Ivan Goncharov is an ordinary story. Gift book bound in leather.

"Ordinary History" is a novel belonging to the educational: according to this genre, it traces the formation of the personality of the hero, moral and psychological. It is not the author's fault, of course, that his hero is not formed at all into that beautiful, brave man whom one so wants to see in the finale. A young and enthusiastic Alexander Aduyev comes to St. Petersburg from the provinces, ready to conquer the whole world. Very soon all his ideals are trampled on, and he himself repeats the fate of his practical and dispassionate uncle Pyotr Aduyev.

In Yuri Gershkovich's illustrations, a bright, full of colors Alexander meets his dry, sharply outlined uncle - and he himself becomes the same black-and-white official.