Oblomov by Ivan Goncharov

Oblomov by Ivan Goncharov. Standing on par with the great tragicomedies of Dostoevsky and Gogol, Goncharov’s gentle satire on the failings of nineteenth-century Russian gentry and bureaucracy turns into something deeper and richer than satire as the novelist probes the character of a protagonist whose constitutional lethargy becomes a symbol for the malaise of the human spirit in an alienating world.