A Common Story: Obyknovennaya Istorya

A Common Story is a debut novel by Ivan Goncharov, written in 1844-1846 and first published in 1847. 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 hair locks, flowers and 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.