Author:Ivan Aleksandrovich Goncharov / Year:1812-1891 / Genre: romance Oblomov is the best known novel by Russian writer Ivan Goncharov, first published in 1859. Oblomov is also the central
character of the novel, often seen as the ultimate incarnation of the superfluous man, a symbolic character in 19th-century
Russian literature. Oblomov was compared to Shakespeare's Hamlet as answering 'No!' to the question "To be or not to be?"
Oblomov is a young, generous nobleman who seems incapable of making important decisions or undertaking any significant
actions. Throughout the novel he rarely leaves his room or bed and famously fails to leave his bed for the first 150 pages
of the novel. The book was considered a satire of Russian nobility whose social and economic function was increasingly in
question in mid-nineteenth century Russia.
