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Eugene Onegin

Novel in verse by Alexander Pushkin

  • 22 min read
  • 6 chapters
Eugene Onegin first book edition 1833
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Through Novel

Almost the entire work is made up of 389 fourteen-line stanzas (5,446 lines in all) of iambic tetrameter with the unusual rhyme scheme AbAbCCddEffEgg, where the uppercase letters represent feminine rhymes while the lowercase letters represent masculine rhymes. This original structure is known as the "Onegin stanza" or "Pushkin sonnet".

The story is told by a narrator (a lightly fictionalized version of Pushkin's public image), whose tone is educated, worldly, and intimate. The narrator digresses at times, usually to expand on aspects of this social and intellectual world. This narrative style allows for a development of the characters and emphasizes the drama of the plot despite its relative simplicity. The book is admired for the artfulness of its verse narrative as well as for its exploration of life, death, love, ennui, convention, and passion.

Main characters

  • Eugene Onegin: A dandy from Saint Petersburg, aged 18 at the start of the novel, and 26 by the end. An arrogant, selfish, and world-weary cynic.
  • Vladimir Lensky: A young poet, about 18. A very romantic and naïve dreamer. He become friends with Onegin, but later Onegin kills him in a duel.
  • Tatyana Larina: A shy and quiet, but passionate, landowner's daughter. Pushkin referred to her as aged 17 in a letter to Pyotr Vyazemsky. She falls in love with Onegin, but he rejects her. Years later, they meet again, he falls for her, but she rejects him.
  • Olga Larina: Tatyana's younger sister. She was Lensky's fiancé.

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