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Eugene Onegin

by Alexander Pushkin, James E. Falen (Translator)

4.01 of 5 stars 4.01 · rating details · 14,853 ratings · 382 reviews

Eugene Onegin is the master work of the poet whom Russians regard as the fountainhead of their literature. Set in imperial Russia during the 1820s, Pushkin's novel in verse follows the emotions and destiny of three men - Onegin the bored fop, Lensky the minor elegiast, and a stylized Pushkin himself - and the fates and affections of three women - Tatyana the provincial bea...more

Paperback, Oxford World's Classics, 240 pages

Published October 22nd 1998 by Oxford University Press (first published 1833)

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Mar 16, 2013 Nataliya rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: russian-classics, my-childhood-bookshelves, 2013-reads

I dare you, double-triple-dog dare you¹, to find a Russian person who has never heard of Evgeniy Onegin.

¹ If you do somehow manage to find this living-under-the-rock person, I unfortunately cannot provide you with a monetary reward since I have no money to speak of. Instead, I will treat you to the my horrified expression akin to Edvard Munch's 'The Scream'. Sorry.

This novel in verse permeates all aspects of Russian culture, lauded both in the tsarist Russia and the USSR. Children read it in li...more
I dare you, double-triple-dog dare you¹, to find a Russian person who has never heard of Evgeniy Onegin.

¹ If you do somehow manage to find this living-under-the-rock person, I unfortunately cannot provide you with a monetary reward since I have no money to speak of. Instead, I will treat you to the my horrified expression akin to Edvard Munch's 'The Scream'. Sorry.

This novel in verse permeates all aspects of Russian culture, lauded both in the tsarist Russia and the USSR. Children read it in literature class and are made to memorize passages from it starting in elementary school. There are operas, ballets, and films. The phrases from it have become aphorisms and are still widely used in the Russian language. It even dragged the name Tatyana out of the obscurity to the heights of long-lasting popularity (now the lines 'Her sister's name was Tatyana./It's the first time we dare/ To grace with such a name/ The tender pages of a novel' seem outright silly).

Yes, the familiarity of Russians with 'Evgeniy Onegin' is quite stunning. And yet I think most of us, when you get to the bottom of things, have only superficial recollections of it, the bits and pieces of storyline (which may or may not feature a love story?), a duel, a passionate letter, a few aphorisms, and a phrase coming from the recesses of the third-grade memory: "Winter! The peasant, triumphant..."

And at the same time most of us, I think, would be hard-pressed to point out exactly why this book is so great - not unexpected given that 200+ pages of verse read at age 15 may not necessarily create a meaningful imprint on teenage minds.

And this is why I embarked on a re-read - and as a result having unintentionally impressed my literature teacher mother (yay, the perks of Pushkin! I wonder - is it a coincidence that my brother and I have the names of Alexander Pushkin and his wife Natalie?)

I wanted to discover those gems that critics and teachers see, and which evaded me the first time I read it at seven and then at fifteen. And, reader, I found them!

Did I mention before that this book is over 200 pages of verse, rhyming in a particular stanza structure that came to be known as 'Pushkin sonnet' ("aBaBccDDeFFeGG" with masculine endings in lower case and feminine endings in upper case - for you, literature buffs!). That seems like a huge feat to accomplish - and it did take Pushkin a decade to complete and publish it. And yet, despite the gargantuan effort, this novel reads so incredibly easy and effortlessly that it's almost too easy to overlook its beauty sophistication under the deceiving cover-up of light simplicity.

These verses are two hundred years old, and yet sound very natural even to a modern Russian ear - a testament to Pushkin's amazing grasp of nuances and dynamics of living Russian language, not the stuffy official one (and that, admirably, was in the era where many educated Russians could speak flawless French, English or German but were often struggling with their native 'peasant' language - just like Tatyana Larina, actually!)

The plot of the novel can be easily seen as a love story - if you strip it down to its most basic elements, of course. A bored rich noble Evgeniy Onegin comes from the capital to a rural part of Russia, meets a young and naively passionate Tatyana Larina, a daughter of a local rural noble, and spurns her naive affections expressed in a passionate letter to him. A misunderstanding over Tatyana's sister leads to a duel between Onegin and his younger poet friend Lensky - and leaves Lensky dead. A few years later, Onegin runs into Tatiana in St Petersburg - now a married sophisticated lady of the higher society - and is smitten; but his affections get spurned by the older and wiser Tatiana who delivers a famous line that although she still loves Evgeniy, she "belong[s] to another and will be forever faithful to him". End of story.

What this simplified version that sticks in the minds of many readers years later lacks is exactly what makes this a great novel as opposed to yet another 19th century romance. What makes it unique is a masterful mockingly sarcastic portrayal of the entire 'cream' of Russian society so familiar to Pushkin, one of its members by birth.

From the very beginning, Pushkin assumes a conversational tone with the reader, breaking the literary fourth wall any chance he gets, emphasizing that the characters and customs he describes are well-known, contemporary and easily recognizable not only to him but also to his audience - the educated 'cream of the society' of whom he's making subtle fun.

Evgeniy is your typical "Byronic" young man, fashionably disenchanted with life, suffering from "хандра" - the Russian expression for ennui - and fashionably, as learned from the books (something that enamored with him Tatyana discovers to her distress), showing his tiredness of the world and showing off his trendy cynicism. He's reasonably good-looking, educated 'just enough' and unconsciously playing up a fashionable gothic stereotype, bored with life already at the age of twenty-six, sharply contrasted with Lensky, an eighteen-year-old poet ready to fall in love and sing it endless dithyrambs.

Evgeniy does seem fake in his boredom and despicable in his feeling of superiority and self-righteousness, and therefore his disappointment in pursuit of older, more interesting Tatyana's love comes as a deserved punishment, readers agree. And let's face it - despite the novel being named after Onegin, he in the hearts of the readers plays second fiddle to the one he first rejected and then hopelessly pursued - Tatyana Larina.

Tatyana Larina, in contrast to Evgeniy, has always been the darling of Russian literature. She is viewed as uniquely Russian (the fact that Pushkin himself emphasizes, even when he acknowledges that like many of the Russian nobles of that time, Tatyana had a hard time speaking Russian), the embodiment of what a perfect Russian woman should be - sincere, idealistic and passionate, and yet strong, resilient and faithful to her partner despite the temptations. She can be easily seen as an inspiration to all those noble Decemberists' wives who were willing to leave everything behind and follow their duty and obligation to the depths of Siberia, if need be. Her rejection of Evgeniy is viewed as undeniable integrity and strength of character, and the unwavering ability to self-sacrifice for what is right.

That's how I was taught to think about Tatyana, in any case. She steals the stage from Evgeniy so effortlessly and naturally to become a heroine and not just the girl in love. And yet, as I was reading this novel now, likely at least a decade older than Tatyana when she falls in love, I could not help but notice the bits in her character that made me question her place on the pedestal of ultimate Russian womanhood - and because of that actually made her more dear and more relatable to me.

You see, the sincerity and passion with which Tatyana embraced her young love on this read-through did not really pass my scrutiny. Let's be honest - she does not fall in love with Onegin; instead, raised on cheap romances, she falls in love with an imagined ideal of him, having glimpsed him only during a single evening he spends in her home. She falls in love with this mysterious handsome haughty stranger because, as the stories have taught her, she's supposed to. She's young and impressionable (her age is never stated, but at some point there's a mention of a thirteen-year-old girl, which to me feels a bit too young to be Tatyana - and so I tend to imagine her about seventeen or eighteen, making her younger sister Olga a 'marriageable material' as well).

She plays the role of a typical quiet, introspective, shy, pale and dreamy young woman very well, having internalized the idea of a romantic heroine. Her love is likely no more real than Onegin's trendy disappointment with life. Her passionate letter, written in French, is open and brave - but yet, on a closer reading, full of cliches that are clearly taken out of romance novels that kept her company throughout adolescence.

So basically what I see here is the meeting of two people both of whom are instinctively and therefore very sincerely playing the exact roles society and culture expect them to play - the world-weary Evgeniy and the romantically passionate Tatyana. None of them is the ultimate Russian hero, let's face it. The conventions they both pander to is what does not allow them to be happy.

Tatyana three years later, having turned into a refined Petersburg married lady commanding respect and admiration, appears a much more interesting character - to Onegin as well, unsurprisingly. But her astounding transformation really seems to be just another role she tries on and fulfills with the same aptitude as she did the role of a romantic provincial young woman in love. Tatyana wears her new expectations as a glove - and so does Evgeniy, madly falling in love with her just as would be expected for a young dandy meeting a refined alluring woman of higher society. Once again both of them play a part that's expected for them, and play it well. And even Tatyana's ultimate rejection of Onegin may not be so much the strength of her character as the expected behavior of a woman in such a situation as portrayed in the romance novels with which she grew up (the alternative to Tatyana's decision decades later was described by Tolstoy in 'Anna Karenina' with all the tragic consequences that followed).

An ideal Russian woman? Perhaps not. A young woman tragically caught in the web of societal and cultural expectations in her youth and now in her adulthood? Perhaps so. And in this, I think, is the strength and the tragedy of this story.

Pushkin seems to have felt the societal conventions very well to so exquisitely poke fun at them while showing very subtly the pain they can lead to. He shows the tragedy of yet another societal convention of establishing masculinity and honor - the duels. Onegin kills his friend Lensky in a duel that both of them know is not necessary but yet expected by the society - and Pushkin is not subtle about showing the wasteful unnecessity of such an act.

And this is why neither me nor my literature teacher mother can even fathom how, in winter of 1837, 37-year-old Alexander Pushkin himself allowed ridiculous societal convention to take his life, losing his life in a duel which supposedly happened over a woman - the duel he described so aptly years prior in his masterpiece.

Bookworm buffs - check this out. The second greatest Russian poet, young Mikhail Lermontov, who wrote a famous and angry poem upon Pushkin's death in that ill-fated duel, proceeded to write a death-duel scene himself which almost exactly predicted his own death - also in a duel - a few years later.

What was going on with Russian literary geniuses recognizing the futility and tragedy of conventions leading to duels and then dying in the same manner that they described and mocked?

There was more to Onegin's story than we got to see in the finished version. As Pushkin wrote it when he has fallen out of favor, when he was in his Southern exile, he had Onegin travel all over Russia coming in contact with events and sights that the poet had eventually prudently decided were not risking his freedom over publishing and so destroyed those parts. How much do I wish those chapters have survived intact! There may have been some added depth to the character of the ultimate Russian world-weary dandy had they survived.
But even without them, the 200+ pages novel in verse that has been the darling of Russian literature for two centuries now lives up to its hard-to-attain fame.

4.5 stars and extra respect from my mother for having reread it - and that ultimately is priceless.

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Jul 01, 2009 Bram rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009, the-russians

This Week in Entertainment Presents…

THE KING OF RUSSIAN LITERATURE vs. THE KING OF POP: winner to be crowned this week’s KING OF POP LITERATURE

But first: Warm-up semifinal showdown between Aleksandr Pushkin and Vladimir Nabokov:

Round 1:
One man wrote a timeless human drama jam-packed with humor, action, love, cruelty, honor, pride and every other conceivably interesting human emotion—and all in just over 100 pages. The other translated said human drama with many incomprehensively bizarre and anti...more

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Jun 17, 2010 Manny rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: why-not-call-it-poetry, translation-is-impossible

What could I possibly say that would be more interesting or beautiful than Nabokov's own comments? In case you haven't seen them:

On Translating Eugene Onegin

1

What is translation? On a platter
A poet's pale and glaring head,
A parrot's screech, a monkey's chatter,
And profanation of the dead.
The parasites you were so hard on
Are pardoned if I have your pardon,
O, Pushkin, for my stratagem:
I traveled down your secret stem,
And reached the root, and fed upon it;
Then, in a language newly learned,
I grew an...more

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Jun 11, 2011 Kristen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone with a foot fetish

Shelves: nabokov, own, the-russians, poetry-etc, favorites, fiction

And there, too, with sad inscription,
in tears, his father's and mother's
patriarchal dust he honored.
Alas! Upon life's furrows,
in a brief harvest, generations
by Providence's secret will
rise, ripen and must fall;
others come in their wake . . .
Thus our frivolous race
waxes, is in commotion, seethes,
and tombward crowds its ancestors.
Our time likewise will come, will come,
and one fine day our grandsons
out of the world will crowd us too.

I loved this! I mentioned how wonderful it was to a friend and h...more

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Alex All Pushkin's writings in both prose and verse (at least in native Russian) are very simple to understand.
Pushkin is considered to be "the people's po...more
updated Jun 15, 2011 10:39pm

Kristen Alex wrote: "All Pushkin's writings in both prose and verse (at least in native Russian) are very simple to understand.
Pushkin is considered to be "th...more
updated Jun 19, 2011 12:32am

Alex >Kristen wrote: "...but where then does the
>misconception that Pushkin is in anyway difficult
>come from I wonder?
>Perhaps because the aut...more
updated Jun 19, 2011 12:22pm

Feb 17, 2013 [P] rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I told myself: the time has come!
To review this novel length poem,
And although it may seem foolish to some
I’ll compose in verse, to show 'em
How great I am, so come have a gander,
At these lines worthy of Alexander.
Yes, it’s easy when you’re so talented
And good-looking, wise, and well-read.

It’s very good, this little book,
I say that without any hesitation.
I’m sure you’ll find it worth a look
[Although I’m less sure about the translation].
There are many versions, which is the best one
At rendering...more

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Jun 18, 2010 Alex rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, particularly-drunk-reviews, reading-through-history

Holy crap, this thing is good. It's amazing. And it's only around 200 pages, so it's not as much of a commitment as, y'know, those other Russian assholes who can't stop writing.

It's a "novel in verse," which means epic poem, wtf, in iambic tetrameter. It's organized in stanzas that are almost sonnets, but far enough off to kindof fuck with your head, or mine anyway. The scheme is abab, ccdd, effe, gg, so he's switching it up in each quatrain, which leaves me constantly off-balance. But in a good...more

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Mar 12, 2013 Ray rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is one of the finest books I've ever read! I have jokingly said, "I recommend this book to anyone who likes anything." While that's a bit of an exaggeration, this book really has it all:
The story manages to be both compelling and a parody at the same time. The main characters-Onegin, Lensky, Tatiana and Olga- are all believable and likeable, but that doesn't stop the narrator from poking fun at them occasionally. But Pushkin's parody is sympathetic; You laugh at the characters the way you l...more This is one of the finest books I've ever read! I have jokingly said, "I recommend this book to anyone who likes anything." While that's a bit of an exaggeration, this book really has it all:
The story manages to be both compelling and a parody at the same time. The main characters-Onegin, Lensky, Tatiana and Olga- are all believable and likeable, but that doesn't stop the narrator from poking fun at them occasionally. But Pushkin's parody is sympathetic; You laugh at the characters the way you laugh at the foibles of your favorite aunts and uncles, still caring for them even while you acknowledge the fact that people can be ridiculous.
But my favorite character is Pushkin himself. He intrudes into the novel (sometimes as a character, sometimes as the novel's creator) with numerous digressions ranging from poignant personal asides to witty commentaries and playful parody. Along with the story of Onegin and Tatiana, the novel tells us the story of an artist's quest to create a thing of beauty.
Since the book is a "novel in verse," the story is told in beautiful poetry. I personally rank the original, Russian text with the finest long poems I have ever read, including Paradise Lost, The Divine Comedy and King Lear because of the beauty and elegance of its use of language and structure. (That being said, I don't have the skills to read Dante in Italian.) And of all the translations I have observed, James Falen's translation does the best job of capturing Pushkin's lyrical grace. Nabokov's translation is more literal, but painfully so. He manages to translate Pushkin's words without translating Pushkin himself. Granted, I do recommend the Nabokov translation to Anglo-American students of Russian language and literature who want to come closer to the language of Pushkin, because I have found Nabokov's translation to be a great literary mediator. But in terms of a translation that works as a piece of literature on its own, I recommend Falen's translation. It might not be the same as the original, but you do comprehend Pushkin's prowess and poise, and many of Falen's rhymes sparkle just as well as Pushkin's. (less)

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Oct 25, 2007 Peter rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: literate people with brains

If you heed conventional wisdom, Russian Literature daunts most Western literature buffs because the prose comes off as heavy, the characters brooding and dark, and the works lengthy and damn near impenetrable. To all these, Aleksandr Pushkin's verse novel comes as the most welcome, hilarious antidote.

Taking aim at aristocratic fops, the Western writers of his time, and the snobs who think nothing Russian can be as worthy of intellectual or social consideration as European arts, Pushkin's Eugene...more

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Oct 12, 2007 Núria rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: románticos, cínicos, idealistas, realistas, todo el mundo...

Shelves: 2006, 5-favoritos, read-more-than-once, 2008, decimononicos, literatura-rusa, para-la-isla-desierta

Supongo que, si os recomiendan así por las buenas una novela en verso de principios del siglo XIX y que encima es considerada como una de las obras fundacionales de la literatura rusa, saldréis por piernas. Pero no os dejéis dejar engañar, porque el 'Eugene Oneguin' es una obra tan moderna y actual que parece que fue escrita ayer. La historia no es mucha y se puede resumir en que Oneguin se va a vivir al campo y allí conoce la joven y melancólica Tatiana, y el joven e idealista poeta Lenski. Poc...more Supongo que, si os recomiendan así por las buenas una novela en verso de principios del siglo XIX y que encima es considerada como una de las obras fundacionales de la literatura rusa, saldréis por piernas. Pero no os dejéis dejar engañar, porque el 'Eugene Oneguin' es una obra tan moderna y actual que parece que fue escrita ayer. La historia no es mucha y se puede resumir en que Oneguin se va a vivir al campo y allí conoce la joven y melancólica Tatiana, y el joven e idealista poeta Lenski. Poco pasa; es difícil decir qué hace tan grande esta obra.

En mi opinión, uno de sus principales aciertos del es que se trata de una obra romántica y a la vez cínica. La historia de amor no se aleja mucho de los cánones románticos, pero el protagonista es un cínico redomado, y también lo es el narrador. El narrador contempla los personajes desde tan lejos y con tal ironía que a veces incluso da la sensación que quizás la novela no es nada más que una parodia del romanticismo (de obras como el 'Werther'), porque lleva hasta los extremos sus tópicos. El narrador es también alguien asqueado de la vida y que muchas veces se pierde en digresiones que no tienen nada que ver con el argumento de la obra, algo que refuerza más el sentimiento distanciador respecto a lo que se está contando y por lo tanto algo que dificulta que nos creamos que la obra realmente va en serio. Y es que encima es tan endiabladamente divertida...

Y ahora volvemos a lo de antes, ¿cómo es que con una forma tan anacrónica (la de la novela en verso que ya estaba pasada de moda incluso cuando Pushkin la escribió) el 'Eugene Oneguin' consigue ser tan moderno? Pues porque da una visión de la vida desencantada. Es esto lo que diferencia el hombre moderno. Es muy significativa la evolución de Tatiana; cuando empieza la obra es una chica de provincias, ingénua, solitaria, que lee obras sentimentalistas que ya han pasado de moda en la capital, pero también fuerte, con caráter y capaz de tomar la iniciativa cuando se trata de conseguir lo que quiere. Vaya, la perfecta heroina romántica. Pero cuando ha terminado la obra se ha convertido en una persona amargada y que ha perdido todas las ilusiones, se ha convertido en una perfecta mujer moderna insatisfecha. Es por esto que yo entiendo el 'Eugene Oneguin' como una metáfora del abandono de la sensibilidad romántica y la creación de una nueva sensibilidad más moderna, la del siglo XX, por más que aún quedara casi un siglo porque llegara el siglo XX. El final no deja de ratificarlo, con ese final abierto, sin final feliz de comer perdices ni tampoco final trágico con muchas muertes, sino un final lleno de resignación, otro rasgo característico de la modernidad.

Algo que también me encanta del libro es que es un libro que está preñado de literatura. El narrador constantemente deja caer referencias a otros escritores reales y compara los hechos que suceden en la novela con otros que suceden en otras obras. Pero, además, los tres personajes principales son como son por culpa de los libros que han leído. Oneguin ha leído demasiado Byron y demasiado romanticismo inglés, Tatiana ha leído demasiadas novelas sentimentales francesas, y el poeta Lenski ha leído demasiado idealismo alemán. Otro detalle delicioso (de los muchos que hay) es que si bien cierto personaje se enamora de otro personaje a primera vista, sin prácticamente conocerlo y de una forma idealizada, luego descubre cómo es realmente la persona de la que se ha enamorado a través de los libros suyos, de las notas que ha dejado en los márgenes, y es después de conocerla de verdad que puede quererla de verdad, es decir, gracias a los libros, la literatura.

Aún ahora me cuesta de creer que pueda existir una obra tan buena. ¿Hace falta que diga que es de mis favoritas entre las favoritas?
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Aug 22, 2011 James rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: great-books-group, fiction, poetry, from-russia-with-love

This is a classic poem from the early romantic tradition in Russian literature. It is a novel in verse written by Alexander Pushkin. Its eponymous protagonist has served as the model for a number of Russian literary heroes. Divided into eight chapters each containing between 40 to 60 stanzas of original and unvarying rhyme pattern, it is made up in about equal parts of plot, of delicate descriptions of nature and milieu that provide context, and of Byronic-style digressions. Widely acknowledged...more

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Sep 03, 2008 Raül De Tena rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2008

Cualquier reticencia a enfrentarse a Eugenio Oneguin es (más o menos) comprensible. ¿Una obra clásica rusa escrita en verso? Se entiende que no sea la lectura preferida del común de los mortales... Pero ellos se lo pierden. Porque la obra de Aleksandr Pushkin es un exhuberante manuscrito en el que se recoge de forma excepcional el paso de la tradición a la modernidad, del romanticismo al desencanto.

La historia se puede destripar en tres líneas: durante su estancia en el campo, Oneguin conoce a L...more Cualquier reticencia a enfrentarse a Eugenio Oneguin es (más o menos) comprensible. ¿Una obra clásica rusa escrita en verso? Se entiende que no sea la lectura preferida del común de los mortales... Pero ellos se lo pierden. Porque la obra de Aleksandr Pushkin es un exhuberante manuscrito en el que se recoge de forma excepcional el paso de la tradición a la modernidad, del romanticismo al desencanto.

La historia se puede destripar en tres líneas: durante su estancia en el campo, Oneguin conoce a Lenski (con el que se bate en duelo) y a Tatiana (la que se enamora de él sin demasiada suerte). Tiempo después, en la ciudad, Oneguin vuelve a encontrarse con Tatiana y las tornas se giran... sin demasiada suerte para el protagonista. ¿Típico argumento romántico? Ahí está precisamente la gracia. Todo es tan arquetípico que resulta irónico, cínico. Sobre todo por la omnipresencia de un narrador post-moderno que no sólo narra (y describe con una pericia sobrehumana), sino que opina e incluso acaba trenzando la realida del personaje con su propia realidad. La voz del poeta-narrador es, simple y llanamente, fascinante. Por todo lo que dice y por todo lo que insinúa. Por todo lo que explica y por todo lo que oculta (pero que la edición de Cátedra te explica sin tapujos).

Otro rasgo de modernidad que fascina encontrar en un manuscrito tan poco moderno (a priori) es la abundancia de dicotomías paradojales: la relación de amor/odio tanto con la ciudad como con el campo, el amor vivido como cota máxima del romanticismo (ya sea desde la pasión literaria de Tatiana como desde la pulcritud byroniana de Oneguin o desde la fidelidad teutona de Lenski) y el desencanto (cínico de Oneguin, formal en Tatiana), la literatura como alimento del alma y como creador de vicios de personalidad... Éste es otro punto delicioso en Eugenio Oneguin: la literatura empapa del primero al último verso. Todos los personajes se definen en base a lo que leen, e incluso la acción se puntualiza en base a cómo otros autores destacados la han plasmado en sus propias obras.

Dicho todo esto... ¿por qué le doy cuatro estrellas y no cinco? Por culpa mía. Para obligarme, en el futuro, a releerlo con el background suficiente que ahora no tengo y que en esta ocasión sólo me ha dejado intuir muchas de las excelencias de la obra de Pushkin. (less)

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Sep 15, 2008 Anastassiya rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: to those who want to read something sophisticated for a change

Recommended to Anastassiya by: School, they made me learn about 20 lines of it when i was 7

Shelves: classics, russian

But like so many people said it before me and too many say it after me..this book is the Masterpiece!

It is so diverse and sophisticated, combines melancholy and brutal realism,a truly timeless work that describes so many sides and motives of human soul. Many characters that you instantly recognise...as if they have been reincarnated into people you know. The divine words strung together to create a perfection! Verse after verse you read and everytime one exclaims:"How true!!!" And not a word tha...more

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Jul 05, 2007 Joe rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Russophiles

This is Pushkin's masterpiece. Most Americans probably don't even know who he is, likely because he's a poet, and poetry isn't really translatable.
Pushkin is like the Shakespeare of Russia; everyone memorizes his works and reads them in school. To put it in perspective, he's even bigger in Russia than Tolsoty, Dostoevsky and Chekhov (whom we consider the Russian literary Giants).
This is the translation by Vladimir Nabokov of Lolita fame. In translating it he didn't try to preserve the rhyme sche...more

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Jun 18, 2008 Frankie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: russian

There are so many references to this work in the canon of Russian lit., I'm ashamed to have just read it for the first time.

The verse is enthralling. It reads like Shakespeare, especially in the way that liberties are taken against the reader but must be forgiven instantly, at least in my opinion. The rigorous meter and rhyme throughout somehow retain a smooth flow (Walter Arndt translated my 1963 version to English–I can't imagine translating, re-metering and re-rhyming). Digressions, though nu...more

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Jan 13, 2012 Geoff marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: volodya, to-read-in-2013

My amazing girlfriend gave me both volumes of Nabokov's translation of Onegin for xmas. She's a keeper.

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May 07, 2013 Paul Williams rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics

Having a Pushkinafile for a best friend means that I was fated to read this book. It was inevitable, and not a bad thing in the slightest. While it doesn't appeal to the universals that I feel make something great in the highest sense of the word, I can't deny that this was a beautifully crafted piece of literature.

The great frustration with Pushkin is that, unlike English poets, the real depth is completely visible, but well beyond your ability to see without much effort. Nearly any stanza is...more

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Jan 23, 2011 Daniel Pecheur rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: lovers of poetry and Russian lit

Shelves: poetry, russian-literature

Pushkin's masterpiece is a fountain of eloquent language, flowery images, fiery passion and hypnotic poetry. Of course, to not read this in Russian one loses the vital essence of Pushkin's profuse talent, just like reading Dante, Shakespeare or Cervantes in anything other than the original tongue in which they manipulated so masterfully their linguistic ingenuity. Nevertheless I am still able to appreciate the vision of Eugene Onegin in its sweeping palette of romantic colors and tragic undercur...more

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Aug 15, 2012 Michelle rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, books-for-class, books-i-own, fiction, re-read, work-in-translation, russian-eastern-bloc

Eugene Onegin is the classic 19th century Russian novel. And if you;re like most of America, you probably haven't read it (unless you studied Russian, and then you absolutely did). Written by Alexander Pushkin, Russia's No. 1 Poet, as a "novel in verse," it reads in a series of lively and lyrical fourteen-line stanzas.
I love this book. And this translation is really good, maintaining the so-called "Onegin stanza", and the playfulness of Pushkin's lines, written while in exile. The title characte...more

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Feb 04, 2011 Wayne rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Russophiles,wits,poets,tragic lovers who need to see the funny side

Recommended to Wayne by: Tchaikovsky with his opera

Shelves: poetry, european-favourites, movie-seen-as-well

I couldn't decide which translation to buy - the Penguin or the Oxford. So I bought both and read them simultaneously!!!
What an idiot!!
What an effort!!!
What a delight !!
What an education in the art of translation!!!
No one told me this tragedy was going to be...funny!!Amusing!!Witty!!
I still don't get it but boy! did I enjoy it.
Novels in verse I have NEVER gone near.
But I am MAD about Tchaikovsky's opera of this verse-novel. Now THAT is TRAGEDY!!
I think poor old Tchai was a disaster waiting to ha...more

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Blair Hi Wayne, thanks for the review.

I'm curious - did you prefer one translation over the other? I'm currently looking for a new Onegin, and the one I hav...more
Nov 25, 2008 11:32am

Wayne Hi Blair,
Glad you enjoyed the review.
Of course, when I read your request I realised I had omitted the most obvious and essential piece of information....more
Nov 26, 2008 05:52am

Alan The end of the world was just around the corner for Pushkin, because of the duel in which the poet Lendky died, a fore-runner of the duel in which the...more
Jan 24, 2013 10:27pm

Sep 05, 2010 Bettie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classic, slavic

Canto the First
I

"My uncle's goodness is extreme,
If seriously he hath disease;
He hath acquired the world's esteem
And nothing more important sees;
A paragon of virtue he!
But what a nuisance it will be,
Chained to his bedside night and day
Without a chance to slip away.
Ye need dissimulation base
A dying man with art to soothe,
Beneath his head the pillow smooth,
And physic bring with mournful face,
To sigh and meditate alone:
When will the devil take his own!"

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23997

----------...more

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Jan 28, 2013 Allen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Pushkin's classic. Actually I read two translations; this is one of them. The system won't let me add the translation by Vladimir Nabokov (of Lolita fame) ISBN Number 9780691019055.

The poem is wonderful reading. But you need to read both to even get a small taste of the real thing. Poetry does not translate well. The book I have listed is in verse so it cannot follow the original very faithfully. Nabokov's translation is much closer to the original intent but is not in verse.

Do not expect a hap...more

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May 03, 2008 David rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2008

Tatyana falls for Eugene, who rebuffs her (gently).
Time passes. Tatyana marries a prince.
Eugene falls for Tatyana, who rebuffs him (gently).

Pushkin whips the whole affair into this wonderfully frothy souffle, which any Russian will tell you is one of the summits of Russian poetry. It certainly disproves the notion that all of Russian literature is dark, brooding, and gloomy.

The Penguin Classic translation is by Charles Johnston. Having just re-read the chapter about Onegin translations in Dougl...more

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Feb 09, 2011 Ekaterina rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Eugenie Onegin by Alexander Pushkin is a story of love and pain. Pushkin creates an image of a strong Russian woman, who once was desperately in love with her neighbor, who didn’t feel the same way for her. However, times past by, things changed, and at the end he is the one who gets to feel her pain. One of the greatest works ever. The whole story written as a poem; however, the rhythm is very easy and engrossing; it makes you flip page after page. A lot of descriptions, which help to understan...more

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Apr 29, 2013 Sally rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

This is not the translation that I read; the one I read is by Douglas Hofstadter. Hofstadter explained in his introduction how he ended up doing the translation and talked about his method of work, which I found really interesting. He admitted that he had been a little 'edgy' in his translation since Falen had already done such a superb job in his work. Unfortunately, my library didn't have the Falen version, so I was stuck with Hofstadter's. As I read, I could see why Hofstadter called his own...more

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Feb 10, 2013 Ingrid rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: russian, poetry, romance, historical

Finished this finally during a blizzard, which seemed oddly appropriate for a book mostly set in Russian winters. First of all, I loved the translation. I even read it out loud to several people because the English was so enjoyable it felt it should be read that way.

The plot was ridiculous on so many levels (they fall in love with such passion with so little interaction), but I loved Pushkin's playfulness, his many digressions, his constant deconstruction of the novel, his use of multiple endin...more

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Feb 04, 2013 gauldy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Ne tak často se mi stává, že bych přečetl něco opravdu výjimečně dobrého a zároveň pořádně nevěděl, co o tom vlastně napsat. Abych se přiznal, stalo se to právě teď.
Ale tak přesto...

"S hrdinou právě stál náš drahý
Bujanov blízko Taťjany
a Olgy. Evžen bez úvahy
zas před Olgou se uklání,
plavně s ní klouže, nepokrytě
jí při jakési banalitě
zápěstí tiskne, očima
ji donchuánsky objímá
a samolibá Olga dlouze
vrací mu pohled... Ze všeho,
co viděl, posed Lenského
běs žárlivosti: sotva Olze
Oněgin složil poklonu,
hn...more

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Jan 01, 2013 Jessica added it

Shelves: classics, poetry

I adored Tatiana, sighed at Lensky, and shook my head at Evgeny/Eugene. I can see why people have taught themselves Russian to be able to read the original.

Johnston translation - serviceable. There were passages where I was thrown off a bit by the oddly starchy voice, where based on context I was expecting something lighter, more swiftly cutting, more fluid.

Still need to try the Falen and Mitchell translations.

Chapter 2, XIV
But friendship, as between our heroes,
can't really be: for we've outgrow...more

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Nov 04, 2012 Lara Buljan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: lektira

PUSHKIN, YOU BLOODY HEARTBREAKER, AM I SUPPOSED TO SHIP CHARACTERS FROM NOVELS WHICH ARE ALMOST 200 YEARS OLD. :sobs:

I didn't think for one second that this book would make me cry. But it didn't surprise me that much. I am, after all, pretty emotional when it comes to books. And I think this one was amazing. Brilliant indeed.
I am sad to say that I didn't read it in the original, but the translation I read was pretty good. Ivan Slaming who translated my edition, is an expert of Russian and Croati...more PUSHKIN, YOU BLOODY HEARTBREAKER, AM I SUPPOSED TO SHIP CHARACTERS FROM NOVELS WHICH ARE ALMOST 200 YEARS OLD. :sobs:

I didn't think for one second that this book would make me cry. But it didn't surprise me that much. I am, after all, pretty emotional when it comes to books. And I think this one was amazing. Brilliant indeed.
I am sad to say that I didn't read it in the original, but the translation I read was pretty good. Ivan Slaming who translated my edition, is an expert of Russian and Croatian versification, so he managed to stay true to the original, as much as possible. (After all, it did manage to make me cry.) Pushkin is in general, very hard to translate, so I didn't expect to get so drawn in.

It's a novel in verse and indicated the transition between romanticism and realism. It has over 380 stanzas which have the form similar to the one of a Shakespearean sonnet. The verses are written as iambic tetrameters which gives them a musical intonation. The novel has 8 chapters, and it ends quite suddenly, leaving us stunned and wondering what the hell happened to Onegin later. We are left with a weak hope that Onegin managed to repair his broken heart and become a better man because of Tatiana.

Onegin is the Russian form of a Byronic hero, permeated with feelings of spleen - constant and unnecessary glumness, but unlike Childe Harold he is well liked in the society. He is somewhat tragic because of his impossibility to see all the good things he has in life: Vladimir's friendship, Tatiana's love and a warm home.
I loved Yevgeniy's character. He had so many flaws, but he felt so real and so human. He is egoistic, proud-spirited, hypocritical but can also be gentle and altruistic. I guess, while hoping for a true happy ending I forgot that characters like him don't get to have one.

I highly recommend it to everyone, it is one of the greatest Russian classics for a reason!

And did I mention? He kills his probably only true friend.
"The clock of doom had struck as fated;
the poet, without a sound,
let fall his pistol on the ground."
(less)

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Aug 27, 2012 Hayley Alexis added it

Eugene Onegin
By Alexander Pushkin

Universally admired in Russia, and yet little known elsewhere, short-story writer and novelist Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837) is usually regarded as the father of Russian literature. Russians are typically exposed to Pushkin at a very young age. Tolstoy was no exception, at least as far as Pushkin's poetry goes. He cites the poetry as an important childhood influence. But, for whatever reasons, Tolstoy did not read Eugene Onegin, a novel written in verse and consi...more Eugene Onegin
By Alexander Pushkin

Universally admired in Russia, and yet little known elsewhere, short-story writer and novelist Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837) is usually regarded as the father of Russian literature. Russians are typically exposed to Pushkin at a very young age. Tolstoy was no exception, at least as far as Pushkin's poetry goes. He cites the poetry as an important childhood influence. But, for whatever reasons, Tolstoy did not read Eugene Onegin, a novel written in verse and considered to be one of Pushkin's major works, until he was 18. It appears to be only by chance that he read it then: he was spending the summer at Iasnaia Poliana and went to a neighbor's estate to see about buying some cattle. He ended up spending the night and picked this book up at random and started to read it before falling asleep. He was so engrossed, he finished the book and started reading it a second time before morning.

Eugene Onegin tells the tale of a disenchanted, cosmopolitan hero initially incapable not just of commitment, but of feeling. He finds himself in the provinces where a very appealing young woman, Tatyana, falls in love with him. The novel traces their relations. Tatyana eventually marries another, an older man for whom she clearly feels no passion. Eugene resurfaces in her life and declares himself to be madly in love with her. Tatyana proves able to say no to the temptation that arises, whether because she realizes that the man tempting her is unworthy or because she puts duty—and the welfare of her husband—ahead of her own personal happiness. Some readers, especially the liberals of Pushkin's era, felt that it was criminal for Tatyana to waste her life in this way. Other readers, Dostoevsky among them, embraced Tatyana as the ideal Russian woman, to be praised for her selflessness and self-respect. Tolstoy's contemporary Russian readers could not have read Anna Karenina without comparing these two heroines, who find themselves in loveless marriages and make very different choices.

(less)

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Aug 07, 2012 Filzah rated it 5 of 5 stars

Classic. I go back to this story at least once a year. First Russian work that I picked up - back when I was 15, and my love for Russian lit has been unstoppable since then :) I have watched the opera, ballet and countless film adaptations, but nothing comes close to the text, no matter how many times you've read it. I am working on my Russian so I can finally read it in the original!

Note: ALWAYS ALWAYS get the FALEN translation. I had the unfortunate time of reading several other translations b...more

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Become good friends from sheer ennui.” — 13 people liked it

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