Eugene Onegin

Eugene Onegin (Yevgeny Onegin, ??????? ??????) is a novel in verse written by Aleksandr Pushkin. It is one of the classics of Russian literature and its hero served as the model for a number of Russian literary heroes. It was published in serial form between 1823 and 1831. The first complete edition was published in 1833, and the edition the current accepted version is based on was published in 1837.

Summary

Eugene Onegin, a Russian dandy who is bored with life, inherits a country mansion from his his uncle. When he moves to the country he strikes up an unlikely friendship with the minor poet Vladimir Lensky. One day Lensky takes Onegin to dine with the family of his fiance Olga Larin. At this meeting Olga's bookish and countrified sister, Tanya, falls in love with Onegin. During the night Tanya writes a letter to Onegin professing her love and has it sent to Onegin. While this is something a heroine in one of Tanya's French novels would have done, Russian society would consider it inappropriate for a young, unmarried girl to take the initiative. Contrary to her expectations, Onegin does not reply by letter. The two next meet on his next visit where he rejects her advances in a speech that has been described as reasonable and tactful honesty, and alternately as pompous and blinkered condescension.

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Later Lensky clumsily invites Onegin to Tanya's nameday celebration, forgetting to mention what the event is or the position of honour that would be accorded to him. At the celebration Onegin realises that everyone there expects that Onegin is there as Tanya's suitor, then proceeds to dance and flirt with Olga. Lensky leaves in a rage and in the morning issues a challenge of a duel to Onegin. At the duel Onegin kills Lensky, then flees.

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Tanya visits Onegin's mansion and reads through his books and the notes in the margin, and through this comes to the belief that Onegin's character is merely a collage of different literary heroes and so there is no "real Onegin". Later Tanya is taken to Moscow and introduced to society. In this new environment Tanya matures to such an extent that when Onegin returns to Moscow he fails to recognise her. When he realises who she is, he tries to win her affection despite the fact that she is now married, only to be ignored. He writes her a letter and receives no reply. The book ends when Onegin manages to see Tanya and is once more rejected in a speech echoing the speech he previously gave her.

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The story is told by an idealised version of Pushkin, who often digresses from the story and while the plot of the novel is quite scant the book is more loved for the telling than what is told. It is partly because of this garrulous narrator that the book has been compared to Tristram Shandy.

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The six main characters are Eugene Onegin, Vladimir Lenski, an idealised Pushkin, Tanya Larina, Olga Larina and Pushkin's Muse.

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In the book Pushkin claims that Eugene Onegin is his friend, however the name "Onegin" is not an authentic Russian surname but derived from the river and lake Onega. This literary artifice serves to contradict the implied reality of this "friend". Lenski is similarly named after the Siberian river Lena.

Related Topics:
Lake Onega - Lena

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One of the main themes of Eugene Onegin is the relation between fiction and real life. As art often imitates life, people too are often shaped by art. The work is hugely allusive to other literary works and most of the main characters have been influenced and had their personalities shaped by (or modelled on) different works of literature.

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