The history of the creation of Oblomov’s work is brief. The history of the creation of the novel "Oblomov"
Demikhovskaya O. A.The creative history of I. A. Goncharov’s novel “Oblomov”// Goncharov I. A.: Materials of the anniversary Goncharov conference in 1987 / Ed.: N. B. Sharygina. - Ulyanovsk: Simbirsk book, 1992 . - pp. 135-142.
O. A. Demikhovskaya
CREATIVE HISTORY OF I. A. GONCHAROV’S NOVEL “OBLOMOV”
Questions about the history of the creation of I. A. Goncharov’s novel “Oblomov” have attracted the attention of many researchers. However, it remained a mystery for a long time how it could happen that the novel, work on which lasted about ten years, was suddenly written in a few weeks, when the writer was undergoing treatment in Marienbad. It is no coincidence that this literary phenomenon, called the “Marienbad miracle,” aroused amazement and keen interest. Finally, after the publication of I. A. Goncharov’s letters to E. V. Tolstoy, it seemed that the mystery had been solved: the heroine of the novel had a living prototype, which inspired the writer to create the novel “in her name” at lightning speed. This explanation was accepted by literary scholars and entered scientific use, acquiring the force of a traditional concept.
Over time, a different point of view appears. But the question of Olga Ilyinskaya’s prototype sparks a debate.
Who is Ilyinskaya’s prototype?
This becomes clearer when solving the problem of prototypicality and typicality in the novel, the question of the relationship between the artistic image and the prototype.
Pointing to the slowness of Goncharov’s pen as a feature of his talent, they usually noted how long it took to write his novels: “Oblomov” - ten years, “Breakage” - twenty years; but at the same time it was forgotten that the writer had to take care of a piece of bread. The writer’s later confession about this: “...most of all I loved the pen. Writing was my passion. But I served - out of necessity (and then as a censor, God forgive me!), traveled around the world - and in addition to writing, I had to take care of obtaining content” 1 . Indeed, an excerpt from the first part of “Oblomov” - “Oblomov’s Dream” - was published in 1849, and then - service in the department, a trip around the world, the creation of essays “Frigate “Pallada”, the beginning of work on “The Cliff”, censorship that absorbed everything creative forces, which left no free time for other activities.
Work on “Oblomov” was delayed. By the summer of 1857, when, on doctors' orders, Goncharov went to Marienbad, only the first part of the novel was ready. During the two summer months in Marienbad, which turned out to be a time of extraordinary influx of creative forces, three parts of Oblomov were written, with the exception of the very last four chapters, which were then completed in St. Petersburg. The amazingly short time in which almost the entire novel was created is largely due to the fact that what was conceived in 1847 was nurtured by the author for many years and was carefully thought out. The image of the main character Olga Ilyinskaya, which arose in the writer’s imagination at this very time, was especially inspired. In letters from Marienbad to I. I. Lkhovsky and Yu. D. Efremova in July and August 1857, expressions appear that relate to Olga Ilyinskaya: “I can’t get enough of it, I can’t get enough of it,” “I live, I breathe only her” 2 .
Falling in love with the created image of the heroine allows us to assume the existence of a prototype, especially since the author himself, in the concluding lines of his “literary confession” - the critical notes “Better late than never” - wrote: “that which has not grown and matured in me, what I did not see, did not observe, what I did not live - that is inaccessible to my pen!.. I wrote only what I experienced, what I thought, felt, what I loved, what I saw and knew closely - in a word, I wrote both my life and that , what grew into it” 3.
To the question of who could serve as the prototype for Olga Ilyinskaya, there are two points of view in literary criticism. P. N. Sakulin considers Elizaveta Vasilievna Tolstoy to be the prototype of the heroine of the novel “Oblomov”. According to O. M. Chemena, Olga’s prototype is Ekaterina Pavlovna Maykova.
According to the concept of P. N. Sakulin, the problem of prototypicality in the novel by I. A. Goncharov is solved by studying the relationship of the writer with E. V. Tolstoy, which falls on the first half of the 1850s, when intensive work on the novel was going on. P. N. Sakulin’s point of view is cogently presented in the article “A new chapter from the biography of I. A. Goncharov in unpublished letters” 4. He notes that Goncharov's letters to Tolstoy introduce us to the most intimate corners of the writer's inner life. Indeed, these letters reflected the innermost feelings of I. A. Goncharov, who was in love with E. V. Tolstoy. They open one of the most poetic pages of the writer’s biography.
Goncharov met E.V. Tolstaya in the Maykov family in the early 40s, when she was only 16 years old. Even then she made an irresistible impression on him. Leaving an entry in the album, the writer wished her a “holy and serene future” 5 . Goncharov met E.V. Tolstoy again only 12 years later, in the fall of 1855, when he had already returned from a trip around the world. He was under the spell of her personality, her enchanting beauty, kind heart, subtle, gentle female mind. In her the writer saw the ideal of a woman. According to Goncharov, “she was given everything to be the only one among the few - sublimity of character, purity of heart, directness and dignity...” 6.
The departure of E.V. Tolstoy to Moscow (October 18, 1855) gave rise to a whole series of letters from Goncharov - “Pour et contre”. On behalf of his “friend” he talks about his love, about his mental anguish. “Pour et contre” is a sincere and moving confession of love. But the hero of E.V. Tolstoy’s novel was destined to become not Goncharov, but her cousin Alexander Illarionovich Musin-Pushkin, a brilliant officer and Yaroslavl landowner. In the fall of 1856 she was already his bride, and in January 1857 she married him.
Ironically, I. A. Goncharov had to arrange the happiness of E. V. Tolstoy: at the request of her mother, to petition the Synod for permission to marry her cousin.
As a consolation and as a souvenir for himself, he asked her husband E.V. Tolstoy for a photograph of her, taken from a portrait painted in paint by N.A. Maikov, in which, according to I.A. Goncharov, the artist captured “the most poetic side... of beauty » 7.
"AND. A. Goncharov the man suffered a severe setback: life took away his good and bright dream, his personal existence became paler and dimmer... But Goncharov the artist remained a winner: he suffered the right to “artistically” enjoy the portrait of Elizaveta Vasilievna; ...in moments of creativity, her image will shine to him from an unknown distance” 8.
The portrait of E. V. Tolstoy, which reflected “the most poetic side of general female beauty,” helped I. A. Goncharov paint the image of Olga Ilyinskaya. P. N. Sakulin talks about two novels that developed in parallel: one novel I. A. Goncharov experiences himself and sets out in letters to E. V. Tolstoy, the other creates in the form of a literary work, but also in her name. On October 25, 1855, Goncharov wrote: “You didn’t even suspect that you had barely managed to pass Tver, but in my head, it’s not true, in my soul the plan for the attached chapter of the novel had already matured. You have not yet looked around Moscow, but the plan has already been sketched out on paper, is now being rewritten and sent to you tomorrow - not the novel that should be ready in a year and a half in your name, but the one that began in the soul of the hero and, God knows when it ends" 9.
By a novel that happens “in the soul,” I. A. Goncharov means his “confession” “Pour et contre.” The second novel is “Oblomov,” which Goncharov was working on just at this time. The image of E.V. Tolstoy lived in Goncharov’s soul, “and his feeling, artistically translated, was a living ingredient in his work” 10.
Letters from I. A. Goncharov to E. V. Tolstoy represent a parallel to the corresponding pages of the novel “Oblomov”. The creator of the novel and his hero are guided by the same theory of love. They have the same ideal of a woman: for the hero of the novel he was embodied in Olga Sergeevna, for I. A. Goncharov - in E. V. Tolstoy. The portraits of E.V. Tolstoy and Olga Ilyinskaya, executed in the same lyrical coloring, almost coincide. E. V. Tolstaya “was created harmoniously and beautifully, externally and internally.” “She is such an artistically dapper creature, she is an aristocrat of nature” 11. If Olga Ilyinskaya “were turned into a statue, she would be a statue of grace and harmony.” She is an “artistically created being.” The writer endowed Olga Ilyinskaya with features that he noticed in E.V. Tolstoy. Goncharov called E.V. Tolstoy his ideal, “the most beautiful, the best, the first woman” 12. "Olga! - exclaimed Oblomov. “You... are better than all women, you are the first woman in the world!..” 13
The general concept of both novels is the same: a beautiful girl momentarily illuminates the dull existence of a decrepit bachelor. Goncharov persistently attributes to E.V. Tolstoy the same significance in his life that Olga had in Oblomov’s life. “The inner life that was revealed in I. A. Goncharov’s letters to E. V. Tolstoy is the basis for the most poetic pages of the writer’s best novel. The happiness of love he himself experienced fell like bright reflections on the pages of his novel” 14.
Thus, based on the letters of I. A. Goncharov to E. V. Tolstoy, analogues of which are on the pages of Oblomov, P. N. Sakulin believes that it was E. V. Tolstaya who served as the prototype for the image of Olga Ilyinskaya.
On the question of the prototype of the image of Olga Ilyinskaya in literary criticism, as noted above, there is another point of view, belonging to O. M. Chemena. Rejecting the concept of P.N. Sakulin, the researcher is trying to prove that the prototype of Goncharov’s heroine is Ekaterina Pavlovna Maykova. She bases her conviction on the writer’s closeness to the Maykov family, with whom he had been familiar since his arrival in St. Petersburg in 1835 and into which E.P. Kalita entered in the fall of 1852, becoming the wife of V.N. Maykov.
E.P. Maykova developed in the atmosphere of the famous literary salon of the Maykovs, whose regular visitors were many writers of the 40s and 50s. I. S. Turgenev, F. M. Dostoevsky, I. I. Panaev visited here. Ekaterina Pavlovna knew A. A. Fet and Ya. P. Polonsky, whom she met at literary evenings and readings that were then held in St. Petersburg. Of all the writers, the closest to her was I. A. Goncharov. They had a long and strong friendship. That’s what she liked to call her relationship with the writer E.P. Maikova. Goncharov also admitted his friendship to her in letters. Based on the well-known testimony of E. A. Stackenschneider, O. M. Chemena believes that the writer was carried away by E. P. Maykova 15. According to the researcher, in her Goncharov saw a woman “of a special type, constantly searching and not satisfied with anything” 16. Her remark is fair that Goncharov’s “growth” into the family of the younger Maykovs is explained not only by the charm of the 20-year-old woman. In this family, the writer “opened up a wide field for observation and study of the multifaceted female nature, for which the clutches of family responsibilities gradually became tight” 17 .
Comparing the draft autograph of “Oblomov” with the printed text, the researcher comes to the conclusion that the image of Olga Ilyinskaya in the period from the autumn of 1857 to the autumn of 1958 underwent significant changes. In St. Petersburg, Goncharov reworks the image of the heroine. In this O. M. Chemena sees the influence of E. P. Maykova.
In the 8th chapter of the novel, Olga Stolts appears instead of Olga Ilyinskaya, who is given the traits of dissatisfaction with the present, the desire for meaningful, socially significant work, characteristic of E. P. Maykova. In the image of Olga Stolz, Goncharov projected the character of the real Maykova. At the same time, O. M. Chemena claims that Olga Stolts arose earlier than Olga Ilyinskaya, decisively excluding the possibility of the existence of another prototype. And this contradicts the laws of realism. It is known that when creating an artistic image, a writer selects the most typical characters of reality, and sometimes makes them only the basis of the image, enriching them with features that are captured in many people. The artist’s creative imagination creates a new character, although similar to the one that actually exists. An artistic image is a generalization, a typification of a broader property than the individual person who served as the prototype. Consequently, an artistic image is not identical to the face of real life, it is not reducible to its prototype, and because it includes a development trend guessed in it by the artist. But it is the presence of a prototype that gives the image its vitality and full-bloodedness.
Reflecting on the patterns of artistic creativity of Russian writers and his own creative practice, Goncharov created a doctrine about the aesthetics of realism, primarily about artistic truth and typicality, which took the form of critical articles and statements in his letters to contemporary writers. Pointing to the specific means of mastering reality at the disposal of the artist, he wrote: “Nature is too strong and unique to take it, so to speak, in its entirety, measure its own strength with it and directly stand next to it; she won't give in. She has her own too powerful means. A direct photograph of her will turn out to be a pitiful, powerless copy. It allows you to approach it only through creative imagination... Otherwise it would be too easy to be an artist. If only, on the advice of one person in Gogol’s “Razezd,” one would have to sit by the window and write down what is happening on the street, and a comedy or story would come out.”18
Goncharov was convinced that the fundamental law of art is truth. The artist's talent is interpreted by the writer primarily as the ability to truthfully reflect life. “Talent has this precious property that it cannot lie or distort the truth: an artist ceases to be an artist as soon as he begins to defend sophistry, and even less so if he decides to portray a conscious lie. He will also cease to be an artist in this case if he moves away from the image and becomes on the basis of a thinker, a wise guy, or a moralist and preacher! His job is to portray and portray...” 19.
The question of artistic truth is closely related to the question of typicality. In a letter to F. M. Dostoevsky dated February 14, 1874, Goncharov spoke about the importance of creativity, which “is expressed precisely by the fact that he has to isolate certain features and characteristics from nature in order to create verisimilitude, that is, to achieve his artistic truth.” 20, create typical images.
What is Goncharov type? “...A type is composed of long and many repetitions or layers of phenomena and persons, where the similarities of both become more frequent over time, and finally become established, solidify and become familiar to the observer”; “A type, I mean, from that time on becomes a type when it was repeated many times or was noticed many times, took a closer look and became familiar to everyone”; “By types I mean something very fundamental - established for a long time and for a long time and sometimes forming a series of generations”; “Types are formed and multiply in the everyday environment of current life phenomena: repetitions of these phenomena are layered and form many specimens or species, all distinguished in the crowd by their usual features, characteristics, and forms” 21 . “Only that which leaves a noticeable feature in life, that which enters, so to speak, into its capital, its future foundation, is included in a work of art that leaves a lasting mark in literature” 22.
Goncharov's types represent significant artistic achievements. The typological art of the writer was characterized by N. A. Dobrolyubov, who wrote that the novelist “did not want to lag behind the phenomenon that he once cast his gaze on without tracing it to the end, without finding its causes, without understanding its connection with all the surrounding phenomena. He wanted to ensure that the random image that flashed before him was elevated to a type, giving it a generic and permanent meaning” 23.
The heroine of I. A. Goncharov’s novel “Oblomov” Olga Ilyinskaya is an artistic image created by the creative imagination of the novelist, a type corresponding to the era. The basis for this artistic image was given by prototypes existing in reality. Of course, Goncharov did not start from a single prototype. He observed the life and character of both E.V. Tolstoy and E.P. Maykova. The character traits and circumstances of life of these two Russian women were embodied in the image of Olga Ilyinskaya.
The arguments of O. M. Chemena in favor of E. P. Maykova as the prototype of Olga Ilyinskaya do not cancel the concept of P. N. Sakulin. They only help clarify the question of the prototype of Olga Ilyinskaya at the stage when she has already become Olga Stolz. Her image embodies the best national traits of the Russian female character; N.A. Dobrolyubov wrote: “Olga, in her development, represents the highest ideal that only a Russian artist can now evoke from present-day Russian life” 24 .
Creating the image of Olga Ilyinskaya, Goncharov predicted the emergence in reality of a new breed of people of high spirituality, not satisfied with life only in the family sphere, striving for public service, who in the history of social thought received the name of their creator - “Goncharov’s women.” Goncharov's heroines became the prototypes of new women - enlighteners of the sixties. Olga Ilyinskaya influenced, in particular, Ekaterina Maykova, whose spiritual development took place in an atmosphere of friendship with Goncharov, when the novel “Oblomov” was created. In it Dobrolyubov saw “the makings of a new life, not the one in which modern society grew up” 25. E.P. Maykova continued the life of Goncharov’s heroine, in turn serving as the prototype for the image of Vera in the novel “The Precipice”, that is, the same Olga Ilyinskaya at a new stage of historical development, whose character was taken to its logical limit.
1 Goncharov I. A. An extraordinary story. - In the book: Collection of the Russian Public Library. Pg., 1924, p. 125.
2 Goncharov I. A. Collection. Op. in 8 vols. M., GIHL, 1952-1955, vol. 8, p. 282, 288.
9 Ibid., p. 230.
10 Ibid., p. 56.
13 Goncharov I. A. Collection. cit., vol. 4, p. 271.
15 See: Stackenschneider E. A. Diary and notes (1854-1886). - M. - L., Academia, 1934, p. 196.
16 Chemena O. M. “Oblomov” Goncharova and Ekaterina Maykova. - Russian literature, 1959, No. 3, p. 161.
17 Ibid., p. 162.
18 Goncharov I. A. Collection. soch., vol. 8, p. 107.
19 Ibid., p. 127.
20 Ibid., p. 459.
21 Ibid., p. 457, 459, 460, 205.
22 Ibid., p. 128.
23 Dobrolyubov N. A. What is Oblomovism? - In the book: I. A. Goncharov in Russian criticism. M., Hood. literature, 1958, p. 57.
24 Ibid., p. 91.
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 “The Precipice”. The history of the creation of the novel “Oblomov” by Goncharov began long before the idea of the work appeared - the idea of “Oblomovism” as an all-encompassing social phenomenon appeared to the author even before the appearance of the first novel of the trilogy, “An Ordinary History.”
Chronology of the creation of the novel
Researchers consider the prototype of “Oblomovism” in Goncharov’s early work to be the story “Dashing Illness,” written in 1838. The work described a strange epidemic, the main symptom of which was “the blues”; patients began to build castles in the air and indulge themselves in empty dreams. Manifestations of a similar “disease” are observed in the main character of the novel, Oblomov.
However, the history of the novel “Oblomov” itself 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”.
While writing the chapter, the writer was in his homeland, Simbirsk, where, in a patriarchal way of life that retained the imprint of antiquity, Goncharov gleaned many examples of “Oblomov’s dream,” which he depicted first in a printed passage and then in a novel. At the same time, the writer had already prepared a briefly sketched plan for the future work and a draft version of the entire first part.
In 1850, Goncharov created a clean 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, went on a trip around the world on the frigate Pallada. Work on the work was resumed only in June 1857, when, while staying in Marienbard, the writer completed almost the entire novel in seven weeks. As Goncharov said later, during the journey, the novel had already completely taken shape in his imagination, and it just needed to be transferred to paper.
In the fall of 1858, Goncharov completely completed 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.
Prototypes of the heroes of the novel “Oblomov”
Oblomov
The creative history of the novel “Oblomov” originates in the life of the author himself, Ivan Goncharov. For the writer, he said, it was important to depict true reality, without straying into the “soil of a thinker.”
That is why Goncharov copied the central character, Ilya Ilyich Oblomov, from himself. According to the memoirs of the writer’s contemporaries, the author and the character of the novel have a lot in common - they both come from the Russian outback with a patriarchal, outdated way of life, both are slow and at first glance lazy, at the same time they have a lively mind, artistic imagination and a certain dreaminess, which cannot be said from the first impression.
Olga
Goncharov also drew the prototype for the main female character, Olga Ilyinskaya, 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. Tolstoy - like Olga for Oblomov, Elizaveta Vasilievna was for him the ideal of a woman, warmth, feminine intelligence and beauty. The correspondence between Goncharov and E. Tolstoy represents a parallel with the events of the novel - even the theory of love between the creator and the hero of the book coincides. The author endowed Olga with all the beautiful features that he saw in Elizaveta Vasilievna, transferring his own feelings and experiences onto paper. Just as Olga in the novel was not destined to marry Oblomov, so E. Tolstoy was expected to marry her cousin A.I. Musin-Pushkin.
The prototype of the married heroine, Olga Stolts, becomes Maykova, the wife of V.N. Maykov. Ekaterina Pavlovna and Goncharov had a strong and long-lasting friendship that began at one of the evenings at the Makov literary salon. 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 increasingly resembled not E. Tolstoy, but Maikova.
Agafya
The second important female image of the novel, the image of Agafya Matveevna Pshenitsyna, was copied by Goncharov from the memories of the writer’s mother, Avdotya Matveevna. According to researchers, the tragedy of the marriage between Agafya and Oblomov became a reflection of the life drama of Goncharov’s godfather, N. Tregubov.
Stolz
The image of Stolz is not only a composite character of the German type, a bearer of a different mentality and a different worldview. The description of the hero is based on the history of the family of Karl-Friedrich Rudolf, the father of Elizaveta Goncharova, the wife of the writer’s older brother. This connection is also indicated by the fact that in the 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.
conclusions
The history of the creation of “Oblomov” allows us to better understand the ideological meaning of the novel, its inner depth and special importance for the author. Having “nurtured” 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.
Work test
In 1838, Goncharov wrote a humorous story called “Dashing Illness,” which dealt with a strange epidemic that originated in Western Europe and came to St. Petersburg: empty dreams, castles in the air, “the blues.” This “dashing sickness” is a prototype of “Oblomovism”.
The entire novel “Oblomov” was first published in 1859 in the first four issues of the magazine “Otechestvennye zapiski”. The beginning of work on the novel dates back to an earlier period. In 1849, one of the central chapters of “Oblomov” was published - “Oblomov’s Dream”, which the author himself called “the overture of the entire novel.” The author asks the question: what is “Oblomovism” - a “golden age” or death, stagnation? In “The Dream...” the motifs of staticity and immobility, stagnation predominate, but at the same time one can feel the author’s sympathy, good-natured humor, and not just satirical negation.
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,” Goncharov wrote, “after the publication of Ordinary History in 1847 in Sovremennik, 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 life retained the imprint of patriarchal antiquity. In this small town, the writer saw many examples of the “sleep” that the inhabitants of his fictional Oblomovka slept.
Work on the novel was interrupted due to Goncharov's trip around the world on the frigate Pallada. Only in the summer of 1857, after the publication of the travel essays “Frigate “Pallada””, Goncharov continued work on “Oblomov”. In the summer of 1857, he went to the resort of Marienbad, where within a few weeks he completed three parts of the novel. In August of the same year, Goncharov began working 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 can 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 per month. The fact of the matter is that the novel was taken down to the smallest scenes and details and all that remained was to write it down.” Goncharov recalled this in his article “An Extraordinary History”: “The entire novel had already been completely processed in my head - and I transferred it to paper, as if taking dictation...” However, while preparing the novel for publication, Goncharov rewrote it in 1858 "Oblomov", adding new scenes to it, and made some cuts. Having completed work on the novel, Goncharov said: “I wrote my life and what grows into it.”
Goncharov admitted that the idea of “Oblomov” was influenced by Belinsky’s ideas. The most important circumstance that influenced the concept of the work is considered to be Belinsky’s speech regarding 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” claiming 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 different ending to the novel than in “An Ordinary History.” When creating the image of Oblomov, Goncharov used a number of characteristic features outlined by Belinsky in his analysis of “An Ordinary History.”
The image of Oblomov also contains autobiographical features. By Goncharov’s own admission, he himself was a sybarite, he loved serene peace, which gives rise to creativity. In his travel diary “Frigate “Pallada””, Goncharov admitted that during the trip he spent most of the time in the cabin, lying on the sofa, not to mention the difficulty with which he decided to sail around the world. In the friendly circle of the Maykovs, who treated the writer with great love, Goncharov was given the ambiguous nickname - “Prince de Lazy.”
The appearance of the novel “Oblomov” coincided with the most acute crisis of serfdom. The image of an apathetic landowner, incapable of activity, who grew up and was brought up in the patriarchal atmosphere of a manorial estate, where the gentlemen lived serenely thanks to the labor of serfs, was very relevant for his 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 environment and upbringing disfigure a person’s beautiful nature, giving rise to laziness, apathy, and lack of will.
Oblomov's path is a typical path of 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 inevitable expectation of promotion, from year to year the monotony of complaints, petitions, establishing relationships with clerks - this turned out to be beyond Oblomov’s strength. He preferred colorless lying on the sofa, devoid of hopes and aspirations, to moving up the career ladder. One of the reasons for “dashing illness,” according to the author, is the imperfection of society. This thought of the author is conveyed to the hero: “Either I don’t understand this life, or it’s no good.” This phrase by Oblomov makes us recall 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 the image of an honest and kind, sympathetic nature, an extremely idealist, struggling all his life, seeking the truth, encountering lies at every step, being deceived and falling into apathy and impotence.” In Oblomov, the dreaminess that was rushing out in Alexander Aduev, the hero of “An Ordinary Story,” lies dormant. At heart, 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 “dove meekness”, but also passions are accessible to him. Each meeting with his childhood friend Andrei Stolts, the complete opposite of Oblomov, brings the latter out of his 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 Stolts 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 channel along which Ilya Ilyich’s life 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, several 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.
The history of the creation of the novel "Oblomov". Theme, idea, problematic, composition.
“The story of how the sloth Oblomov lies and sleeps
and even though neither friendship nor love can awaken and raise him,
God knows what a story..."
1. The concept of the novel “Oblomov.
The concept of the novel "Oblomov" arose in 1847, but the work was created slowly. In 1849 one was published in the Sovremennik magazine chapter from the novel "Oblomov's Dream", in which he gave an amazingly bright and deep picture of patriarchal landowner life. But the main part of the novel was written almost 10 years later, V 1857, in Marienbad (Germany), where Goncharov was treated with mineral waters. During this decade, the author not only carefully thought through the entire plan of the work, but also all the plot moves and details. Subsequently, the writer noted that he “wrote almost all of the last 3 volumes of Oblomov within 7 weeks.” Goncharov did a colossal job. He wrote until he was exhausted. “I worked so hard, did so much in these two months that no one else wrote so much in his two lives.”
IN 1858"Oblomov" wasfinished, and was fully published only in 1859.
2. Theme, idea of the novel.
The theme is the fate of a generation searching for its place in society, but unable to find the right path.
Idea - show the conditions that give rise to laziness and apathy, trace how a person gradually fades away, turning into a dead soul. " I tried to show in Oblomov how and why our people turn prematurely into... jelly - the climate, the outback environment, the drowsy life and more private, individual circumstances for each».
3. Issues
1) In his novel the writer showed what serfdom has a detrimental effect on life, culture, and science . The consequence of these orders is stagnation and immobility in all areas of life .
2) Conditions landowner life And noble upbringing give birth to a hero apathy, lack of will, indifference .
3) Personality degradation and personality disintegration.
4) Goncharov puts in the novel questions about genuine friendship, love, O humanism.
Time, depicted in the novel "Oblomov", about 40 years old.
4. Artistic merits of the novel “Oblomov” :
1) A broad picture of life in Russia is presented.
2) Particular attention is paid to the description of the internal state of the characters: the internal monologue of the characters and the transmission of experiences through gesture, voice, and movements.
3) The full disclosure of the character of the characters is achieved through repeating details (for Oblomov - a robe and slippers).
5. Structure of the novel:
Part 1 - Oblomov lies on the sofa.
Part 2 - Oblomov goes to the Ilyinskys and falls in love with Olga, and she with him.
Part 3 - Olga sees that she was mistaken about Oblomov, and they part ways.
Part 4 - Olga marries Stolz, and Oblomov marries the owner of the house where he rents an apartment - Agafya Matveevna Pshenitsy noah. Lives on the Vyborg side, peace that turns into “eternal peace.”
« That's all. No external events, no obstacles...interfere with the romance. Oblomov's laziness and apathy are the only spring of action in his entire story. ()
6. Composition
All actions unfold around the main character - Ilya Ilyich Oblomov. He unites all the characters around him. There is little action in the novel. Scene in the novel - Petersburg.
1. Exposition - the first part and 1.2 chapters of part 2 are drawn out, the conditions for the formation of Oblomov’s character are shown in great detail.
2. Tie 3 and 5 ch. Part 2 - Oblomov’s acquaintance with Olga. Oblomov’s feelings for Olga are growing stronger, but he doubts whether he can give up laziness.
3. Climax - Chapter 12 of the 3rd part. Ilya Ilyich declares his love for Olga. But he cannot sacrifice his peace, which leads to a quick break in the relationship.
4. Denouement– 11, 12 chapters of part 3, which show Oblomov’s insolvency and bankruptcy.
In chapter 4 of the novel - further decline of the hero. He finds ideal living conditions for himself in Pshenitsyna’s house. He again lies on the sofa in a robe all day long. The hero suffers a final downfall. Relationship between Olga and Stolz.
In the epilogue – Chapter 11, part 4, Goncharov talks about the death of Oblomov, the fate of Zakhar, Stolz and Olga. This chapter explains the meaning of “Oblomovism.”
