"Oblomov" is one of the greatest Russian classics. It constitutes a study of a perfectly new type in Russian fiction — of a man who, though plunged in a slough of apathy from which nothing can arouse him, is yet a man of fine and noble instincts. What he utterly lacks and is ruined by, is his total lack of will-power.
In Oblomov Goncharov created a type which has become immortal.