GONCHAROV, IVAN ALEXANDROVICH (1812-1891)

This article appears in Volume V12, Page 231 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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GONCHAROV, IVAN ALEXANDROVICH (1812-1891) , Russian novelist, was born 6/18 July 1812, being the son of a rich merchant in the town of Simbirsk. At the age of ten he was placed in one of the gymnasiums at Moscow, from which he passed, though not without some difficulty on account of his ignorance of Greek, into the Moscow University. He read many French works of fiction, and published a

translation

TRANSLATION

of one of the novels of

Eugene

EUGENE

Sue. During his university career he devoted himself to study, taking no

interest

INTEREST

in the political and Socialistic agitation among his fellow-students. He was first employed as secretary to the

governor

GOVERNOR (from the Fr. gouverneur, from gouverner, O. Fr. governer, Lat. gubernare, to steer a ship, to direct, guide)

of Simbirsk, and afterwards in the ministry of finance at St

Petersburg

PETERSBURG

. Being absorbed in bureaucratic

work

WORK

, Goncharov paid no attention to the social questions then ardently discussed by such men as Herzen, Aksakov and Bielinski. He began his literary career by publishing translations from Schiller, Goethe and English novelists. His first

original

ORIGINAL

work

WORK

was Obuiknovennayalstoria, " A Common Story " (1847). In 1856 he sailed to Japan as secretary to Admiral Putiatin for the purpose of negotiating a commercial treaty, and on his return to Russia he published a description of the voyage under the title of " The Frigate Pallada." His best work is Oblomov (1857), which exposed the laziness and apathy of the smaller landed gentry in Russia anterior to the reforms of Alexander II. Russian critics have pronounced this work to be a faithful characterization of Russia and the Russians. Dobrolubov said of it, " Oblomofka [the country-seat of the Oblomovs] is our fatherland: something of Oblomov is to be found in every one of us." Peesarev, another celebrated critic, declared that " Oblomovism," as Goncharov called the sum total of qualities with which he invested the hero of his story, " is an illness fostered by the nature of the Slavonic character and the life of Russian society." In 1858 Goncharov was appointed a censor, and in 1868 he published another novel called Obreev. He was not a voluminous writer, and during the latter part of his life produced nothing of any importance. His death occurred on 15/27 September 1891.
with Elemir Bourges, Lucien Descaves and Leon Daudet as members in addition to those mentioned in de Goncourt's will, the place of Alphonse Daudet having been left vacant by his death in 1897.
On the brothers de Goncourt seethe Journal des Goncourt already cited; also M. A. Belloc (afterwards Lowndes) and M. L. Shedlock, Edmond and Jules de Goncourt, with Letters and Leaves from their

Journals

JOURNALS

(1895) ; Alidor Delzant, Les Goncourt (1889) which contains a valuable bibliography; Lettres de Jules de Goncourt (1888), with

preface

PREFACE (Med. Lat. prefatia, for classical praefatio, praefari, to speak beforehand)

by H. Ceard; R.

Doumic

DOUMIC, RENE (186o– )

, Portraits d'ecrivains (1892); Paul Bourget, Nouveaux Essais de psychologie contemporaine (1886) ; Emile Zola, Les Romanciers naturalistes (1881), &e.

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