Ivan Aleksandrovich Goncharov was a celebrated Russian novelist, renowned for his literary masterpieces such as The Same Old Story (1847, also translated as A Common Story), Oblomov (1859), and The Precipice (1869, also translated as Malinovka Heights). Goncharov's journey in literature began in Simbirsk, where he was born into a family of a wealthy merchant. Thanks to his grandfather's military service, his family was elevated to the Russian nobility.

Goncharov's education took him from a boarding school to the Moscow College of Commerce, and eventually to Moscow State University. Post graduation, he briefly served in the office of the Governor of Simbirsk before relocating to Saint Petersburg, where his career as a government translator and private tutor coincided with his foray into publishing poetry and fiction. His first novel, The Same Old Story, saw the light in Sovremennik in 1847.

Beyond his novels, Goncharov also made significant contributions as a literary and theatre critic. His life's later years were marked by the publication of his memoir, An Uncommon Story, in which he controversially accused literary contemporaries, notably Ivan Turgenev, of plagiarism, hindering his recognition in European literary circles. Despite this, figures like Fyodor Dostoevsky and Anton Chekhov held him in high esteem, with Chekhov remarking Goncharov was "...ten heads above me in talent."