Oblomov

For fans of Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation, the classic Russian novel about an indolent aristocrat who spends most of his days in bed

A Penguin Classic

Written with sympathetic humor and compassion, this masterful portrait of upper-class decline made Ivan Goncharov famous throughout Russia on its publication in 1859. Ilya Ilyich Oblomov is a member of Russia’s dying aristocracy–a man so lazy that he has given up his job in the Civil Service, neglected his books, insulted his friends, and found himself in debt. Too apathetic to do anything about his problems, he lives in a grubby, crumbling apartment, waited on by Zakhar, his equally idle servant. Terrified by the activity necessary to participate in the real world, Oblomov manages to avoid work, postpones change, and–finally–risks losing the love of his life. This superb translation by David Magarshack captures all the subtle comedy and near-tragedy of the original.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Editorial Reviews

Oblomov is a truly great work, the likes of which one has not seen for a long, long time. I am in rapture over Oblomov and keep rereading it.“ –Leo Tolstoy

„[Goncharov is] ten heads above me in talent.“ –Anton Chekhov
– From the Publisher

„[Goncharov is] ten heads above me in talent.“-Anton Chekhov
– Anton Chekhov

„Offers a fine example of sly and compassionate satire, a very rare genre indeed“-Michael Wood, London Review of Books
– London Review of Books

„Long before Jerry Seinfeld and Samuel Beckett, there was Ivan Goncharov, a minor government official in czarist Russia, and his classic novel about an ordinary Russian aristocrat mired in his own extraordinary inertia.“-Chris Lehman, Bookforum
– Bookforum

„The combination of Goncharov’s edits and Schwartz’s translation left me thumbing back to the copyright page to confirm 1862, not 1962, as this translation sparkles with contemporary lyricism and humor.“-Karen Vanuska, Quarterly Conversation
– Quarterly Conversation

„You can’t help but be captivated by the ‘rapture’ that Tolstoy spoke of when reading and rereading it.“-Ron Rosenblum, Slate, A Slate Best Book of 2008
– Slate

„Oblomov is a truly great work, the likes of which one has not seen for a long, long time. I am in rapture over Oblomov and keep rereading it.“-Leo Tolstoy
– Leo Tolstoy

„You can’t help but be captivated by the ‘rapture’ that Tolstoy spoke of when reading and rereading it.“-Ron Rosenblum, Slate, A Slate Best Book of 2008
– Slate