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Oblomov
''Oblomov'' (, ) is the second novel by Russian writer Ivan Goncharov, first published in 1859. Ilya Ilyich Oblomov is the central character of the novel, portrayed as the ultimate incarnation of the superfluous man, a symbolic character in 19th-century Russian literature. Oblomov is a young, generous nobleman who seems incapable of making important decisions or undertaking any significant actions. Throughout the novel, he rarely leaves his room or bed. In the first 50 pages, he only manages to move from his bed to a chair. The novel was popular when it came out, and some of its characters and devices have imprinted on Russian culture and language. Creation and publication Goncharov first thought of writing ''Oblomov'' in the mid-1840s, soon after publishing his first novel '' A Common Story''. In 1849 he wrote "Episode from an Unfinished Novel: Oblomov's Dream", a short story that was published in the literary journal ''Sovremennik''. At that point Goncharov had just start ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ivan Goncharov
Ivan Aleksandrovich Goncharov ( , ; rus, Ива́н Алекса́ндрович Гончаро́в, r=Iván Aleksándrovich Goncharóv, p=ɪˈvan ɐlʲɪkˈsandrəvʲɪdʑ ɡənʲtɕɪˈrof; – ) was a Russian novelist best known for his novels '' The Same Old Story'' (1847, also translated as ''A Common Story''), '' Oblomov'' (1859), and '' The Precipice'' (1869, also translated as ''Malinovka Heights''). He also served in many official capacities, including the position of censor. Goncharov was born in Simbirsk into the family of a wealthy merchant; as a reward for his grandfather's military service, they were elevated to Russian nobility status. He was educated at a boarding school, then the Moscow College of Commerce, and finally at Moscow State University. After graduating, he served for a short time in the office of the Governor of Simbirsk, before moving to Saint Petersburg where he worked as government translator and private tutor, while publishing poetry and fict ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spike Milligan
Terence Alan "Spike" Milligan (16 April 1918 – 27 February 2002) was an Irish comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright and actor. The son of an English mother and Irish father, he was born in British Raj, British India, where he spent his childhood before relocating in 1931 to England, where he lived and worked for the majority of his life. Disliking his first name, he began to call himself "Spike" after hearing the band Spike Jones, Spike Jones and his City Slickers on Radio Luxembourg. Milligan was the co-creator, main writer, and a principal cast member of the British radio comedy programme ''The Goon Show'', performing a range of roles including the characters Eccles (character), Eccles and Minnie Bannister. He was the earliest-born and last surviving member of The Goons (The Goon Show), the Goons. He took his success with ''The Goon Show'' into television with ''Q... (TV series), Q5'', a surreal sketch show credited as a major influence on the members of ''Monty Pytho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joan Greenwood
Joan Mary Waller Greenwood (4 March 1921 – 28 February 1987) was an English actress. Her husky voice, coupled with her slow, precise elocution, was her trademark. She played Sibella in the 1949 film ''Kind Hearts and Coronets'', and also appeared in ''The Man in the White Suit'', '' Young Wives' Tale'' (both 1951), ''The Importance of Being Earnest'' (1952), '' Stage Struck'' (1958), '' Tom Jones'' (1963) and ''Little Dorrit'' (1987). Greenwood worked mainly on the stage, where she had a long career, appearing with Donald Wolfit's theatre company in the years following the Second World War. Her appearances in Ealing comedies are among her memorable screen roles: in '' Whisky Galore!'' (1949); as the seductive Sibella in the black comedy ''Kind Hearts and Coronets'' (1949); and in ''The Man in the White Suit'' (1951). She opened '' The Grass Is Greener'' in the West End in 1952, and played Gwendolen in a film version of ''The Importance of Being Earnest'' released in the sa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frank Dunlop (director)
Frank Dunlop (born 15 February 1927) is a British theatre director. Biography Early life Dunlop was born in Leeds, England to Charles Norman Dunlop and Mary Aarons. He was educated at Beauchamp College, read English at University College London where he is now a Fellow, and studied with Michel Saint-Denis at the Old Vic theatre school in London. Dunlop was appointed CBE in 1977 and received the Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Literature presented to him by the French government in 1987. 'better source needed''/sup> Career Dunlop founded and directed his own young theatre company, The Piccolo Theatre in Manchester (1954), and directed ''The Enchanted'' at the Bristol Old Vic in 1955 where, a year later, he became its resident director, writing and staging ''Les Frere Jacques''. He made his West End debut at the Adelphi Theatre in 1960 with a production of ''The Bishop's Bonfire''. He took over the helm at the Nottingham Playhouse from 1961–1964, including the inaugu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frigate "Pallada"
''Frigate "Pallada"'' () is a book by Ivan Goncharov, written in 1854–1856 and based on a diary that he kept as a secretary for Admiral Yevfimy Putyatin during his 1852–1854 around-the world expedition on board the frigate ''Pallada''. After several chapters of it appeared in 1855–1857 in ''Otechestvennye Zapiski'', ''Morskoy Sbornik'' (Sea Anthology) and ''Sovremennik'', in 1858 the first separate edition of ''Frigate "Pallada"'' came out, to critical and popular acclaim. In its author's lifetime the book was re-issued five times: in 1862, 1879, 1884 (as part of the ''Complete Works by Ivan Goncharov'' edition) and 1886 (twice).Mashinsky, S. Goncharov and His Legacy. Foreword to The Works of I.A.Goncharov in 6 Volumes. Ogonyok's Library. Pravda Publishers. Moscow, 1972. Vol. 1, pp. 3–54 Background In the autumn of 1852 Goncharov received an invitation to take part in the Admiral Putyatin-led around the world expedition through England, Africa, Japan, and back to Rus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Precipice (Goncharov Novel)
''The Precipice'' (), also translated as ''Malinovka Heights'', is the third and the last novel by Ivan Goncharov, first published in January–May 1869 issues of ''Vestnik Evropy'' magazine.The Works by I.A.Goncharov in 6 volumes. Ogonyok Library. Pravda Publishers. Moscow, 1972. Vol.VI. Commentaries, pp.749-750. The novel, conceived in 1849, took twenty years to be completed and has been preceded by the publication of the three extracts: "Sophja Nikolayevna Belovodova" (''Sovremennik'', No.2, 1860), "Grandmother" and "Portrait" (''Otechestvennye Zapiski'', Nos.1-2, 1861). The author considered it to be his most definitive work, in which he fully realized his grand artistic ambition. Less successful than its predecessor ''Oblomov'' (1859), ''The Precipice'' is still regarded as one of the Russian literature's classics.The Works by I.A.Goncharov in 6 volumes. Ogonyok Library. Pravda Publishers. Moscow, 1972. Vol.I. Commentaries by S.Mashinsky, pp.3-50. Background According to Go ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nikolai Dobrolyubov
Nikolay Alexandrovich Dobrolyubov ( rus, Никола́й Алекса́ндрович Добролю́бов, p=nʲɪkɐˈlaj ɐlʲɪˈksandrəvʲɪtɕ dəbrɐˈlʲubəf, a=Nikolay Alyeksandrovich Dobrolyubov.ru.vorb.oga; 5 February O.S. 24 January">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O.S. 24 January1836 – 29 November [O.S. 17 November] 1861) was a Russian poet, literary critic, journalist, and prominent figure of the Russian revolutionary movement. He was a literary hero to both Karl Marx and Lenin. Biography Dobrolyubov was born in Nizhny Novgorod, where his father was a poor priest. He was educated at a clerical primary school, then at a seminary from 1848 to 1853. His teachers in the seminary considered him a prodigy, and at home he spent most of his time in his father's library, reading books on science and art. By the age of thirteen he was writing poetry and translating verses from Roman poets such as Horace. In 1853 he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Same Old Story (novel)
''The Same Old Story'' () is the first novel by Ivan Goncharov, written between 1844 and 1846 and published in 1847.Mashinsky, S. The Works by I.A.Goncharov in 6 Volumes. Ogonyok's Library. Pravda Publishers. Moscow, 1972. Goncharov and his works. Preface, pp.3-54 It has also been published in English under the titles ''A Common Story'' and ''An Ordinary Story''. Background In April 1846 the 34-year-old Ivan Goncharov asked Nikolay Yazykov to read his debut novel and inquired whether it might be passed along to St. Petersburg literary critic Vissarion Belinsky for a final verdict. Yazykov flicked through several pages, got bored, put the manuscript aside and forgot all about it. Several months later he recalled the incident and gave the book to Nikolay Nekrasov, with a comment: "Looks like a weak one, not worthy of publication." Nekrasov looked through the novel, thought differently and carried it to Belinsky who instantly recognized the emergence of a major talent. The premier ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tragicomic episodes of life, often coupled with black comedy and literary nonsense. A major figure of Irish literature and one of the most influential writers of the 20th century, he is credited with transforming the genre of the modern theatre. Best remembered for his tragicomedy play ''Waiting for Godot'' (1953), he is considered to be one of the last Modernism, modernist writers, and a key figure in what Martin Esslin called the "Theatre of the Absurd." For his lasting literary contributions, Beckett received the 1969 Nobel Prize in Literature, "for his writing, which—in new forms for the novel and drama—in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation." A resident of Paris for most of his adult life, Beckett wrote in both Frenc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Valentine Dyall
Valentine Dyall (7 May 1908 – 24 June 1985) was an English character actor. He worked regularly as a voice actor, and was known for many years as "The Man in Black", the narrator of the BBC Radio horror series '' Appointment with Fear''. He was the son of the actor Franklin Dyall and the actress and author Mary Phyllis Joan Logan, who acted and wrote as Concordia Merrel. 1930s to 1950s In 1934, Dyall appeared with his father, actor Franklin Dyall, at the Manchester Hippodrome in Sir Oswald Stoll's presentation of Shakespeare's ''Henry V'', playing the roles of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Captain Gower, and a cardinal of France. He also appeared in one movie with his father, the 1943 spy thriller '' Yellow Canary''; Dyall's part was that of a German U-boat commander attempting to kidnap a British agent from a ship in the Atlantic, while his father played the ship's captain. In the same year he had a small role as a German officer in ''The Life and Death of Colon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bill Owen (actor)
William John Owen Rowbotham (14 March 1914 – 12 July 1999) was an English actor and songwriter. He is best known for portraying Compo Simmonite in the Yorkshire-based BBC comedy series ''Last of the Summer Wine'' for over a quarter of a century. He died on 12 July 1999, his last appearance on-screen being shown in April 2000. Early life and career Born at Acton Green, London to a working-class family (his father a staunchly left-wing tram driver), Owen made his first film appearance in 1945, but did not achieve lasting fame until 1973, when he took the co-starring role of William "Compo" Simmonite in the long-running British sitcom ''Last of the Summer Wine''. Compo is a scruffy working-class pensioner, often exploited by the bossy characters played by Michael Bates, Brian Wilde, Michael Aldridge and Frank Thornton for dirty jobs, stunts and escapades, while their indomitably docile friend Norman Clegg, played by Peter Sallis, follows and watches with a smirk. He wore a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
