176
PARTISAN REVIEW
wail from one woman in the crowd who can stand it no longer.
"Darling sweet boy,
poor
little orphan," she wails. "Your poor mother
is
dead and there is no one to bless you...."And that wail touches
the remote comer of Stolz where a little feeling, a little Oblomovism
is concealed. He jumps off the horse, embraces the woman who is
making
the sign of the cross over
him,
and bursts into tears.
It is such tell-tale moments that save Stolz from being the
admirable robot he might have been and, likewise, it is at the
moment when Oblomov struggles pathetically with
himself
and tries
to get out of bed that we see a flicker of Stolz in
him.
It is in these
moments that the two men, such a world apart in their daily habits,
have a meeting place and it is these nicely understood moments that
save the novel from being a description of mere monsters.
The old Russian world of Oblomov is falling apart. We need
Stolzes, Goncharov said; they seem to be the men of the future.
On the other hand, a Stolz world would be an efficient nightmare
and just a little Oblomovism is a saving, a humanizing grace.
In Part II Oblomov comes to life. Stolz exhorted
him
and
worried
him
until he got out of bed. But the kind of life he saw in
Petersburg society seemed no better than his own. "An empty re–
shuffling of days," he called it. Then Stolz introduced
him
to Olga,
and what follows is a miniature love novel, unfolded with a slow
delicacy that seems virtuoso-like after the comedy of the bedroom
scene and the folk-tale quality of Oblomovka. Goncharov is always
at his best in describing all the minute increments of some procem of
psychological development. This one begins with a slight sting.
From Stolz Olga has learned about Oblomov's habits and she
jokes about them sarcastically. His eyes open wider and he feels
a vague turmoil. She
finds
another vulnerable spot a moment later
when she
sings
for them. Oblomov is so overwhelmed that all he can
do
is
gasp. Olga here has managed to hit the only two living nerves in
Oblomov's somnolent bulk-his pride and his sentiment-and she
does it with a clever and pointed but narrow perception that char–
acterizes her.
With his new love for Olga as a constant quickening stimulus,
Oblomov begins
to
live. He is seen climbing hills with her, reading
books, lying sleepless at night, playing the part of the romantic
