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The Same Old Story Paperback – March 30, 2017

by Ivan Goncharov (Author), Translated by Stephen Pearl (Author)

4.8 9 ratings

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Stephen Pearl's new translation of Goncharov's Obyknovennaya Istoriya, will introduce English speakers to a Russian classic that made its author famous, and which is just as amusing and fascinating as Goncharov's better known Oblomov, which probably owes its greater fame to the fact that the self-indulgence of the eponymous Oblomov became part of the Russian vocabulary. The same psychological insight that makes Oblomov so compelling permeates The Same Old Story with its contrast between Alexander, a young nobleman fresh from the simplicity of country life, and the older uncle, Pyotr. Readers of whatever age and from very milieu will recognize in themselves Alexander's unreal ambitions and expectations and the sadder but wiser responses of Uncle Pyotr.

As Nicholas Lezard said, in reviewing this new translation in the British Guardian, Goncharov's genius lies in his ability to make us root for both: for the young foolish romantic nephew who believes in the ''greatness of soul and the imperishability of true love,'' and for his uncle, whose 'job,' as he sees it, is to ''drive all this rubbish from Alexander's head.''

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''Much as I love Oblomov, The Same Old Story holds an even more special place in my heart. I used to wish more people in the English-speaking world would read the novel in a truly good translation and see for themselves what a gem Goncharov's first novel is. Now, with this new translation by Stephen Pearl, who before gave us an equally excellent translation of Oblomov, that is finally a real possibility.'' --From Galya Diment's Introduction

''This book made Goncharov famous in Russia. And from half a continent and three lifetimes away he can still make new readers laugh and gasp with recognition over timeless human foibles, so I am glad that he was translated, and I trust you will be, too.'' --Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian

''This is the endless repeated tale of how the young lose their saving illusions…From his first clumsy and awkward arrival in St. Petersburg, Alexander encounters not only the cold cynicism of his uncle (Pyotr), but also the much warmer and more ironical sympathy of his aunt…It is only very slowly…that we begin to realize that this is not…about what happens to the nephew--it is a wistful story about what happens to the older man…What Goncharov is so brilliant at doing and what Stephen Pearl conveys so well, is the slow-paced, gently unfolded dialogue in which more seems to be left unsaid than said, but which nonetheless leaves both interlocutors changed.'' --A.N. Wilson, Times Literary Supplement

From the Inside Flap

"Much as I love 'Oblomov', 'The Same Old Story' holds an even more special place in my heart. I used to wish more people in the English-speaking world would read the novel in a truly good translation and see for themselves what a gem Goncharov's first novel is. Now, with this new translation by Stephen Pearl, who before gave us an equally excellent translation of 'Oblomov', that is finally a real possibility." -- From Galya Diment's Introduction "This book made Goncharov famous in Russia. And from half a continent and three lifetimes away he can still make new readers laugh and gasp with recognition over timeless human foibles, so I am glad that he was translated, and I trust you will be, too." -- Nicholas Lezard, "The Guardian" "This is the endless repeated tale of how the young lose their saving illusions...From his first clumsy and awkward arrival in St. Petersburg, Alexander encounters not only the cold cynicism of his uncle (Pyotr), but also the much warmer and more ironical sympathy of his aunt...It is only very slowly...that we begin to realize that this is not...about what happens to the nephew--it is a wistful story about what happens to the older man...What Goncharov is so brilliant at doing and what Stephen Pearl conveys so well, is the slow-paced, gently unfolded dialogue in which more seems to be left unsaid than said, but which nonetheless leaves both interlocutors changed." -- A.N. Wilson, "Times Literary Supplement"

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bunim & Bannigan Ltd.; 1st edition (March 30, 2017)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 350 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1933480408
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1933480404
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.15 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #558,978 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #12,906 in Classic Literature & Fiction

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4.8 9 ratings

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Michael S. Pasano
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For more than forty years I have tried criminal cases in courthouses all around the United States and its territories. Hundreds and hundreds of trials. I started as a federal prosecutor. For a great many years I have been a defense attorney defending what I call misunderstood businessmen and women, professionals accused of crimes they did not intend or did not commit. Over the years, I developed stories based upon my cases. Stories I told to colleagues and to law school classes. Crazy stories. Events that are so unusual or implausible that they seem fabricated. Finally I began to write these stories down. JoJo and the Monkey Hitman was my first work of fiction and a tale that I had been telling for awhile. I built the central story of a monkey killed by his vengeful master into a novel that paid homage to one of my favorite books, The Great Gatsby. Then came No Boom Boom. There was a real "Boom Boom" and much of what is described happening in this second book did occur, more or less. But the more or less is the fun of writing fiction. Now I have published several more "Mac" novels. These books pick up on the adventures of the character Mac from the JoJo story. They all mix true events with things less than true, and have allowed me, in part, to tell stories that my grandfather had told me growing up. And to pay homage to other favorite books, like The Godfather and The Maltese Falcon. I am now working to publish atleast three Mac tales per year. More murders. More courtrooms. More mystery. I truly enjoy writing, and I have a great many stories inside me yet to tell.
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Ivan Goncharov
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Alfredo Vivado

Good value

Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2020

It was for a gift

Reviewed in the United States on October 2, 2018

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This was obviously a well loved book. Arrived in excellent condition.

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Joel D. Hirst

"The Same Old Story" is anything but

Reviewed in the United States on June 30, 2018

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The stories of pre-revolutionary Russia are quite remarkable. Saint Petersburg must have been quite a place, indeed, during the days of Russian nobility.

“The Same Old Story” is, but is also nothing but. It is, because it’s a story like so many of the others I’ve been reading lately. Boy moves from village to Saint Petersburg, seeking wealth and love. He then proceeds to make a bit of a fool of himself in the parlor rooms of the wealthy commercent and merchants as he pursues his passions and seeks his fortune. Long discussions far into the night – Saint Petersburg society it appears was lived between 9:00pm and 3:00am. This might make sense in Arabia, where the days are so hot that people save the nighttime for their amorous dalliances and social calls. But Petersburg at 3:00am must have been a hellishly cold place indeed.

From one parlor to another – drinking wine (rarely vodka) and talking about business and Paris and, of course, love. Then moving to another parlor; another host anxious to please, to be surrounded by the finest people of that great old city; writers and painters and industrialists. A girl comes in, quietly, to show herself to the crowd. She is in search of a matching that fits with her position and which will guarantee her future (and that of her family) in a land which is also predatory. She flirts, her eyes lighting upon the right man. Up and coming, with a trust – why is it all people back then had permanent incomes from trusts? – and then slipping away, to await the time-worn dance of courtship.

Letters, anxious and desperate. Uncomfortable supervised discussions in the libraries, sipping tea and speaking of French literature or Italian theater. Chaperoned walks through the gardens under the watchful eyes of the dowagers anxious to not have their precious flower spoiled. In between, angst ridden work, waiting, wondering.

Then it happens – rejection, betrayal. A better matching has come along. Despair, misery.

It is Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chernyshevsky – its Goncharov. I keep reading these extraordinary novelists trying to understand what happened. Which brings me to another question. What are the peasants doing while the snowflakes flit from party to party fighting with their hosts for the hand of a girl, a bigger dowry or a cushier job? The answer to these questions are found in soviet literature (from both sides of the issue, Fyodor Vasilievich Gladkov, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Ayn Rand – books full of spit and fight and suffering); just like the answers to the aristocratic governance model were found in the revolution.

At any rate, though Ivan Goncharov thought his novel was “The Same Old Story”, for those of us who have come after – 150 years after – it is nothing but. I highly recommend this amazing Russian classic.

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E.P. Clark

A Charming 19th-Century Classic that is Still Relevant Today

Reviewed in the United States on March 31, 2017

A young idealist leaves his hovering mother behind to go change the world, only to find the world less than eager to be changed. Crushed at a couple of minor setbacks, he falls into a deep depression, and recovers only to become obsessed with money and material success.

The story of one of today's "special snowflakes"? No, it's Ivan Goncharov's classic 1847 novel about Alexander Aduyev, a young upper-class Russian who goes to St. Petersburg to find love and literary immortality, only to discover that he's a poet of middling talent at best, suited more for writing articles on potatoes and manure than producing poems about passionate love, and that his own personal passionate loves end in self-inflicted separation. Possessing, like so many "superfluous men" in 19th-century Russian literature, everything except firmness of purpose and strength of character, Alexander is unable to utilize his gifts of a warm heart and good intentions, not to mention money and connections, precisely because he is unwilling to prioritize anything other than a warm heart and good intentions, and, reaching for the stars, finds himself ever more mired in the earth.

Although Goncharov is less well known in the West than Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky, and what fame he does have is mostly connected to his novel "Oblomov," "The Same Old Story" is a delight well worth reading, and, for the easily intimidated, much less of a commitment than bulky masterpieces such as "War and Peace," "The Brothers Karamazov," and "Oblomov" itself. Coming in at a slim 350 pages or so, "The Same Old Story" is an easy introduction to classical Russian literature for those who may have been frightened off by the brick-like productions of Goncharov's more notable compatriots, and a fun read for lovers of Russian literature looking to expand their horizons. While, like any Russian novel worth its salt, "The Same Old Story" has plenty of philosophizing, it's also brisk-moving, and full of that distinctly Russian irony and humor in which the reader is invited to laugh at the characters and feel compassion for them at the same time. Alexander is ridiculous, but his heartbreak is real nonetheless, as is his apparently cold-hearted and condescending uncle's concern for his nephew and his wife. Indeed, Pyotr Ivanych, Alexander's uncle, does everything in his power to make the lives of those close to him as comfortable as possible, while safeguarding them from foolishness and self-inflicted harm, and yet ends up being directly responsible for plunging both his nephew and his wife into states of deep depression that jeopardize not just their happiness, but their physical health. Good intentions, Goncharov seems to be telling us, are not enough: in order to do actual good one must understand what the objects of our intentions truly want, rather than imposing our own goals and desires upon them from above. A lesson that each generation struggles to learn anew.

And indeed, while "The Same Old Story" is firmly rooted in the milieu of mid-19th-century Russia, overflowing with that abundance of detail that is a hallmark of Goncharov's style (something that comes through nicely in Stephen Pearl's new translation, which manages both to read smoothly and to sound like a 19th-century Russian novel), it really is "the same old story," and could be transplanted quite handily to early 21st-century America. Anna Pavlovna, Alexander's mother, is the quintessential helicopter parent, who "for all her loving care, was unable to provide him a proper perspective on life, and had failed to prepare him for the battles in store for him as they are for everyone." In fact, Goncharov tells us, "It would have been even better for her to have loved him a little less, not to have spent every minute of the day thinking about him, not to have spared him every possible trouble and unpleasantness, not to have done his weeping and suffering for him even in his childhood so as to give him a chance of developing a feeling for the prospect of adversity, and a chance to learn to muster his own resources and consider what lay ahead." But that was not to be.

Nor does Alexander's uncle Pyotr Ivanych have the answers either, however. Sounding eerily like modern-day pundits who exhort young people to toughen up, get some "grit," and choose majors and careers based immediate hireability rather than genuine interest, Pyotr Ivanych ruthlessly crushes Alexander's literary aspirations and preaches ad nauseum to him about the value of a steady paycheck and the benefits of a marriage of calculation rather than love. But it is Pyotr Ivanych who discovers in the end the limits of his wisdom: at fifty he has material comfort, yes, but gained at the expense of a bad back, failing health, and a listless and indifferent wife. Perhaps both Pyotr Ivanych and Alexander should have paid closer attention to Liza (the wife) when she still could be bothered to express her own opinion; a comparatively minor character, she still manages to suggest a potential way forward, combining as she does practicality with the ability to preserve other people's happiness. But both Alexander and Pyotr Ivanych are too caught up in themselves to listen to her gentle counsel as much as they should.

Which is not to say that "The Same Old Story" is depressing. Or rather, the ostensible moral of the story is grim, but the book and the characters themselves brim with such humor and life, and the ending is so suggestive of hope that, set against the background of notoriously downbeat Russian literature, "The Same Old Story" is practically a lighthearted comedy. Youthful dreams are pretty much guaranteed not to come true, Goncharov seems to be telling us, but that doesn't mean that there aren't plenty of good things in life, especially for those who are able to reconcile the split between their desires and their despair. "The Same Old Story" may not have the weighty presence or sparkling brilliance of some of the great classics of Russian literature, but it still shines after all these years with a homey and candle-like warmth, illuminating corners of the human heart that should be familiar to all.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a review copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

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