Customer Reviews

Eugene Onegin (Penguin Classics)

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Eugene Onegin, capably translated by Charles Johnston is a simply amazing piece of literature. Possibly Pushkin's most well known work, it maintains enormous influence in Russia today, with Pushkin often considered to be the 'Russian Shakespeare'. Any fan of Russian literature should take the time to read this or any of Pushkin's other works, as so many of the great Russian writers that are so well known were inspired and influenced by this great poet's work.

The novel is written in verse format, in a style that has come to be known as the "Onegin Stanza". This 14 line format allows for a range of emotions and reading experience over the course of the novel. Sometimes light and playful, other times deadly serious, the verse format of the novel adds a lyrical readability to the novel, while at the same time making the many shifts in subject potentially disconcerting. These shifts in focus (to literary conventions and precedents, women's feet, and various other confessions and tidbits) along with the novel's scope of focus and time make it many times complicated to understand. However, this is one of the novel's great achievements as it provides insight and exploration in a wide range of topics, while maintaining a literary self-awareness. The guiding plot is thoughtful, surprising and enjoyable as it (again) explores a vast range of life experiences, hinging on a couple of vicissitudes.

The Penguin edition with its introduction and further reading recommendations is helpful in understanding the role that this novel has had in Russian culture as well as critical studies. The notes are helpful throughout the novel - the fact that they are not denoted in the text and are instead attributed to each stanza makes it easy to read the notes either concurrent with the novel or as a nice addition after having completed the novel.

Eugene Onegin is truly deserving of all the praise and attention that it has received over the years - I highly recommend it as a literary experience that will not be soon forgotten.

For those who can read the original Russian, I'm sure this English translation would be surprising to them. A poem-novel...written in Russian by the great Pushkin, known for his short stories, plays and poetry...this book is the beginning of our understanding of Russian literature in the 19th century. The hero is Byronic in nature but the landscape, the time, the mood is distinctly Russian. This novel set the tone for Lermontov, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and to a certain extent, the writings of Akmahtova in the 20th century.

I would consider this translation above others. It's the first version I read and the only one I want to read (I've made comparisons to other versions and still find this the most emotionally satisfying...the feelings, the intensity of mood, the beauty, the passion...I'm sure if Byron were alive today, he would read this one...and if Pushkin were alive and read modern English, perhaps this one too.)

Well worth your currency to pick this one up, for yourself and/or those with a love of Dostoevsky or Lermontov.

My Russian is fairly good and I was reading Onegin in Russian side by side with Nabokov's translation. I understand what Nabokov's point was in making a literal, literal, literal translation and killing both rhyme and form but the result, for my taste, is a murder of Onegin, just painful gibberish. I understand that Nabokov was a rare and subtle linguist of the first water, but still... No matter how you rationalize it, Nabokov's translation is (as someone I know once described her ugliest undergarments) a passion killer.

Now I found Charles Johnson's translation; it is a pleasure to read and a great help. This translation is much more human that Nabakov's. Nabakov scornfully described such non-literal translations as Johnson's in his own scholarly treatment. Well, to each his own. I know some will be ripped to hear Nabokov's work disrespected, but there you are.

The layered meanings and word play that are the true beauty of this classic can only be found and understood in Russian. Few, if any, students of Russian will get half of the meaning or beauty without a decent translation to guide them, and I am certainly not one of them.

Fortunately for me, I read Onegin each night with my wife, who is Russian, and that is best of all.

What we have here is Pushkin's ultimate fiction: Eugene Onegin. It became a rebirth of great Russian Literature, a few hundred years before "The Lay of Igor's Campaign" was created. It became a classic ever since it was published, and it's still going strong in modern times. It certainly ranks with Lermontov's "A Hero of our Time" and Gogol's "Dead Souls" when it comes to recommended reading.

This is the first English translation I came across, and I did enjoy it. Charles Johnston did a splendid job with creating a flow that English speakers like me can understand, while never losing the overall Russian atmosphere. He gets an thumbs up from me. As for the work itself, it's astounding, and I don't think there will ever be anything like this created in the future.

Alexander Pushkin is the father of Russian literature, writing its first works to enter the world canon and becoming so popular and influential that he altered the Russian language itself, particularly its written form. He remains Russia's most popular and revered poet, his status comparable to Shakespeare's in English-speaking countries. However, most of his work has not been widely translated, and his international reputation rests almost entirely on the long poem Eugene Onegin, his most famous work and generally considered his masterpiece. It is a testament to the poem's greatness that Pushkin's world reputation is so high.

The poem remains great for many reasons, not least remarkable readability. Those who find early nineteenth-century poetry hopelessly archaic and stuffy even in their own language will be very pleasantly surprised. Eugene is very easy to get into and even quickly gets one hooked; those reading for entertainment can devour it almost like a pulp novel. Many factors contribute to this. On one level, the poem is an extremely fast-paced, rollicking picaresque and can be enjoyed for this alone. There is some adventure and suspense, particularly the famous duel, and quite a bit of humor. The poem has much in common with Lord Byron's masterwork Don Juan, the last installment of which came the year before (1824) the first part of Eugene. Both are mock-epics satirizing many social aspects in a hilariously freewheeling style. Pushkin was greatly influenced by Byron, and it shows both stylistically and thematically; their satire and humor are of a piece, and Byron fans should definitely check out Pushkin. Like Byron's poem, Pushkin's is remarkable for encompassing nearly every style and genre, ranging from tragic to comic to romantic to philosophical within a few pages. It is as if Pushkin's genius was too vast and varied to stay in one place more than briefly; most poets would give almost anything to equal his talent in one area, much less all. One would be very hard-pressed to find another poem other than Don Juan that is as funny as it is moving. However, Pushkin was no mere imitator, and the Byron influence - and European influences generally - sometimes came out in negative ways. For example, much of Pushkin's satire is directed at Russia's increasing Europeanization; he has a considerable amount of fun at affected Russians' expense.

Yet the work is also distinctly Russian. Russians have felt this from the start, recognizing that it is a brilliant and accurate snapshot of their culture at an important point. One can learn much about early nineteenth-century Russian society from it. More remarkably, its own influence has been at least as great. Few literary works have had such a substantial effect on the culture from which it arose. This comes not least from the vividly memorable characters, several of whom have become literary and cultural archetypes. Generations of Russian men have seen themselves in Eugene, and his influence on famous Russian fictional characters like Ivan Turgenev's Bazarov, Fyodor Dostoevsky's Raskolnikov, and Leo Tolstoy's Pozdnyshev are very obvious. Russian literature's prototypical Byronic hero, Eugene personifies the spiritual and philosophical malaise later dramatized in the great Russian novels of the century's second half and that eventually led to the twentieth century's profound changes. Eugene is on one level a simple playboy, but his intellect and poetic sensitivity show depth beneath his hedonistic, devil-may-care exterior. This relates directly to Europeanization and the consequent decline of traditional Russian culture. Young men in Pushkin's time were dissatisfied with, almost contemptuous of, the latter but perhaps not quite ready for the former, leaving a gap they knew not how to fill other than with conventional pleasures. This created a vicious cycle that, while yielding many sensual delights, is ultimately unrewarding; the poem dramatically shows how true love was impossible in such a lifestyle, which often led to unexpected tragedy. All this and more makes Eugene a classic character. Tatyana, the female lead, likewise became the model for many Russian literary heroines, and even the lesser characters have been influential. Also notable is that, again as in Don Juan, the narrator himself, an exaggerated version of Pushkin, is a kind of character. Anticipating what later became known as gonzo writing, the narrator has a distinct personality and practically wills himself into the story. Mischievous and perhaps unreliable, he self-consciously milks his story for all it is worth, often pulling our proverbial leg and more than once tantalizing us.

The poem is influential and memorable for many other reasons. Practically every Russian work that has come since owes some debt to its presentation of love, courtship, and perhaps above all, dueling. A dueling scene was near-obligatory in Russian literature for the rest of the century, and nearly all play off Eugene in some way. It has one of literature's most famous duels and also eerily foreshadowed Pushkin's own dueling death only a few years after he stopped writing the poem. Here we begin to see just how intimately the work is connected to Russian life. Dueling has historically been a significant part of Russian culture, especially in the nineteenth century, and this shows its dark side, casting a long shadow over what is otherwise a quite light-hearted work.

Eugene is also remarkable for attention to detail in regard to everything from settings to social etiquette. Thus, though the poem is essentially a narrative, fans of descriptive poetry will find much to like, and the work is in part a comedy of manners on top of everything else. Along with unusually detailed and lifelike characterization, these factors have often lead people to call the poem a "novel in verse." Even those who normally do not like poetry, especially lyrics, may thus be attracted.

Finally, Eugene has also proven to have a lasting impact on a more technical level. Here we truly see Pushkin breaking away from Byron. Amazingly, he is able to mix metrical dexterity and variety with natural diction and very lifelike dialogue - an incredible technical achievement comparable to Alexander Pope's in English. Many poets have done one or the other, but very, very few have done both. The poem is written in fourteen-line iambic tetrameter stanzas with an unusual rhyme scheme alternating masculine and feminine chimes. This famous "Onegin Stanza" is widely admired and often imitated. Technicalities aside, it is a large part of the reason the poem makes such lively reading - not least because, again like Byron, Pushkin was a master of unexpected and often outrageous rhymes. The never-ending variety helps keep the poem moving quickly, and the rhymes often have a comic effect.

As one might expect from all this, one reason Pushkin is not more widely translated is simply that he is hard to translate. Translators have unsurprisingly found it difficult to balance literalness with the distinct poetics. There are a number of verse translations, some of which try to replicate the Onegin stanzas with varying success. This Charles Johnston one is excellent - a good choice for anyone wanting Onegin stanzas, though some prefer more recent translations. The Onegin stanza impulse is very understandable because the poetics are such a distinct part of the poem, but many criticized such attempts for sacrificing literal meaning too greatly. Famed Russian writer Vladimir Nabakov was particularly irked, publishing a free verse translation and denouncing prior attempts. This proved to be very popular and extremely influential, getting special mention for scrupulous accuracy, and may still be the best-known translation. However, many thought it went too far in the other direction, and there have been several later verse translations, including Onegin stanzas. Readers must decide which edition suits their needs. Nabakov's is the clear choice for those who value literalness above all, but those wanting more balance have a difficult choice. The dedicated will of course want Nabakov's and at least one verse translation. The most important thing may be to find the translation that works best for you, as Pushkin's genius is beyond dispute. It is possibly the translator's fault if this does not get through, so anyone experiencing the unfortunate phenomenon should try another edition. Keep trying until you are as seduced by the poem as women are by Eugene.

Love this book. I love poetry and Puskin is one of my favorite authors. The story depics Russian society in the 1800. It is a well written novel in the form of a poem. The hero of the novel Eugene Onigin is described as a sinical character while Tatyana, the heroine is the fulfilment of moral and social duty. It is a wonderful book to read. It is a love story.

Some critics have compared this work to Byron's. I agree, and also see a similarity to some of Pope's satire.
The translation is wonderful. The playful poetic feel and the ironies come through beautifully. To the criticism that it sometimes wanders from Pushkin's literal sense, two replies are relevant. First, that Nabokov did a wonderful literal translation, which this translator acknowledges. The second reply would be that short meanderings from the literal sense don't matter very much: the meaning of this poem is not terribly dependent upon exact translation; it is a romp.
But the moral and intellectual vacuity put me off. This may be a matter of personal taste, and if it does not bother you, you will probably delight in the poem. However, I think that most Americans would find the cultural setting of little interest. An idle rich dissipater in Czarist Russia is perhaps worth knowing about, but he is hardly worth joining for several hours as he travels his road to nowhere.

The Russian insist that you can only really enjoy this book in the original. While that might be certainly preferable, in English it sounds quite well too. Taking Byron's prototype of a hero, Pushkins makes not just a story with him but also comments on the story itself as it unfolds. He goes even further in his meta-literary pursue, as far as to describe his dificulties in writing in Russian (he was more fluent in French, like many of this class in that period). The first masterpiece of Russian Literature and (though at the time ill-favoured by fans)Pushkin's most accomplished work.