Ivan Alexandrovitx Gontxarov

Set at the beginning of the nineteenth century, before the ideal of industrious modern man, when idleness was still looked upon by Russia's serf-owning rural gentry as a plausible and worthy goal, there was Oblomov. Indolent, inattentive, incurious, given to daydreaming and procrastination—indeed, given to any excuse …

On the Eve is the third novel by famous Russian writer Ivan Turgenev, best known for his short stories and the novel Fathers and Sons. Turgenev embellishes this love story with observations on middle class life and interposes some art and philosophy. Nikolay Dobrolyubov was critical of On the Eve, offending Turgenev.

The Precipice is the third novel by Ivan Goncharov, first published in January–May 1869 issues of Vestnik Evropy magazine. The novel, conceived in 1849, took twenty years to be completed and has been preceded by the publication of the three extracts: "Sophja Nikolayevna Belovodova", "Grandmother" and "Portrait". The …