meaning of life, love and the search for happiness.
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I finally comprehended the poetry of laziness, and this is the only poetry to which I will be faithful to the grave.
I.A. Goncharov
Oblomov is Goncharov's most famous and significant work, the first psychological monograph in Russian literature. Work on the novel lasted more than 10 years. In 1849, a chapter from the future novel was published in Sovremennik - "Oblomov's Dream". In 1850 the first part was written. Only in 1857 did the writer return to work on Oblomov, while in Marienbad, where the remaining three parts of the novel were written within seven weeks. IN 1859 year the novel was published in Otechestvennye Zapiski making a profound impression on his contemporaries. Russian publicist P.A. Kropotkin wrote at the beginning of the 20th century: "The impression that this novel made in Russia defies description." The word "Oblomovism" immediately entered the active lexicon, since, according to the critic D.I. Pisarev, "tangibly characterizes one of the essential vices of our Russian life."
With his novel Goncharov closed the theme of "extra person" in Russian literature , showing in the image of Oblomov a hero in which the “extra person” complex was brought to a paradox and absurdity: if the former “extra people” spiritually felt that they had fallen out of modernity, then Oblomov physically falls out of real life, having managed to substantiate his passivity and apathy ideologically. It is no coincidence that in the first four chapters Oblomov's visitors are presented, who seem to lead an active lifestyle. However, this is an illusion, and their existence is no less useless and aimless than the existence of Oblomov himself. Sudbinsky is an official to the marrow of his bones. Volkov is a rake who lives between balls and a theater with pretty actresses. Penkin is a parody of contemporary writers Goncharov. Tarantiev is an extortionist and a rude man. Alekseev is so faceless that even Zakhar does not respect him. The life aspirations of these heroes cannot captivate Oblomov and are not worth getting off the couch.
A still from the film A Few Days in the Life of Oblomov (1979, dir. Nikita Mikhalkov). In the role of Oblomov - Oleg Tabakov
The fate of Oblomov is shown as a series of failures and disappointments. Any attempt by Oblomov to enter into an active relationship with life ends in failure. His trouble is that he lives in a changed time and cannot, like his parents, calmly grow old in serene Oblomovka. Following the tradition of Pushkin, Lermontov, Herzen, Turgenev, the writer leads the hero through love test, forcing Oblomov to make a temporary ascent and survive a new fall - already final.
The dreamy and romantic Olga Ilyinskaya, captivated by Oblomov's spiritual grace, sets out to pull him out of his dressing gown, to revive him to an active life. But hope turns out to be illusory, and Oblomov himself understands this before Olga. The epilogue of the love drama is the marriage to Agafya Matveevna Pshenitsyna, with whom Oblomov not only found the desired peace, but also "quietly and gradually fit into the simple and wide coffin of his existence ...".
Oblomov is opposed in the novel by Andrey Ivanovich Stolz - "a model of energy, knowledge, work," according to Goncharov. Stolz is prudent and successful, but at the same time sincerely wants to help his childhood friend. The author also tests the impeccably active Stolz with love. His largely unexpected marriage to Olga Ilyinskaya leads to the fact that the heroine, like Lizaveta Adueva from Ordinary History, begins to feel longing.
Already the first researchers of the novel came to the conclusion that in Oblomov the author showed a typical, fundamental feature of the Russian national character. Indeed, Oblomov has many predecessors in Russian literature: Mitrofan from Fonvizin's comedy "Undergrowth", Lentul from Krylov's comedy "The Lazy Man", Pushkin's Dmitry Larin, Gogol's old-world landowners, Gogol's Manilov. The drama and peculiarity of Oblomov's fate was explained by the change of eras, the changed order of things. It is no coincidence that in the finale of the novel the hero's literal falling out of time is conveyed through a comparison: "... he died without pain, without torment, as if a clock that had been forgotten to start had stopped."
Dedicated to the state characteristic of a Russian person. He describes a hero who has fallen into personal stagnation and apathy. The work gave the world the term "Oblomovism" - a derivative from the name of the character of the story. Goncharov created a striking example of 19th century literature. The book turned out to be the pinnacle of the writer's work. The novel is included in the school curriculum of Russian literature and does not lose its relevance, although two centuries have passed since its creation.
"Oblomov" is a landmark work for Russian literature of the XIX century. Its meaning is not always available to schoolchildren who get acquainted with the book at a young age. Adults more deeply consider the idea that the author wanted to convey.
The main character of the work is the landowner Ilya Oblomov, whose lifestyle is incomprehensible to others. Some consider him a philosopher, others - a thinker, others - a lazy person. The author allows the reader to form their own opinion without being categorical about the character.
It is impossible to evaluate the idea of the novel separately from the history of the creation of the work. The basis of the book was the story "Dashing Pain", written by Goncharov several years earlier. Inspiration caught up with the writer at a time when the social and political situation in Russia was tense.
At that time, the image of an apathetic tradesman who was not able to take responsibility for his actions and decisions was typical for the country. Reasoning influenced the idea of the book. The critic wrote about the appearance of the image of the "superfluous person" in the literary works of that time. He described the hero as a freethinker, incapable of serious action, a dreamer, useless for society. The appearance of Oblomov is a visual embodiment of the nobility of those years. The novel describes the changes taking place in the hero. The characterization of Ilya Ilyich is subtly outlined in each of the four chapters.
The protagonist was born into a landowner's family, living according to the traditional aristocratic way of life. The childhood of Ilya Oblomov was spent in the family estate, where life was not very diverse. The parents loved the boy. Affectionate nanny pampered with fairy tales and jokes. Sleep and long sitting at a meal were commonplace for households, and Ilya easily adopted their inclinations. He was taken care of from all sorts of misfortunes, not allowing him to deal with the difficulties that arose.
According to Goncharov, the child grew up apathetic and withdrawn until he turned into a thirty-two-year-old unprincipled man with an attractive appearance. There was no interest in anything and no focus on a particular subject. Serfs provided the hero with income, so he did not need anything. The clerk robbed him, the place of residence gradually fell into disrepair, and the sofa became his permanent location.
The descriptive image of Oblomov includes the bright features of a lazy landowner and is collective. Goncharov's contemporaries tried not to name their sons Ilya if they were the namesakes of their fathers. The common noun that Oblomov's name acquired was diligently avoided.
The satirical description of the appearance of the character becomes a continuation of the string of "superfluous people", which he began and continued. Oblomov is not old, but already flabby. His face is expressionless. Gray eyes do not carry a shadow of thought. He wears an old dressing gown. Goncharov pays attention to the appearance of the character, noting his effeminacy and passivity. The dreamer Oblomov is not ready for action and indulges in laziness. The tragedy of the hero lies in the fact that he has great prospects, but is not able to realize them.
Oblomov is kind and disinterested. He does not have to make any effort, and if such a prospect arises, he is afraid of it and shows uncertainty. He often dreams of the atmosphere of his native estate, evoking a sweet longing for his native places. Periodically, beautiful dreams are dispelled by other heroes of the novel.
He is the antagonist of Ilya Oblomov. Friendship between men began in childhood. The antipode of the dreamer, who has German roots, Stolz avoids idleness and is used to working. He criticizes the lifestyle preferred by Oblomov. Stolz knows that the first attempts of a friend to realize themselves in a career ended in failure.
Having moved to St. Petersburg as a young man, Ilya tried to serve in the office, but things were not going well, and he preferred inaction. Stolz is an ardent opponent of passivity and tries to be active, although he understands that his work is not intended for lofty goals.
She became a woman who managed to awaken Oblomov from idleness. The love that settled in the heart of the hero helped to leave the usual sofa, forget about drowsiness and apathy. A golden heart, sincerity and breadth of soul attracted the attention of Olga Ilyinskaya.
She valued Ilya's imagination and fantasy, and at the same time tried to assert herself through caring for a person who had cut himself off from the world. The girl was inspired by the ability to influence Oblomov and understood that their relationship would not continue. The indecision of Ilya Ilyich caused the collapse of this union.
Fleeting obstacles are perceived by Oblomov as invincible obstacles. He is not able to adapt and adjust to the social framework. Inventing his own cozy world, he moves away from reality, where he has no place.
Closure became the path to the emergence of simple happiness in life, and it was brought by a woman who was constantly nearby. rented the apartment where the hero lived. After breaking up with Olga Ilyinskaya, he found solace in the attention of Agafya. A thirty-year-old woman fell in love with a tenant, and the feelings did not require changes in character or lifestyle.
Having united the farms, little by little they began to show confidence in each other and healed soul to soul. Pshenitsyna did not demand anything from her husband. She was content with her virtues and ignored her faults. In marriage, the son Andryusha was born, the only consolation of Agafya after the death of Oblomov.
Despite laziness, Oblomov shows himself to be an educated and sensitive person, a deep person with a pure heart and good thoughts. He justifies inaction with the words:
“…Some people have nothing else to do but to speak. There is a calling."
Internally, Oblomov is strong to commit an act. The main step towards changes in his life is love for Ilyinskaya. For her sake, he is capable of feats, one of which is saying goodbye to his favorite bathrobe and sofa. It is quite possible that an object that could interest the hero so strongly was simply not found. And since there is no interest, why forget about the conveniences? So he criticizes light:
“... There is no business of their own, they scattered in all directions, did not go to anything. Under this comprehensiveness lies emptiness, lack of sympathy for everything! .. "
Oblomov in Goncharov's novel appears at the same time as a lazy person with a negative connotation and an exalted character with a poetic talent. In his words, there are subtle turns and expressions that are alien to the hard worker Stolz. His graceful phrases beckon Ilinskaya and turn Agafya's head. Oblomov's world, woven from dreams and dreams, is built on the melody of poetry, love for comfort and harmony, peace of mind and goodness:
"... Memories - or the greatest poetry, when they are memories of living happiness, or - burning pain, when they touch dried wounds."
Oblomov. Illustration by Konstantin Tikhomirov from the magazine Picturesque Review of the Countries of the World. 1883 goncharov.spb.ru
“Thunderstorms are not terrible, but only beneficial there: they happen constantly at the same set time, almost never forgetting Ilyin’s day, as if in order to support a well-known tradition among the people. And the number and strength of the blows, it seems, are the same every year, just as if a certain measure of electricity was released from the treasury for a year to the whole region.
At first glance, this fragment seems almost random. Only the mention of Ilyin’s day attracts attention: “a well-known legend among the people” is a belief that it is impossible to work on Ilyin’s day, so as not to be killed by thunder. Recall that the main character of the novel is called Ilya Ilyich - and he does not want to work not only on his day as an angel, but never at all. However, the thunderstorm in this passage is explained not only with the help of popular belief about Elijah the Prophet as the patron of thunder - that is, through the eyes of a person who believes in "a well-known tradition." Thunderstorm is served simultaneously and rationally. The point of view of a resident of Oblomovka, who believes in a “well-known legend,” is, as it were, compared with the point of view of the rationalist Stolz: this hero has not yet appeared on the pages of the novel, but his voice, skeptically evaluating popular superstitions, is already sounding. This dual point of view will continue to shape the narrative.
The narrator likes Oblomovka, but he does not see anything poetic in it:
“God knows whether a poet or a dreamer would be content with the nature of a peaceful corner. These gentlemen, as you know, love to stare at the moon and listen to the clicking of nightingales.<…>And in this region, no one knew what kind of moon this was - everyone called it a month. She somehow good-naturedly, with all her eyes looked at the villages and the field, and was very much like a cleaned copper basin.
The poetic image of the moon in the "Oblomov" consciousness is absent, and we are informed about this not by chance. The novel repeatedly mentions the aria "Casta diva" from Bellini's opera "Norma". First, Oblomov dreams of how his future wife will perform it, and then Olga Ilyinskaya will perform this cavatina, after which Oblomov confesses his love to her. The name of the aria is translated into Russian as “The Most Pure Goddess”, but it is not dedicated to the Mother of God, as is sometimes claimed, but to the goddess of the moon. Oblomov himself remembers this:
“... how this woman’s heart cries out! What sadness lies in these sounds! .. And no one knows anything around ... She is alone ... The mystery weighs on her; she entrusts her to the moon ... "
So, Oblomov's love for Olga is associated with the romantic image of the moon - which, however, was not known in the patriarchal Oblomovka. It is not surprising that the story of their relationship ends sadly.
After parting with Olga, Oblomov falls into a stupor:
"Snow, snow, snow! he repeated senselessly, looking at the snow that thickly covered the fence, the wattle fence and the ridges in the garden. - Everything fell asleep! - then he whispered desperately, went to bed and fell into a leaden, bleak sleep.
Why couldn't the hero talk about anything but snow? Because Oblomov's love for Olga develops in accordance with the seasons. The heroes meet in May, and a lilac branch becomes a symbol of their love - Oblomov directly compares his feelings with it several times. Relationships reach their peak of intensity in the summer, and in the fall, Oblomov, overwhelmed by numerous everyday difficulties, seeks to avoid meeting with Olga, pretends to be sick, and so on.
When they part, it snows: the annual cycle of nature is over, and nothing can be done about it. Thus, in his love, the hero again turns out to be a product of his native village - a place where the "annual cycle" repeats itself "correctly and calmly."
Dreaming, Oblomov describes the ideal, as it seems to him, life to his only friend Stolz.
“Before dinner, it’s nice to look into the kitchen, open the pan, sniff, watch how the pies are rolled, the cream is churned. Then lie down on the couch; the wife reads something new aloud; we stop, argue ... But the guests are coming, for example, you and your wife.<…>After dinner, mocha, havana on the terrace…”
What does the mention of mocha coffee and Cuban cigars mean? To understand this, let's pay attention to Stolz's reaction: he carefully listens to his friend, but from the very beginning he is sure that even in Oblomov's dreams he cannot come up with anything better than Oblomovka: "You draw me the same thing that happened to grandfathers and fathers." Stoltz is clearly wrong. The traditional, “Oblomov” way of life cannot satisfy the protagonist, and his dream cannot even be described in “Oblomov” words: coffee, cigars, terraces - all these are traces of studying at the university, books read. Oblomov, however lazy he may be, is an educated Petersburger and has gone far from Oblomovka.
Oblomov reads newspapers and finds out, "... why the British send ships with troops to the East ...".
What kind of military operations in the East are you referring to? Most likely, the Anglo-Chinese “opium wars”, the consequences of which Goncharov personally observed during his stay in China and described in the “Pallada Frigate”. However, this is not even the point. The dispatch of English troops to the East is mentioned at least four times in different places in the novel, and yet its action lasts for several years. It turns out that not only the main character is stuck in a kind of frozen time, where nothing happens, but world news (and the characters of the novel are very fond of discussing the news) are the same all the time. Newspapers, seemingly obligated to follow the latest news, report seemingly endlessly repeating events. Not one Oblomov - the whole world can not move from the point.
Here is how the narrator introduces Oblomov to us:
"Oblomov, a nobleman by birth, collegiate secretary by rank, has been living without a break for the twelfth year in St. Petersburg."
The collegiate secretary is a rank of the X class, that is, not the lowest. How could Oblomov get such a rank? But this is really not very clear, even to the commentators of the Complete Works of Goncharov, who discovered this riddle. It can be assumed that Oblomov graduated from the university as a candidate, that is, with particular success, and received this rank immediately after graduation (only Oblomov did not study very diligently). If Oblomov was not a candidate, he should have the rank of XII class - provincial secretary. But we know that the hero "served somehow for two years", which means that he could not have time to serve two ranks. Moreover, in the drafts of the novel, Oblomov is directly called the provincial secretary. In general, there is no plausible explanation for the rank of Oblomov. It remains to be assumed that some other principle is at work here. It was the tenth class that Oblomov's common-law wife, the widow of Agafya Matveevna Pshenitsyna, had (wives and widows of officials were considered in the same rank as husbands). Perhaps this coincidence is an ironic allusion to the peculiar “kinship of souls” between Oblomov and Agafya Matveevna.
Stolz offers Oblomov not to "die in silence", sitting in the seat, but to run somewhere and do business:
"Where? Yes, even with his peasants to the Volga: and there is more movement, there are some interests, a goal, work. I would go to Siberia, to Sitkha.”
And what kind of business does Stoltz himself do? The novel constantly talks about some kind of stormy activity that Stoltz leads, but without any specifics: it is not clear whether the reader should guess for himself what Stoltz is doing, or there is simply no clue. On the one hand, it is quite possible that this detail emphasizes Stolz's versatility: he can literally do anything, so it is not very important what exactly his activity is. On the other hand, as the literary critic Lyudmila Geiro noted, the references scattered throughout the text of the novel to places where Stoltz often visits coincide with the list of areas where gold was mined, bought and sold. If so, then Stolz is a gold miner. It is interesting that Sitkha, where Stoltz wants to go, is in Alaska, but this just does not say anything about his connections with gold mining: at the time of writing the novel, the existence of precious metal reserves in Alaska was not yet known.
In 1838, Goncharov wrote a humorous story called "Dashing Pain", which dealt with a strange epidemic that originated in Western Europe and ended up in St. Petersburg: empty dreams, castles in the air, "spleen". This "dashing pain" is a prototype of "Oblomovism".
The novel Oblomov was first published in full in 1859 in the first four issues of the Otechestvennye Zapiski magazine. The beginning of work on the novel belongs to an earlier period. In 1849, one of the central chapters of Oblomov, Oblomov's Dream, was published, which the author himself called "the overture of the entire novel." The author asks the question: what is "Oblomovism" - the "golden age" or death, stagnation? In "Dream..." motifs of static and immobility, stagnation prevail, but at the same time one can feel the author's sympathy, good-natured humor, and not just satirical denial.
As Goncharov later claimed, in 1849 the plan for the novel Oblomov was ready and the draft version of its first part was completed. “Soon,” wrote Goncharov, “after the publication in 1847 in Sovremennik of Ordinary History, I already had Oblomov’s plan ready in my mind.” In the summer of 1849, when Oblomov's Dream was ready, Goncharov made a trip to his homeland, to Simbirsk, whose way of life retained the imprint of patriarchal antiquity. In this small town, the writer saw many examples of the “dream” that the inhabitants of the fictional Oblomovka slept with.
Work on the novel was interrupted due to Goncharov's round-the-world voyage on the frigate Pallada. Only in the summer of 1857, after the travel essays "Pallada Frigate" were published, Goncharov continued to work on Oblomov. In the summer of 1857 he left for the resort of Marienbad, where he completed three parts of the novel within a few weeks. In August of the same year, Goncharov began to work on the last, fourth, part of the novel, the final chapters of which were written in 1858. “It will seem unnatural,” Goncharov wrote to one of his friends, “how did a person finish in a month what he could not finish in a year? To this I will answer that if there were no years, nothing would be written in a month. The fact of the matter is that the whole novel was carried out to the smallest scenes and details, and all that remained was to write it down. Goncharov also recalled this in the article “An Extraordinary Story”: “In my head, the whole novel had already been finalized - and I transferred it to paper, as if under dictation ...” However, while preparing the novel for publication, Goncharov in 1858 rewrote "Oblomov", supplementing it with new scenes, and made some cuts. Having completed work on the novel, Goncharov said: "I wrote my life and what I grow into it."
Goncharov admitted that the influence of Belinsky's ideas affected the design of Oblomov. The most important circumstance that influenced the idea of the work is Belinsky's speech on Goncharov's first novel - "An Ordinary Story". In his article “A Look at Russian Literature of 1847”, Belinsky analyzed in detail the image of a noble romantic, an “extra person” who claims an honorable place in life, and emphasized the inactivity of such a romantic in all spheres of life, his laziness and apathy. Demanding the merciless exposure of such a hero, Belinsky also pointed to the possibility of a novel ending other than in Ordinary History. When creating the image of Oblomov, Goncharov took advantage of a number of characteristic features outlined by Belinsky in the analysis of "Ordinary History".
There are also autobiographical features in the image of Oblomov. By his own admission, Goncharov, he himself was a sybarite, he loved serene peace, giving birth to creativity. In the travel diary "Frigate" Pallada "" Goncharov admitted that during the trip he spent most of his time in the cabin, lying on the sofa, not to mention the difficulty with which he decided to circumnavigate the world. In the friendly circle of the Maykovs, who treated the writer with great love, Goncharov was given a meaningful nickname - “Prince de Laziness”.
The appearance of the novel "Oblomov" coincided with the time of the most acute crisis of serfdom. The image of an apathetic, incapable of activity landowner, who grew up and was brought up in the patriarchal atmosphere of a manor's estate, where the gentlemen lived serenely thanks to the labor of serfs, was very relevant for contemporaries. ON THE. Dobrolyubov in his article “What is Oblomovism?” (1859) praised the novel and this phenomenon. In the person of Ilya Ilyich Oblomov, it is shown how the environment and upbringing disfigure the beautiful nature of a person, giving rise to laziness, apathy, lack of will.
The path of Oblomov is a typical path of the provincial Russian nobles of the 1840s, who came to the capital and found themselves outside the circle of public life. Service in the department with the indispensable expectation of promotion, from year to year the monotony of complaints, petitions, establishing relationships with head clerks - this turned out to be beyond Oblomov's strength. He preferred colorless lying on the couch, devoid of hopes and aspirations, to promotion through the ranks. One of the reasons for the "dashing pain", according to the author, is the imperfection of society. This thought of the author is also conveyed to the hero: “Either I did not understand this life, or it is no good.” This phrase by Oblomov brings to mind the well-known images of "superfluous people" in Russian literature (Onegin, Pechorin, Bazarov, etc.).
Goncharov wrote about his hero: “I had one artistic ideal: this is an image of an honest and kind, sympathetic nature, an idealist in the highest degree, struggling all his life, looking for the truth, meeting lies at every step, deceived and falling into apathy and impotence.” In Oblomov, that daydreaming is dormant that burst out in Alexander Aduev, the hero of Ordinary History. In his soul, Oblomov is also a lyricist, a person who knows how to feel deeply - his perception of music, immersion in the captivating sounds of the aria "Casta diva" indicate that not only "pigeon meekness", but also passions are available to him. Each meeting with a childhood friend Andrei Stolz, the complete opposite of Oblomov, brings the latter out of a sleepy state, but not for long: the determination to do something, to somehow arrange his life takes possession of him for a short time, while Stolz is next to him. However, Stolz does not have enough time to put Oblomov on a different path. But in any society, at all times, there are people like Tarantiev, who are always ready to help for selfish purposes. They determine the direction along which the life of Ilya Ilyich flows.
Published in 1859, the novel was hailed as a major social event. The Pravda newspaper, in an article dedicated to the 125th anniversary of Goncharov's birth, wrote: "Oblomov appeared in an era of public excitement, a few years before the peasant reform, and was perceived as a call to fight against inertia and stagnation." Immediately after its publication, the novel became the subject of discussion in criticism and among writers.
