Eugene Onegin

'Blest who betimes has left life's revel, whose wine-filled glass he has not drained'

Tired of the glitter and glamour of St Petersberg society, aristocratic dandy Eugene Onegin retreats to the country estate he has recently inherited. With the arrival of the idealistic young poet Vladimir Lendsky he begins an unlikely friendship, while the poet welcomes this urbane addition to his small social circle – and is happy to introduce Onegin to his fiancée Olga and her family. But when Olga's sister Tatiana becomes infatuated with Onegin, his cold rejection of her love brings about a tragedy that engulfs them all. Unfolding with dream-like inevitability and dazzling energy, Pushkin's tragic poem is one of the great works of Russian literature.

In this new translation, Stanley Mitchell captures the cadences and lightness of the original poem, and discusses in his introduction Pushkin's life, writings and politics, as well as previous translations of the work. This edition also contains a chronology and suggested further reading.

About the Author

Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin was born in Moscow in 1799. After traveling through the Caucasus and the Crimea, he was sent to Bessarabia, where he wrote The Captive of the Caucasus and The Fountain at Bakhchisaray, and began Eugene Onegin. His work took an increasingly serious turn during the last year of his southern exile, in Odessa. In 1824 he was transferred in north-west Russia, where he wrote his historical drama Boris Godunov, continued Eugene Onegin and finished The Gipsies. He was mortally wounded and died in January 1837.