"Eugene Onegin" was the first major work written in Russian, helping to establish that languages illustrious literary tradition. This novel in verse brought to fame Aleksandr Pushkin, who later turned his talents from poetry on to prose fiction with such titles as "The Captains Daughter", "The Queen of Spades", and "Dubrovskii".Briefly, the story concerns the encounter between two landed gentry, Eugene, who is disillusioned by his former experiences of St. Petersburg, and Tatyana, a provincial girl who sees the world through her English romance poetry. Obviously, the meeting is an ugly one. The ending is left for the reader to discover, but we all get to see how pitiful Onegin really is.
This edition includes the unfinished poem, "Onegins Journey", and the classic "The Bronze Horseman", which is famous for describing the unstoppable and cruel will of Peter the Great in modernizing Russia.
The only problem that I had was in the English translation of "Eugene Onegin". Translating a poem from one lanaguage to another, while still maintaining proper meter and rhyme is no mean feat. Nevertheless, something is lost in the delivery of the poem and unfortunately, we can appreciate only part of Pushkins genius by reading the English translation. Id like to learn Russian well enough to be able to read Pushkins poetry in order to appreciate his work more fully. Well Im working on it!
