Usually I disregard the blurbs plastered on the covers and inside pages of books, but two on this one deserve notice.Tolstoy on the front cover: "I am in rapture over Oblomov and keep rereading it."
And Chekhov on the back: "[Goncharov is] ten heads above me in talent."
Oblomov is a Russian couch potato, a flabby landowner who seldom leaves home and spends most of his day dozing in bed. Meek and gullible, he is an easy mark for his friend Tarantiev, who is as grasping and venal as any character in fiction.
His manservant Zakhar, who has dressed him since boyhood, is lazy, clumsy, petty, and loyal. Though he constantly complains about Oblomov, he defends him passionately if anyone else speaks ill of him.
Stolz is Oblomov's one true friend. Active, vigorous, hard-working, and well-travelled, he constantly urges Oblomov to get up off his butt and introduces him to a young woman named Olga. Love blooms and for a time Oblomov is transformed, but his inability to manage his own affairs dooms the relationship.
Though Olga ends up marrying Stolz, both remain devoted to Oblomov for his innocence and purity of heart.
Oblomov's Dream
One of the finest passages in the book is Oblomov's dream of his pampered youth and the simple happy lives of peasants on his family's estate. It describes an idyllic picture of Russian rural life.
Since Stolz and Oblomov grew up together, we also get a picture of Stolz's early home life and how different it was from Oblomov's. Stolz was taught to be self-reliant from an early age.
Analysis
It seemed obvious that the novel was intended as a criticism of the slothfulness of Russian nobility. In an Afterword novelist Mikhail Shishkin indicates this was the usual Soviet interpretation, but argues otherwise.
He states that the marriage of Stolz and Olga is doomed because Stolz is too preoccupied with material advancement. The part-German Stolz lacks the Russian soul that Oblomov and Olga share. Oblomov resists Stolz's advice because it is directed only at personal advancement. There is nothing noble or ideal in it, no higher cause to serve.
Translation
The translation by Marian Schwartz is a recent one and based on the 1862 version, whereas previous ones were based on an earlier edition.
