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Jun 22, 2011

Alex rated it:

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 More...

13 comments like (15 people liked it)

Oct 12, 2007

Núria rated it:

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...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Sep 04, 2011

James rated it:

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 acknowledge More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 03, 2008

Raül rated it:

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, Onegui More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 15, 2008

Anastassiya rated it:

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!!!" More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jan 23, 2011

Daniel rated it:

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...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 25, 2007

Peter rated it:

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, Pus More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 04, 2011

Wayne rated it:

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!!
More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

May 03, 2008

David rated it:

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 More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Aug 03, 2011

Ekaterina rated it:

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...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 31, 2011

Corinne rated it:

Having read some Chekov a while ago, I noticed so many different references to Pushkin and Eugene Onegin that I finally purchased a copy of the novel-in-verse so I could have some sense of this Russian classic.

Eugene. At the beginning of our story, he's a party-going night owl, living a life of ease in the city. He finds nothing to excite him, so with disinterest and cynicism, he retreats to the country. Shortly after his arrival he finds himself the love-interest of the intriguing More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Sep 27, 2011

Hansen rated it:

The title character to Eugene Onegin is interesting precisely because he is so petty and blase, so viscerally reactive without concern for the excitement, drama and meaning that motivates so many of our lives. With a young, devilish and rash persona, he would have been enjoyable to read, but Eugene's level of precociousness makes him a tabloid sensation, precisely the guilty pleasure that we (and apparently 19th Century Russia) love: rich kids behaving badly, because of boredom. Sure, we love to More...

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Apr 14, 2011

Patrick added it

Remember Gale, when we rowed to the middle of Chautauqua Lake and decided to drift back to shore? And I produced a ragged copy of 'Eugene Onegin' and proceeded to read aloud (and act) all of my favorite parts (which is most of it)? Remember how difficult it was in a canoe?

My love for this epic has never faltered. I have thrust this upon so many people there have been times when I have been reduced to reading it to the cat (he seems to prefer the opera--go figure).

Aren't y More...

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Apr 09, 2011

Courtney rated it:

Even though it took me awhile to get into the rhythm of Pushkin's meter (some cantos were definitely easier to read than others), I ended up relishing the stanzas at the end, particularly when Onegin begins to write to Tatiana--some of those lines are the most decadent poetry I've ever read. The narrative of the story was always interesting, though Pushkin sidetracked just about every other stanza, talking about poets, nature, his take on Russian history, or just about anything else Russian, pe More...

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Jun 17, 2010

Manny rated it:

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,
More...

3 comments like (13 people liked it)

Jul 28, 2009

Richard rated it:

Douglas Hofstadter presented some wonderful concepts about translation (more precisely, the translation of work that abides by a very specific structure) in his book Le Ton Beau de Marot, but his shortfall in that book (and what becomes quickly apparent in this translation) is that his appreciation is primarily for the structural aspects of the work and not so much the purpose of that structure--in other words, how the writer may be using that structure as part of his arsenal in conveying a deep More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 21, 2009

Becky rated it:

Great novel in verse - There are several levels in reading this. On the primary plot level this is the story of a man, Onegin, who goes to visit his friend, Lemsky, a poet, and meets the family of Lemsky's fiance, Olga. Tatyana is Olga's sister and falls in love, at first sight, with the dandy Onegin. But Onegin rejects her and flirts with Olga which sets all sorts of havoc into place.

On the next level it appears that Tatyana is a reader of romance novels and the passion is coming More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 10, 2008

Margaret rated it:

What can I say? Arguably the first and greatest Russian novel by the greatest Russian writer. Senior year at Reed I took an entire course on this book and the culture of early 19th century Russia. If you can't read it in the original, read the James Falen translation. It comes closest to the original meanings while still employing verse. And listen to the Tchaikovsky opera of the same name. Because if you don't like Pushkin OR Tchaikovsky, all I can do is shrug.

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 01, 2009

Bram rated it:

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 More...

39 comments like (23 people liked it)

Feb 19, 2011

Kristine added it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Jun 20, 2011

David rated it:

I adore Pushkin's poetry and have admired it since my college days long ago. He has a tenderness, elegance of metaphor, eye for beauty and connection to the Russian landscape, which truly set him apart. I consider him the Wordsworth of Russia, although Pushkin admired Byron, whom he quotes in Chapter 8. Eugene Onegin had much in common with Childe Harold. That is, Onegin is a man who is overwhelmed by the simple beauty of the Russian countryside in which Pushkin loved to dwell. Yet somehow he is More...

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Sep 19, 2009

Hanny rated it:

This is the best.

None of the "classics" I feel compelled to read are harder to get through than the big long poems. The episodic ones — Odyssey, Ovid — are no problem, and Lucretius is awesome. Otherwise, it's impossible: never got much farther than "arma virumque cano" in Virgil, Byron's Don Juan and Keats' whats-her-name I've never even started, and God help us when Jesus shows up in Paradise Lost.

This one, on the other hand, was impossible to put do More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Jun 02, 2009

Jason rated it:

After about 50 pages, I really thought I aws going to hate this book. In fact, I will with quiet shame admit, I had HOPED to hate this book. My recent review of William Blake had revealed to me the embarrasing fact that I very frequently leave unclear what my opinion is at all, and that I have a tendency to gush on and on about prettiness, and such, in a way that must get tiring. I had the good fortune (?) to read Beowulf next, which gave me opportunity to present that I don't just like everythi More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 29, 2010

Lindsay rated it:

I first became aware of the story because of the Tchaikovsky opera based on the book and I read in a matter of hours what took Pushkin roughly seven years to publish--so glad I read this now and not then! It's an interesting story of ill-timed love and I have to say that Tatyana is a new favorite female character. She doesn't let Bryonic anti-heroes walk all over her (as much as I love Onegin...)! )<

I stumbled over this quote, Pushkin's assessment of literature in his age, and it More...

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Jul 05, 2011

Vrixton rated it:

First thing I thought, <spoiler>"If you liked it then you shoulda put a ring on it."</spoiler> but that doesn't quite fit.

To be quite honest, I couldn't get over the feeling that there was something seriously missing in translation. I've read that Pushkin is amazing in the original Russian, but in this English translation I was left almost completely cold.
There were moments when the verse really sparkled and I was amazed, but not because of the poetry but b More...

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May 14, 2011

Franc rated it:

Ok . . . the debate is over for me. The James Falen translation is definitely the one to read (note to Kindle readers: it's well worth the $7 to get this vs. a free version.) It is fresh, brisk, fast, and captures both the wit of the salon and ballroom scene and the despair following the duel (I can't imagine that's a spoiler for anyone.) I really can't stress how well it reads, and if you read it aloud to yourself (as I did) the rhythm and spirit of Pushkin's verse is captured more so than More...

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Jun 29, 2011

Elizabeth rated it:

I first encountered this at Endellion, when we were singing the Tchaik adaptation. I'm fascinated by the way in which Pushkin uses himself as a narrator and character all at once; want to punch Onegin in the head; and am fairly unconvinced by Tatyana as a romantic heroine. I know, I know, total blasphemy, but there you have it.

I suspect this may be the first appearance of the Meg Murry type in literature, which bears examination -- the quiet, bookish, outsider who is so prized by write More...

5 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 30, 2011

Nealw rated it:

Considering this was a "I had to read it" book, I really liked it. Sadly, what did I like about it most? It rhymed - which is always fun, and the story was intriguing.
Onegin is your typical spoiled, shallow guy. He's bored with life and finds it hard to get interested in anything or anyone. Tatyana is a romantic. She's intelligent, well-read, and doesn't easily fall for the drama that those around her incessantly whisper/giggle about. When Tatyana sees Onegin, it's love at first More...

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Mar 06, 2011

Saharvetes rated it:

[This is a review of Douglas Hofstadter's translation; I've already given five stars to Eugene Onegin itself.]

Douglas Hofstadter's translation is not anywhere close to being as good as Falen's (as he himself admits at the start), but it's still worth reading. Hofstadter being Hofstadter, he puts most of his effort into ingenious (sometimes awful) rhymes and alliteration, and he never misses an opportunity for a pun or clever twist of phrase. This translation is a "linguistic lab More...

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Aug 30, 2011

Ana rated it:

My teacher gave me an F when we were doing this at school. She was very angry with me, because she knew I loved reading, so she couldn`t understand how I haven`t read this book. So, she made me learn by heart both Eugene and Tatyana`s letters. I had only three days to do so. I sat down and read the letters over and over again, and each time I read them, I found the book a little less boring. In the end, I completely fell in love with it, especcially the character of Tatyana, because we have so m More...

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