Recommendations

Books Like Oblomov

Best books to read after Oblomov by Ivan Goncharov

If Oblomov's magnificent inertia captivated you, these picks explore the superfluous man, Russian provincialism, and the gap between idealism and action that defines nineteenth-century Russian fiction.

  1. 1

    Fathers and Sons

    by Ivan Turgenev

    Bazarov is everything Oblomov is not — and just as doomed in his own way.

    Buy
  2. 2

    A Common Story

    by Ivan Goncharov

    Goncharov's debut — another young man's idealism ground down by Petersburg practicality.

    Buy
  3. 3

    Dead Souls

    by Nikolai Gogol

    The provincial Russian landscape Oblomov dreams of — rendered in grotesque comic satire.

    Buy
  4. 4

    The Cherry Orchard

    by Anton Chekhov

    Chekhov's inheritors of Oblomov — a family unable to act until they have lost everything.

    Buy
  5. 5

    Uncle Vanya

    by Anton Chekhov

    Vanya's wasted life and futile rage — oblomovshchina on stage.

    Buy
  6. 6

    Notes from Underground

    by Fyodor Dostoevsky

    The underground man is the anti-Oblomov — paralysed by will rather than its absence.

    Buy
  7. 7

    Rudin

    by Ivan Turgenev

    The superfluous man as eloquent idealist — all speeches and no action.

    Buy
  8. 8

    The Precipice

    by Ivan Goncharov

    Goncharov's final novel — a different kind of paralysis in the Russian provinces.

    Buy

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