Ilya Ilyich Oblomov spends the first 150 pages of this novel unable to get out of bed. Goncharov's 1859 masterpiece is the definitive portrait of a man defeated by his own inertia, and yet the portrait is so tender, so psychologically acute, that Oblomov becomes not a cautionary example but a kind of hero of passivity. Russian critics coined 'Oblomovism' to describe the national disease he represents. The novel is slow, deliberately slow, and rewards readers willing to sink into its rhythms. By the end, you may find you love Oblomov despite everything.