Ivan Aleksandrovich Goncharov (1812-1891) was an outstanding Russian writer and literary critic. He was a corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences in the category of Russian language and literature, a full state councilor. The protagonist of Goncharov's most famous novel is a young landowner, hereditary nobleman Ilya Ilyich Oblomov. He is smart and well educated. He, a resident of the capital, has all the prerequisites for successful promotion, for literary activity. But neither career, nor social success, nor writing attract him. He spends most of the day lying on the sofa. Oblomov's complete opposite is his childhood friend Andrei Shtoltz, an energetic and successful businessman. He tries to shake up Ilya. But the world of industrialists, where Stolts tries to introduce Oblomov, is deeply alien to Ilya Ilyich. Turbulent activity aimed at personal gain, he considers it an imitation of true life. The type of national character embodied in the image of Oblomov has not gone anywhere. It is not without reason that the word 'Oblomovshchina' became for centuries a nominal name for the inertness of society. Being one of the top achievements of Russian prose of the XIX century, the novel 'Oblomov' is textbook. Its study is required by the school literature program. Listen to the audio version of this remarkable work.