A Common Story is Goncharov's first novel. Young Alexander Aduev leaves his quiet country home for St Petersburg, full of poetry, romantic hopes and trust in friendship and love. There he meets his uncle Pyotr, a successful, sober businessman who has little patience for sentiment.
The uncle sets about gently, and sometimes harshly, testing his nephew's illusions against the realities of career, society and the heart. The book is a witty and humane comedy about growing up and about the gap between romantic dreams and ordinary life, and it set out themes that Goncharov would develop in his later work.