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GONCHAROV, IVAN ALEXANDROVICH (1812-1...

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 231 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GONCHAROV, See also:IVAN ALEXANDROVICH (1812-1891) , See also:Russian novelist, was See also:born 6/18 See also:July 1812, being the son of a See also:rich See also:merchant in the See also:town of See also:Simbirsk. At the See also:age of ten he was placed in one of the gymnasiums at See also:Moscow, from which he passed, though not without some difficulty on See also:account of his See also:ignorance of See also:Greek, into the Moscow University. He read many See also:French See also:works of fiction, and published a See also:translation of one of the novels of See also:Eugene See also:Sue. During his university career he devoted himself to study, taking no See also:interest in the See also:political and Socialistic agitation among his See also:fellow-students. He was first employed as secretary to the See also:governor of Simbirsk, and afterwards in the See also:ministry of See also:finance at St See also:Petersburg. Being absorbed in bureaucratic See also:work, Goncharov paid no See also:attention to the social questions then ardently discussed by such men as Herzen, Aksakov and Bielinski. He began his See also:literary career by See also:publishing See also:translations from See also:Schiller, See also:Goethe and See also:English novelists. His first See also:original work was Obuiknovennayalstoria, " A See also:Common See also:Story " (1847). In 1856 he sailed to See also:Japan as secretary to See also:Admiral Putiatin for the purpose of negotiating a commercial treaty, and on his return to See also:Russia he published a description of the voyage under the See also:title of " The See also: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 See also:Alexander II. Russian critics have pronounced this work to be a faithful characterization of Russia and the Russians. Dobrolubov said of it, " Oblomofka [the See also: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 See also:total of qualities with which he invested the See also:hero of his story, " is an illness fostered by the nature of the See also:Slavonic See also:character and the See also:life of Russian society." In 1858 Goncharov was appointed a See also:censor, and in 1868 he published another novel called Obreev. He was not a voluminous writer, and during the latter See also:part of his life produced nothing of any importance.

His See also:

death occurred on 15/27 See also:September 1891. with Elemir See also:Bourges, Lucien Descaves and See also:Leon See also:Daudet as members in addition to those mentioned in de See also:Goncourt's will, the See also:place of See also:Alphonse Daudet having been See also:left vacant by his death in 1897. On the See also:brothers de Goncourt seethe See also:Journal See also:des Goncourt already cited; also M. A. Belloc (afterwards See also:Lowndes) and M. L. Shedlock, Edmond and Jules de Goncourt, with Letters and Leaves from their See also:Journals (1895) ; Alidor Delzant, See also:Les Goncourt (1889) which contains a valuable bibliography; Lettres de Jules de Goncourt (1888), with See also:preface by H. Ceard; R. See also:Doumic, Portraits d'ecrivains (1892); See also:Paul See also:Bourget, Nouveaux Essais de psychologie contemporaine (1886) ; Emile See also:Zola, Les Romanciers naturalistes (1881), &e.

End of Article: GONCHAROV, IVAN ALEXANDROVICH (1812-1891)

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