Oblomov

Oblomov (in Russian Обломов) is a novel published in 1859, the best known by the Russian writer Ivan Goncharov.

Summary

Oblomov is the novel's protagonist, often regarded as the personification of the "excess man," a recurring cliché throughout 19th-century Russian literature XIX. He is a generous young nobleman who seems incapable of doing anything with his life. Throughout the novel he rarely leaves his room, where he remains lying on a divan trying to avoid the problems, proposals and obligations that come from outside. Until page 150 he doesn't make up his mind to get out of bed.

The book is seen as a satire on the Russian nobility, whose social and economic role was in question in mid-19th century Russia. However, Goncharov's prose makes the reader feel great empathy for the protagonist, explaining with accuracy and psychological sensitivity his unfortunate way of being. It is not about a topic, about a typical character. Thanks to that, the novel enjoys great fame throughout the world, and it is not simply a sociological document of the time and the country in which it is located.

The novel was very popular in Russia and many of the characters and situations have left a strong mark on the Russian language and culture, with Oblomov becoming a popular term to describe anyone who shows a passive and indecisive attitude. Goncharov himself uses the term oblomovschina (or 'oblomovism') at the end of the book to describe the attitude of the protagonist, undoubtedly influenced by the term bovarism which was in vogue throughout Europe due to the fame of the novel Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. And without a doubt, the capital essay, very influential in all subsequent criticism, by Nikolai A. Dobroliubov (1836-1861), «What is Oblomovism?», published in No. 5 of the same 1859, had its importance. in Sovreménnik (The Contemporary).

Similarly, oblomovka refers to the family home, located in the countryside, and described as an idyllic place in the chapter "Oblomov's Dream". It symbolizes recurring escapism: a place and a time (childhood) to which one mentally returns when the inability to decide blocks any action.

Translation

The most modern version in Spanish of Oblomov is the translation by Lydia Kúper de Velasco for the Alba publishing house (Barcelona, 1999), reprinted by the Debolsillo publishing house (2009).

Accommodations

Oblomov was made into a film in the Soviet Union by Nikita Mikhalkov in 1981, with music by Eduard Artemiev and with the following cast: Oleg Tabakov as Oblomov, Andrei Popov as Zakhar (the servant), Elena Solovéi as Olga and Yuri Bogatyriov as Shtolz.

In 1989 the BBC filmed a dramatization of the novel starring Cheers actor George Wendt. An Italian television series was released in 1966, with a duration of 284 minutes.