The Precipice

The Precipice is the third novel by the nineteenth-century Russian writer Ivan Goncharov, following A Common Story (also translated as A Petersburg Love) and Oblomov, and it was also his final work. Completed in 1869, it took roughly twenty years from conception to finished book. Set against the social transformation of Russia around the emancipation of the serfs, the novel's main thread is the spiritual quest of the young nobleman Raisky. Intelligent, studious, and wide-ranging in his interests, he is passionate about art yet lacks the will to persevere. He returns from Petersburg to Malinovka, the estate by the precipice on the Volga, where his two cousins live. He is first drawn to the innocent, lively Marfenka, but her heart belongs to another; he then falls for the cool, independent, freedom-seeking Vera, who regards him only as an elder brother and close friend. What she truly gives herself to is Mark, an exiled convict steeped in new ideas and wildly unrestrained. As their differences in thought and feeling gradually surface, Vera comes to see that Mark's words are mere fantasy; with the help of her grandmother and Raisky, she pulls back from the precipice and chooses the practical, steady forest owner Tushin. Raisky goes abroad to study sculpture, seeking bodily and spiritual refinement in art, yet he constantly feels the call of his native land and loved ones and finally resolves to return home. The novel employs a multi-stranded narrative; through romantic entanglements and spiritual predicaments it reflects the profound changes in Russian society from the 1840s to the 1860s, and it also creates vivid female characters such as the grandmother, Marfenka, and Vera.