One of the most important characters of the book
is Viera's grandmother: the German translation of 'The Precipice' is
entitled 'The Grandmother's Fault.'

Goncharof has written a few literary essays, and during the past few
years has contributed to one of the Russian reviews a series of literary
recollections. But his fame with posterity will depend principally on
his 'Oblomof,' the name of which has given to the language a new
word,--_oblomovshchina_[F] Oblomovism,--the typically Russian indolence
which was induced by the peculiar social conditions existing in Russia
before the emancipation of the serfs in 1861: indifference to all social
questions; the expectation that others will do your work; or as
expressed in the Russian proverb, "the trusting in others as in God, but
in yourself as in the Devil."

[Signature: Nathan Haskell Dole]

[F] Oblomof is the genitive plural of the word oblom or oblam,
a term expressive of anything broken or almost useless, or
even bad; a rude, awkward, unfinished man.

OBLOMOF

In Garokhavaya Street, in one of those immense houses the population
of which would suffice for a whole provincial city, there lay one
morning in bed in his apartment Ilya Ilyitch Oblomof. He was a
pleasant-appearing man of two or three and twenty, of medium stature,
with dark gray eyes; but his face lacked any fixed idea or concentration
of purpose. A thought would wander like a free bird over his features,
flutter in his eyes, light on his parted lips, hide itself in the
wrinkles of his brow, then entirely vanish away; and over his whole
countenance would spread the shadeless light of unconcern.

From his face this indifference extended to the attitudes of his whole
body, even to the folds of his dressing-gown. Occasionally his eyes were
darkened by an expression of weariness or disgust, but neither weariness
nor disgust could for an instant dispel from his face the indolence
which was the dominant and habitual expression not only of his body, but
also of his very soul. And his soul was frankly and clearly betrayed in
his eyes, in his smile, in every movement of his head, of his hands.

A cool superficial observer, glancing at Oblomof as he passed him by,
would have said, "He must be a good-natured, simple-hearted fellow." Any
one looking deeper, more sympathetically, would after a few moments'
scrutiny turn away with a smile, with a feeling of agreeabl