A Common Story
Encyclopedia
A Common Story is a debut novel by Ivan Goncharov
written in 1844-1846 and first published in the 1847
March and April issues of Sovremennik
magazine.
to read his debut novel and give an advise as to where it might be possibly passed on to Vissarion Belinsky
for a final verdict. Yazykov flicked through several pages, got bored, put the manuscriptit aside and forgot all about it. Several months later he recalled the incident and gave the book to Nikolay Nekrasov, with a comment: "Looks like a weak one, not worthy of publication". Nekrasov looked through the novel, thought differently and carried it to Belinsky who instantly recognized the emergence of a major talent. The premiere reading of the book has taken place at Belinsky's flat. According to Ivan Panaev
, while listening to Goncharov's recital, the critic has been fidgeting on his chair, jumping up from time to time, eyes shining, and each time the author was having a short break, he was giving out an ironic cry: "So, Yazykov, is it a 'weak one', is it 'unworthy'?"
"Even three months after this presentation Belinsky, each time we met, was bursting into congratulations, speaking of what a promising future awaited for me", Goncharov wrote in his Uncommon Story memoirs. On April 1, 1846 Fyodor Dostoyevsky wrote in a letter to his brother: "The real host of new writers has emerged, some of the surely my rivals. Most remarkable are Hertzen (Iskander) and Goncharov. The former has been published already, the latter is unpublished yet, both being greatly praised".
on march 17, 1847. "Goncharov’s debut novel was very successful both in literary saloons and with wider audience", attested biographer Gavriil Potanin. Avdotya Panaeva
remembered: "My God, and how agitated all the curious men of letters became all of a sudden! Everybody wanted to know details of the new author’s life, past and present, which class did he come from, what circles did he belong to, et cetera".
Years later, explaining the plot's major dilemma, Goncharov wrote in Better Late Than Never essay: "This nephew versus uncle opposition was the reflection of the process that has been just starting at the time, when system of old concepts and customs was beginning to crumble down – and with it sentimentality, grotesque expression of feelings of love and friendship, poetisation of idleness, nets of domestic lies, knitted from preposterous, totally groundless emotionalism."
The novel had an immediate effect upon its readers. Critic Aleksander Skabichevsky remembered: "Instantly I recognized myself in its main hero, Aleksander Aduev, for as him, I used to be sentimentally complacent, and was taking great care to keep hairs, and flowers, and all other 'material symbols of immaterial relations'. And so ashamed was I of this similarity as to gather all the little souvenirs that I was keeping at my house, threw them into the fire and give on oath to myself never to fall in love again, ever". In his Better Late Than Never (1879) essay Goncharov wrote: "While working on A Common Story I had in mind, of course, myself and people like myself, young men who were first studying at home or at the University, leading peaceful lives under their kind and protective mother’s wings, then breaking away with this tenderness, coming through lots of tearful farewells to find themselves in Saint Petersburg, this arena for all activity… And only there to experience this first spark of consciousness, this still dim realization that one needs to work, not some kind of bureaucratic routine, but real work to overcome this all-Russian stagnation".
(#1, 1848) critic Stepan Dudyshkin, horrified by the Aduev-senior character, wrote: "I'd rather have people remaining romantics than have this business-like positivity of Pyotr Ivanovich for an alternative". Faddey Bulgarin gave the author some credit but still argued that his novel's social significance would be nil. Also in Severnaya ptchela, critic L.Brandt (under Я.Я.Я. moniker) accused Goncharov in trying to "debase each and every heartfelt movement of Aleksander, every emotional outburst, quite excusably for a young man" so as to show that "all the decent people were to have Pyotr Ivanovich for a role model, when in fact this Pyotr Ivanovich is nothing more than a well-glued-up automaton, surely not a human being". The Moskvityanin magazine also came up to defend Romanticism
and romantics as being attacked by the author.
For Belinsky the discussion was a handy pretext to wage another ideological war against those whome he regarded "old-timers. In an essay called "A Look at the Russian Literature of 1847" he mentioned several worthy novels of the year, picking up two - Alexander Hertzen’s Who Is to Blame? and Ivan Goncharov's A Common Story - as the best. Belinsky gave such a characteristic to Aduev-junior: "He's thrice a romantic: by nature, by upbringing and by circumstances of life, while one single reasons would have been enough to misguide a good man and prompt him doing lots of silly things. [...] He is a bit of a musician, a bit of a poet, a bit of an artists and even - at times of need, a bit of a critic and writer, but these talents of his are such that he’s unable not only to make himself a name, but even support himself minimally".
Anti-romanticism crusade being one of his major issues at the time, Belinsky wrote: "Romantics tend to think its them who have the privilege of having strong feelings, while others do not - just because these others do not cry of their feelings aloud. [...] But sometimes the one who feels stronger, lives on a weaker emotional scale: poetry, music and literary images make him sob, while real pain fails to, and he passes indifferently sufferings that's around him". The critis has made a point to emphacise what he thought was the worst 'romantic feature' in the novel's main character: pseudo-humanism, a substitute for real sympathy for real people. "This poor man cannot realise that its very easy, sitting in a cabinet, to be overcome all of a sudden by fiery love to all mankind, far easier than to spend one sleepless night by the bed of a seriously ill person".
Ivan Goncharov
Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov was a Russian novelist best known as the author of Oblomov .- Biography :Ivan Goncharov was born in Simbirsk ; his father was a wealthy grain merchant and respected official who was elected mayor of Simbirsk several times...
written in 1844-1846 and first published in the 1847
1847 in literature
The year 1847 in literature involved some significant new books.-New books:*Honoré de Balzac - Le Cousin Pons*Anne Brontë - Agnes Grey*Charlotte Brontë - Jane Eyre*Emily Brontë - Wuthering Heights*Catherine Gore - Castles in The Air...
March and April issues of Sovremennik
Sovremennik
Sovremennik was a Russian literary, social and political magazine, published in St. Petersburg in 1836-1866. It came out four times a year in 1836-1843 and once a month after that...
magazine.
Background
In April 1846 34-year old Ivan Goncharov asked Nikolay YazykovNikolay Yazykov
Nikolay Mikhailovich Yazykov was a Russian poet and Slavophile who in the 1820s rivalled Alexander Pushkin and Yevgeny Baratynsky as the most popular poet of his generation....
to read his debut novel and give an advise as to where it might be possibly passed on to Vissarion Belinsky
Vissarion Belinsky
Vissarion Grigoryevich Belinsky was a Russian literary critic of Westernizing tendency. He was an associate of Alexander Herzen, Mikhail Bakunin , and other critical intellectuals...
for a final verdict. Yazykov flicked through several pages, got bored, put the manuscriptit aside and forgot all about it. Several months later he recalled the incident and gave the book to Nikolay Nekrasov, with a comment: "Looks like a weak one, not worthy of publication". Nekrasov looked through the novel, thought differently and carried it to Belinsky who instantly recognized the emergence of a major talent. The premiere reading of the book has taken place at Belinsky's flat. According to Ivan Panaev
Ivan Panaev
Ivan Ivanovich Panaev was a Russian writer, literary critic, journalist and magazine publisher.-Early life:Panaev was born into a gentry family in St Petersburg. He graduated from the Boarding School for the Nobility at Saint Petersburg State University in 1830. He began publishing his works in 1834...
, while listening to Goncharov's recital, the critic has been fidgeting on his chair, jumping up from time to time, eyes shining, and each time the author was having a short break, he was giving out an ironic cry: "So, Yazykov, is it a 'weak one', is it 'unworthy'?"
"Even three months after this presentation Belinsky, each time we met, was bursting into congratulations, speaking of what a promising future awaited for me", Goncharov wrote in his Uncommon Story memoirs. On April 1, 1846 Fyodor Dostoyevsky wrote in a letter to his brother: "The real host of new writers has emerged, some of the surely my rivals. Most remarkable are Hertzen (Iskander) and Goncharov. The former has been published already, the latter is unpublished yet, both being greatly praised".
Success
Upon its publication A Common Story had great success. "Goncharov’s novel caused furore in Saint Petersburg, its success was unheard of. And how much good will it bring to our society, what a massive blow will it administer to romanticism, dreaminess, sentimentality and provincialism", Belinsky wrote to critic Vasily BotkinVasily Botkin
Vasily Petrovich Botkin was a Russian essayist, literary, art and music critic, translator and publicist.-Early life:Vasily was the son of a wealthy merchant and the brother of the well known physician Sergey Botkin...
on march 17, 1847. "Goncharov’s debut novel was very successful both in literary saloons and with wider audience", attested biographer Gavriil Potanin. Avdotya Panaeva
Avdotya Panaeva
Avdotya Yakovlevna Panaeva , née Bryanskaya, , was a Russian novelist, short story writer, memoirist and literary salon holder. She published much of her work under the pseudonym V. Stanitsky.-Biography:...
remembered: "My God, and how agitated all the curious men of letters became all of a sudden! Everybody wanted to know details of the new author’s life, past and present, which class did he come from, what circles did he belong to, et cetera".
Years later, explaining the plot's major dilemma, Goncharov wrote in Better Late Than Never essay: "This nephew versus uncle opposition was the reflection of the process that has been just starting at the time, when system of old concepts and customs was beginning to crumble down – and with it sentimentality, grotesque expression of feelings of love and friendship, poetisation of idleness, nets of domestic lies, knitted from preposterous, totally groundless emotionalism."
The novel had an immediate effect upon its readers. Critic Aleksander Skabichevsky remembered: "Instantly I recognized myself in its main hero, Aleksander Aduev, for as him, I used to be sentimentally complacent, and was taking great care to keep hairs, and flowers, and all other 'material symbols of immaterial relations'. And so ashamed was I of this similarity as to gather all the little souvenirs that I was keeping at my house, threw them into the fire and give on oath to myself never to fall in love again, ever". In his Better Late Than Never (1879) essay Goncharov wrote: "While working on A Common Story I had in mind, of course, myself and people like myself, young men who were first studying at home or at the University, leading peaceful lives under their kind and protective mother’s wings, then breaking away with this tenderness, coming through lots of tearful farewells to find themselves in Saint Petersburg, this arena for all activity… And only there to experience this first spark of consciousness, this still dim realization that one needs to work, not some kind of bureaucratic routine, but real work to overcome this all-Russian stagnation".
Critical reception
The conservative press reaction to the novel was negative. In Otechestvennye zapiskiOtechestvennye Zapiski
Otechestvennye Zapiski was a Russian literary magazine published in St Petersburg on a monthly basis between 1818 and 1884. The journal served liberal-minded readers, known as the intelligentsia...
(#1, 1848) critic Stepan Dudyshkin, horrified by the Aduev-senior character, wrote: "I'd rather have people remaining romantics than have this business-like positivity of Pyotr Ivanovich for an alternative". Faddey Bulgarin gave the author some credit but still argued that his novel's social significance would be nil. Also in Severnaya ptchela, critic L.Brandt (under Я.Я.Я. moniker) accused Goncharov in trying to "debase each and every heartfelt movement of Aleksander, every emotional outburst, quite excusably for a young man" so as to show that "all the decent people were to have Pyotr Ivanovich for a role model, when in fact this Pyotr Ivanovich is nothing more than a well-glued-up automaton, surely not a human being". The Moskvityanin magazine also came up to defend Romanticism
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
and romantics as being attacked by the author.
For Belinsky the discussion was a handy pretext to wage another ideological war against those whome he regarded "old-timers. In an essay called "A Look at the Russian Literature of 1847" he mentioned several worthy novels of the year, picking up two - Alexander Hertzen’s Who Is to Blame? and Ivan Goncharov's A Common Story - as the best. Belinsky gave such a characteristic to Aduev-junior: "He's thrice a romantic: by nature, by upbringing and by circumstances of life, while one single reasons would have been enough to misguide a good man and prompt him doing lots of silly things. [...] He is a bit of a musician, a bit of a poet, a bit of an artists and even - at times of need, a bit of a critic and writer, but these talents of his are such that he’s unable not only to make himself a name, but even support himself minimally".
Anti-romanticism crusade being one of his major issues at the time, Belinsky wrote: "Romantics tend to think its them who have the privilege of having strong feelings, while others do not - just because these others do not cry of their feelings aloud. [...] But sometimes the one who feels stronger, lives on a weaker emotional scale: poetry, music and literary images make him sob, while real pain fails to, and he passes indifferently sufferings that's around him". The critis has made a point to emphacise what he thought was the worst 'romantic feature' in the novel's main character: pseudo-humanism, a substitute for real sympathy for real people. "This poor man cannot realise that its very easy, sitting in a cabinet, to be overcome all of a sudden by fiery love to all mankind, far easier than to spend one sleepless night by the bed of a seriously ill person".