Alexander Pushkin: Eugene Onegin

A lively guide to Alexander Pushkin's novel in verse Eugene Onegin, a landmark of European romanticism.

A. D. P. Briggs (Author)

9780521386180, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 18 September 2008

132 pages, 1 table
20.3 x 12.7 x 0.8 cm, 0.15 kg

This is a lively and readable guide to Alexander Pushkin's novel in verse Eugene Onegin, a landmark of European Romanticism, and arguably the best of all Russian poetry. Professor Briggs addresses the question of how such remarkable poetry can have been composed about a rather banal plot, and considers the form of the work and its poetic techniques in detail. He offers fresh interpretations of the characters and events of the poem, and sets it against its European background. He discusses its influence - notably Tchaikovsky's operatic version - and points to its life-affirming philosophy and spirit of joyfulness. The book includes a chronological chart and a guide to further reading.

1. The Poetry of Eugene Onegin
2. Shades of unreality
3. The unreal reputations of Eugene Onegin and Tatyana Larina
4. Olga Lensky and the duel
5. It is in verse, but is it a novel?

Subject Areas: Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 [DSBF]