Ivan Aleksandrovich Goncharov

Born in Simbirsk in 1812, Ivan Aleksandrovich Goncharov grew up in a merchant family and later studied in Moscow. He became one of the important novelists of 19th-century Russian literature, writing about the everyday lives, ambitions, and failures of people living through a changing Russia.

He is most closely associated with three novels: A Common Story, Oblomov, and The Precipice. Oblomov, published in 1859, became his most famous work, and its dreamy, inactive hero gave Russian culture one of its lasting literary types.

Goncharov also worked in government service and wrote travel prose, including an account of a sea voyage to Japan. He died in St. Petersburg in 1891, leaving a small but influential body of work that still stands out for its calm style, sharp observation, and sympathy for human weakness.