Eugene Onegin

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© James E. Falen 1990, 1995

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First published as a World’s Classics paperback 1995
Reissued as an Oxford World’s Classics paperback 1998

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Data available

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Pushkin, Aleksandr Sergeevich, 1799–1837.
[Evgenii Onegin. English]
Eugene Onegin: a novel in verse / Alexander Pushkin; translated
with an introduction and notes by James E. Falen.
Includes bibliographical references.
I. Falen, James E., 1935–. II. Title. III. Series.
PG3347. E8F35    1995    891.73’3—dc20    94–45634

ISBN 0–19–283899–7

5    7    9    10    8    6

Printed in Great Britain by
Cox & Wyman Ltd.
Reading, Berkshire

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OXFORD WORLD’S CLASSICS

ALEXANDER PUSHKIN

Eugene Onegin

A Novel in Verse

Translated with an Introduction and Notes by
JAMES E. FALEN

OXFORD WORLD’S CLASSICS

EUGENE ONEGIN

ALEXANDER SERGEEVICH PUSHKIN was born in Moscow in 1799 into an old aristocratic family. As a schoolboy he demonstrated a precocious talent for verse and was recognized as a poetic prodigy by prominent older writers. In 1817 he received a nominal appointment in the government service, but for the most part he led a dissipated life in the capital while he continued to produce much highly polished light verse. His narrative poem, Ruslan and Lyudmila (publ. 1820), brought him widespread fame and secured his place as the leading figure in Russian poetry. At about the same time a few mildly seditious verses led to his banishment from the capital. During this so-called ‘southern exile’, he composed several narrative poems and began his novel in verse, Eugene Onegm. As a result of further conflicts with state authorities he was condemned to a new period of exile at his family’s estate of Mikhailovskoe. There he wrote some of his finest lyric poetry, completed his verse drama Boris Godunov, and continued work on Eugene Onegin. He was still in enforced absence from the capital when the Decembrist Revolt of 1825 took place. Although several of his friends were among those executed or imprisoned, he himself was not implicated in the affair, and in 1826 he was pardoned by the new Czar Nicholas I and permitted to return to Moscow. By the end of the decade, as he sought to become a truly professional writer, he turned increasingly to prose composition.