Ordinary history

"Ordinary History" (1847) is the first large work of Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov. The novel, enthusiastically accepted by criticism, instantly made the writer famous. The protagonist of "ordinary history", Alexander Aduev, "Three times the romantic - by nature, by education and by the circumstances of life" (V. G. Belinsky), who wants to conquer Petersburg, goes through a number of tests. His confidence in his own ideals is checked by clashes with the dynamic business life of a developed city, with real - and not imaginary - love feelings and with the position of his uncle, who does not believe in any dream province. Goncharov’s novel can be read both as a typical, "ordinary" story of the young man in the middle of the XIX century, and as a story about a difficult choice between different life attitudes awaiting any person.

The accompanying article by Kirill Zubkov, the notes of Zoe Kolchenko

Kirill Yuryevich Zubkov (born 1986) - candidate of philological sciences, teacher of St. Petersburg State University, IRLI RAS employee (Pushkin House), specialist on The stories of Russian literature of the mid -19th century, the author of several dozen books and articles, a researcher at the group to prepare the complete works and letters of I. A. Goncharov in 20 volumes. The sphere of scientific interests, in addition to Goncharov’s work, includes the history of literary criticism, the interaction of literature and censorship, as well as the work of A. N. Ostrovsky