How has the original concept of Goncharov’s central novel changed? What is his real conflict, what underlies the plot and why does Oblomov consist of four parts? What gave the title character of the work national and universal significance, and equated “Oblomovism” with the concepts of “Hamletism,” “Platonism,” “quixoticism,” “Don Juanism,” etc.? How are all the male and female characters in the novel systematized and how do the “ways of life” they personify, as well as ideas about love, marriage and the family home, differ from each other? What is Olga Ilyinskaya yearning for in the “Crimean” chapter of the novel? These are only part of the questions to which this book contains detailed answers. Written by a famous historian and popularizer of Russian classical literature, winner of the Literary Prize named after. I. A. Goncharov, it is a fascinating guide to the artistic text of the famous Goncharov masterpiece in all content levels and facets - from social and everyday (topical) and folklore to mythopoetic and symbolic. For teachers of schools, gymnasiums and lyceums, high school students, applicants, students and teachers-philologists and all admirers of Russian literary classics.SummaryV. A. Nedzvetsky. I. A. Goncharov’s Novel ‘Oblomov’: A Guide to the Text: a manual. Moscow: Moscow University Press, 2010. — (The School for Thoughtful Reading Series).In the book by Professor Emeritus of Moscow State University, a laureate of I. A. Goncharov Literary Prize the famous novel 'Oblomov' is considered as a unity of all the meaningful faces (from the socially relevant to the mythological and symbolic ones) of its plot, conflict, artistic space and time. For the first time all the characters of this work's 'ways of living' are given detailed descriptions, as well as their ideals of love, family and home.Written according to the methods of 'thoughtful reading' the book reads like a stimulating guide to one of the outstanding creations of Russian and world literature.For teachers of schools, lyceums and gymnasia, high school pupils, students and professors of faculties of philology and all the lovers of Russian classical literature.