Odessa’s dreaming;

The breathless night is warm and soft,

While high above the moon’s aloft,

The sky all lightly veiled and streaming.

No stir disturbs the silence round,

Except the sea’s incessant sound.

* * *

And so I lived in old Odessa …

EXPLANATORY NOTES

Pétri… particulière: the main epigraph to the novel, apparently written by Pushkin himself, translates roughly as follows: ‘Steeped in vanity, he was possessed moreover by that particular sort of pride that makes a man acknowledge with equal indifference both his good and evil actions, a consequence of a sense of superiority, perhaps imaginary. From a private letter.’

dedication: The dedication was originally addressed to Pushkin’s friend (and the first publisher of Eugene Onegin) P. A. Pletnyov (1792–1862). In later editions, the piece was retained as a kind of preface, but without the inscription to Pletnyov.

Chapter 1

My uncle, man of firm convictions: the novel’s opening words mimic a line from the fable The Ass and the Peasant by Ivan Krylov (1796–1844): ‘An ass of most sincere convictions.’

Ludmila’s and Ruslán’s adherents: the author’s address to his readers and references to other of his writings are devices used throughout the novel. The allusion here is to Pushkin’s first major work, the mock epic Ruslán and Ludmila.

noxious in the north: ‘Written in Bessarabia’ (Pushkin’s note). A lightly veiled allusion to the poet’s troubles with the court: a few poems of liberal sentiment and some caustic epigrams had incurred the wrath of the emperor, and as a consequence, in May 1820, Pushkin was required to leave St Petersburg for an unspecified term of exile in the south of Russia. He would not return to the capital for more than six years.

Letny Park: the Summer Garden, a public park situated along the embankment of the Neva and adorned with shade trees and the statues of Greek deities.

(9): here and elsewhere, numbers in parentheses indicate stanzas omitted by Pushkin in the published text.

Faublas: the hero of a novel by the French writer Louvet de Couvrai (1760–97). Abetted in the seduction of other men’s wives by a rakish count, Faublas, it turns out, has seduced his accomplice’s bride as well.

Bolivár. ‘Hat à la Bolivar’ (Pushkin’s note). A wide-brimmed black top hat, named after the South American liberator, which was fashionable in both Paris and St Petersburg in the 1820s.

Bréguet: an elegant pocket-watch made by the celebrated French watchmaker, Abraham Louis Bréguet (1747–1823).

Talon’s: Talon was a well-known French restaurateur in St Petersburg.

Kavérin: Pyotr Kaverin (1794–1855) was a hussar, man about town, and friend of Pushkin.

comet wine: champagne from the year of the comet (1811), a year of especially good vintage.

Strasbourg pie: a rich pastry made with goose liver, for which the French city is famous.

Cleopatra … Phèdre… Moïna: the heroines of various plays, operas, or ballets performed in St Petersburg at the time. The Cleopatra that Pushkin had in mind is uncertain; the Phèdre was either Racine’s tragedy or an opera based on it; Moïna is the heroine of Ozerov’s tragedy, Fingal.

Enchanted land!… perfected: the stanza evokes the Russian theatre around the turn of the century, when for the most part imitations of Corneille, Racine, and Molière prevailed. D. Fonvizin (1745–92), the most noteworthy of the playwrights mentioned, was the author of two successful satires, The Minor and The Brigadier. Y. Knyazhnin (1742–91), V. Ozerov (1769–1816), and P. Katenin (1792–1852) wrote Frenchified tragedies; A. Shakhovskoy (1777–1846) wrote equally derivative comedies. E. Semyonova (1786–1849) was an accomplished Shakespearian actress who performed in Russian dramas as well. Charles-Louis Didelot (1767–1837), French ballet master and choreographer, was associated with the St Petersburg ballet.

Istómina: A. I. Istomina (1799–1848). A celebrated ballerina who was a pupil of Didelot. She danced in ballets that were based on works by Pushkin, and early in her career the poet had courted her.

Grimm: Frédéric Melchior Grimm (1723–1807). French encyclopedist. In a note to these lines Pushkin quotes from Rousseau’s Confessions on the encounter between the two men and then comments: ‘Grimm was ahead of his age: nowadays, all over enlightened Europe, people clean their nails with a special brush.’

Chadáyev: the manuscript provides evidence for the name given here. Pyotr Chadayev (1793–1856) was a friend of the poet and a brilliant personality. Both fop and philosopher, he was the author of the famous Lettres philosophiques, of which only one was published in Russia during his lifetime. His work helped to precipitate, through its critique of Russian history, the great debate between the Westernizer and Slavophile camps of Russian thought.