The story arc is beautifully constructed. The characters are deeply affecting. The denouement took my breath away. ( )

Recenzoj
Citaĵo
„ Estas verko apartenanta al la tutmonda literaturo. Estas amrakonto, en kiu finfine la amata heroino ne sekvas la voĉon de la naturo, sed sin fordonas al maljuna princo. Nekrasov faris tre diligentan laboron, plaĉe plaŭdas la rimoj. ”
— Aso, "La Socialisto", 1931, p. 116
Citaĵo
„ Versa romano Eŭgeno Onegin estas probable la plej elstara verko de tuta rusa literaturo. Fama kritikisto V.Belinskij prave nomis ĝin “enciklopedio de la rusa vivo”: vere, la rusa vivo — kaj nobela en la ĉefurboj, kaj kampula en vilaĝo (Puŝkin priskribis bone konatan medion en Pskova provinco, kie situis lia propra bieno), kun ĉiuj moroj, tradicioj kaj aktualaj eventoj — estas montrita plej fidele kaj detale. La aŭtoro certigis la legantojn, ke la tempo en la romano estas kalkulita laŭ kalendaro; la priskribataj eventoj komenciĝas fine de 1819. Apud la elpensitaj protagonistoj rolas realaj konataj homoj kaj la aŭtoro mem. Krome, li kelkloke citas aŭ parodias la poetojn-samtempulojn, kaj eĉ sukcesas kun ili polemiki, ofte apelacias al la leganto — do la “spirito de l' tempo” senteblas perfekte.
(...)
Temas pri ŝajne simpla, preskaŭ banala historio — ekzistas eĉ klasika opero laŭ tiu romano. Riĉa junulo Eŭgeno Onegin veturas el la ĉefurbo en vilaĝon por ekmastri bienon de sia forpasinta onklo kaj restas tie, ĉar urba aristokrata vivo tedis lin. Li trovas tie unusolan amikon — Lenskij; kaj Tatjana, fraŭlino el najbara bieno, baldaŭ enamiĝas al li, naive kaj sincere, ĉar li tute ne similas la ceterajn najbarojn. Li rifuzas ŝian amon kaj edife riproĉas ŝin. Pro bagatela kaŭzo troemocia Lenskij subite vokas la amikon al duelo, do Onegin hazarde kaj kontraŭvole murdas lin. Konsternita, Onegin forveturas kaj dum tri jaroj vojaĝas, strebante trovi animan ekvilibron kaj ian sencon por sia vivo. Fine li revenas en la ĉefurbon kaj denove renkontiĝas kun Tatjana, kiu jam estas edzino de lia konato. Nun subite jam Eŭgenon kaptas amo al ŝi, kaj ŝi malvarme rifuzas sen ia ŝanco... ”
— "La Ondo de Esperanto", 2003:6

I read this to basically just catalog allusions, as I've seen this referenced in art and literature a ton without knowing a thing about it. I can see why it was such a big deal back in the day for such a romance to take place, but by today's standards, it's unfortunately really, really basic. I don't know if I'm supposed to pity Onegin either because honestly, he's an asshole, but I did really like the poetry and the descriptions of nature (felt like I was reading Ethan Frome at times, hah). What made this 4 stars was the ruminations of life and death (which I always love) and the description of Onegin's and Lensky's friendship when they first meet, which was very pretty. ( )

This is another of those classics that it's — almost — redundant to read, because you have heard so much about them before you start. Not only from Tchaikovsky: just about every subsequent classic Russian novel involves characters discussing or comparing themselves to Onegin, Tatiana and Lensky. The plot runs along the lines we expect with all the precision of a tramcar: Tatiana falls for Onegin but he rejects her; he has to fight a duel with his best friend Lensky after flirting with his intended, Tatiana's sister Olga, and kills him; some years later Onegin falls heavily for the now-married Tatiana and it's her turn to reject him. So it's a kind of Russian Werther, a romantic tragedy in which all the players are very contemporary poets, tied up in the politics of early-19th-century Russia.

But of course it's not really about the plot. Pushkin effectively invented the rules of modern literary Russian, and developed a bouncy, Byronic Russian verse-form (the "Pushkin sonnet") to suit his chatty, up-to-date style. In tune with his heroes Byron and Sterne he loves to wander off into digressions at key moments, and it's never absolutely clear whether the numerous "missing" stanzas or half-stanzas in his numbering scheme are errors, practical jokes at the reader's expense, or simply places he intended to come back to later.

There are also the two chapters he never finished: the half-finished Onegin's Journey, which should have been Chapter VIII, and would have smoothed out the rather abrupt transition between Onegin meeting Tatiana as a young girl and then as a married woman, and the aborted Chapter X, which never got much further than a few bits of political satire attacking the Czar's government. It's not clear where he intended to fit this into the story: Onegin and Tatiana don't appear in the surviving fragments.

Stanley Mitchell taught Russian at the University of Essex and elsewhere, and was a noted left-winger and a veteran of the 1968 student protests. He worked on Pushkin throughout his academic career. His 2008 translation tries the difficult trick of putting Pushkin's tetrameter meter and demanding rhyme scheme into English, and he pulls it off astonishingly well. The rather contrived rhymes that sometimes result have a quite appropriate feeling of Don Juan about them, and the bounce and colloquial chattiness of the original come through very strongly. Just occasionally there's a bit too much of a hint of WS Gilbert (II.10: "He sang of life's decaying scene, / While he was not yet quite eighteen."). But it's great fun to read, which is surely the most important thing. ( )

So... this is Pride & Prejudice isn’t it? I mean you have the 2 guys and 2 girls, the optimistic one and the prideful cynic, the more introspective girl falls for the cynic, at one point she even goes to his house and mooches about while he’s away... this is distinctly Pride & Prejudice shaped.

Not to say it goes in the same direction, far from it.. but i won’t say more about that as it will spoil things.

This is poetry and translated which can be iffy, i can't judge the quality of the translations, i started with whatever one is on Gutenberg but my ancient ereader seemed to have some trouble with the file and i eventually switched to the version on the PoetryinTranslation site. It seemed good enough.

Main issue with this is the author finds it really hard to stay on topic, especially in the early sections. And when his mind wandered mine often followed, i glazed over several times. However when its actually telling the story its pretty good.
I was tempted to give it 4-stars due to the strong later sections but restrained myself. ( )