Oblomov: New Translation

A brilliant plot and storyline that will keep you interested from start to finish. Oblamov is told in a similar dramatic style to a Tolstoy novel, combined with the deep character analysis of a work by Dostoevsky.Elegant and expertly done translation.

In this sendup of Russian nobility, the title character spends much of his time on his couch, suspended in both physical and psychological inertia, unable to make a decision in his own best interest. Yet the story is entertaining and the translation gives it a contemporary feel.

We all know Oblomov. Goncharov makes his title character sympathetic if not heroic. That's a lot for someone who doesn't do anything.

While I haven’t checked it word-for-word against the Russian text, I can say that it flows and that it brings out the comedy and the satire of this brilliant book. The fact that it is said to have been Tolstoy’s favorite novel says it all for a readership interested in the time period. The first third is brilliant comedy, the middle section about romance and ultimate disappointment is psychologically accurate, but not all that exciting. It picks up again in the closing section. A well-known, but oft-overlooked masterpiece from the period of Russian writing genius that gave us Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Gogol—and their equal Goncharev.

"I desire to remember nothing. Do not disturb the past. It can never be brought back again."Oblomov is quite an interesting character - by turns he is either comical or infuriating - and he is a character I’ll long remember. Is he merely a consummate procrastinator? Why is he so settled with his inaction? Starting comically, the short book hits on some rather weighty topics toward the end. I was impressed with this short classic. Recommended.

good

I have just found my favorite Russian novel.I've previously read some works by Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, and to be honest: the Russian authors can be challenging--lots of characters which are difficult to keep straight (owing in part to their foreign and often similar names), a very different cultural milieu, and sometimes an almost overly intense psychological investigation (stretched out over many hundreds of pages).This novel was superb. It features a very small cast (maybe 5 main characters) and is an incredibly in-depth character study of the title figure, Oblomov.I read this book because it was referenced as an archetype in a book on personality types (the enneagram tool, a Type 9 personality, which is my type). As a result, I may have enjoyed this book more than some other readers: I found so much truth and perspective about my own natural proclivities, foibles, and perspectives in the presentation, thoughts, and circumstances of Oblomov. I so appreciated the character of his friends, who reach out to him and try to deliver him from his self-imposed lifelessness.I can already tell that this will be a book that I will re-read (rare for me), fully worth the investment of enjoying its nearly 500 pages again and again.I understand that Goncharov's other works are fairly unimpressive, but with Oblomov, I have enjoyed the finest Russian fare and would highly recommend it to any reader who appreciates classic literature...or who is a Type 9 enneagram personality.Thoroughly enjoyed.

I did not finish the book. In fact, I did not get beyond the 4th or 5th visitor in the book. Other than flash forwarding a few hundred pages to read if anything was changing, I could not but put the book down with a lot of disappointment. I thought I was ordering something along the lines of War and Peace, Crime and Punishment, Lermontov, Dead Souls, Chekov, Sketches from a Hunter's Album (such was the hype), and found nothing approaching even imitations of that. The humor is thin and redundant. The characterizations are stale and predictable. If this is the best of the author, then he is at best second rate, at least compared to his gigantic peers.

Printed price is only around 200-250 Rs (two hundred).

This was recommended to me by a former professor of Russian history. It is a wonderful story that should be more widely read. It is a funny and absorbing read - not the dark sort of novel that one sometimes associates with Russian literature. The translation reads very smoothly.

Not read it yet. Heard it on the radio. Wonderful.

This was a step above Talstoy, dare I say it, in terms of character psychological conplexity. I thought it was a bit of a masterpiece of writing

I read copiously & particularly enjoy Russian & Eastern European literature, however this failed to keep me glued to my chair. Usually if I pause when reading ,it is to contemplate some piece of brilliance or twist in the story but with this , it was due to boredom. I'm not suggesting it won't hit the spot for others but it didn't for me. In fact it's still waiting to be finished, several weeks after it's arrival which is highly unusual.