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Eugene Onegin, a bored young dandy from St Petersburg, inherits his uncle's country estate and befriends his neighbour, the romantic young poet Lensky, who…
Eugene Onegin, a bored young dandy from St Petersburg, inherits his uncle's country estate and befriends his neighbour, the romantic young poet Lensky, who is in love with Olga Larina. Olga's quiet, bookish sister Tatyana falls in love with Onegin and writes him a passionate letter; he coldly lectures her in reply. A trivial quarrel at Tatyana's name-day party leads to a duel between the friends. Years later Onegin meets Tatyana again in Petersburg, now a married princess, and it is his turn to fall hopelessly in love.
Context and significance
Alexander Pushkin wrote this 'novel in verse' between 1823 and 1831, in a fourteen-line stanza of his own invention, and it is often called the foundation of modern Russian literature. Tchaikovsky made it into an opera. This is the 1881 translation by Henry Spalding. Compare Lermontov's A Hero of Our Time, and see Pushkin's life.
About the author
Alexander Pushkin (1799–1837) is Russia's national poet. His great-grandfather, Abram Gannibal, was an African boy taken to Russia who became a favourite of Peter the Great and a general. Pushkin was educated at the imperial lyceum at Tsarskoye Selo and was exiled to the south of Russia for poems against tyranny.
His novel in verse Eugene Onegin, his drama Boris Godunov, his poem The Bronze Horseman and his short stories created modern Russian literature. He died at thirty-seven after a duel with a French officer who had pursued his wife. The library holds his works in Russian, English and Arabic.