High society in the novels and essays by I. A. Goncharov

In his An Uncommon Story, written in the mid-1870s, I. A. Goncharov stated that he had never depicted high society because he had not known it. Meanwhile, all of his literary works were devoted to the nobility, and most of them represent the image of a noble man in this or that way. The interest in high society was natural for the writer of non-noble descent because of his wish to fit the image of noble man and to carve a career. The studies of Goncharov's works still lack special research that could show the peculiarities of the writer's understanding of high society, the evolution in the way he depicts it and in his attitude to it. The present article is an attempt to fill this gap. For this purpose, the paper analyzes not only the epic novels of the writer but also his essays and articles, where his opinion is stated fairly clearly. A comparison of literary and publicistic works of the writer allowed us to draw a conclusion that in the late 1840s I. A. Goncharov had an idea of ideal society, which was different from the commonly accepted idea of high society. He called it 'select and refined society' and always wanted to be part of it. The novels of the writer show the evident negative attitude to high society of both the author and his idealistic characters - Alexander Aduev, Oblomov, Rayskiy, though I. A. Goncharov did not offer any alternative to this society. I. A. Goncharov found his 'select and refined society' on board the frigate 'Pallada'. It united officers, with their good breeding and professional education, and common sailors into one family, the Russian world, due to their deep patriotic feeling, sincere doing the duty and the belief in God. In the hard 1870s, the writer retained the trust in the reforms of Alexander II and in the possibility to integrate the progressively thinking members of high society and the democratic majority through those reforms.