Eugene Onegin today. Not a school essay at all

The young rake, Eugene Onegin, went to the village to his dying uncle, who left him a rich inheritance after his death, and reflected on how boring it was to spend time at the bedside of a sick man.

But, my God, what a bore With the patient to sit day and night, Without moving a single step away! What low treachery to amuse the Half-dead, to straighten his pillows, sadly to bring the medicine, to sigh and think to himself: When the devil will take you!

Eugene was born in St. Petersburg. His father lived in debt and squandered. In his youth, the boy was brought up by hired French teachers, devoting not too much time to the sciences. When Eugene grew up, he plunged headlong into all the delights of secular life, endless balls, feasts and holidays, visits to theaters, not to enjoy the play, but only to appear in society. And the world favorably accepted Onegin, because the young man followed all his conventions, spoke French easily, dressed in the latest fashion and spent three hours in front of a mirror, could flash a sharp epigram, an anecdote.

He had no desire to rummage
In chronological dust
Genesis of the earth:
But the days of the past are jokes
From Romulus to the present day
He kept it in his memory.

All possible luxury items delivered to Russia from Paris adorned the young man's office. But the “science of tender passion” occupied a special place in his life, he early learned to disturb the hearts of note coquettes and young girls.

However, Eugene was not happy. Feelings cooled down in him early, the noise of the light bored him, and beauties were not for long the subject of his usual thoughts. Treason managed to tire, friends tired. He was seized by a spleen, he did not want to commit suicide, but cooled to the whole world. He tried to read, but the books also did not carry him away.

Onegin's father died, and a whole regiment of lenders immediately reached out to him. Eugene, hating litigation, simply provided them with all his father's inheritance and was left completely without funds.

His father then died. A greedy regiment of Lenders gathered in front of Onegin. Everyone has his own mind and sense: Eugene, hating litigation, Satisfied with his lot, Granted them an inheritance ...

Soon Onegin received a report from the manager that his uncle was dying and wanted to say goodbye to him. And Eugene immediately, having prepared for the sake of money for lies, boredom and deceit, went to the village, but, having reached the place, he did not find his uncle alive.
Onegin turned out to be a villager, the owner of factories, waters, forests and lands. For several days, nature, secluded fields, the beauty of forests and the babbling of a stream seemed new and interesting to the young man. However, all this was not for long - and in the village the blues returned to him.

Then he saw clearly
As in the village boredom is the same
Although there are no streets, no palaces,
No cards, no balls, no poetry.
The blues was waiting for him on guard,
And she ran after him
Like a shadow or a faithful wife.

Eugene settled in great place, in a castle built "in the taste of smart antiquity." He established a new order on his estate, replaced the corvée with a light quitrent, which made his peasants unspeakably happy. The neighbors saw this as a terrible harm and decided that he was "a most dangerous eccentric." At first, all the surrounding nobles called in to Onegin, but since he, having heard their approach, mounted his horse and left, the neighbors stopped friendship with him and decided that he was ignorant and crazy.

At the same time, a new landowner arrived in his village, who, like Onegin, "gave a reason for strict analysis in the neighborhood." His name was Vladimir Lensky. He came from Germany, where he became an admirer of Kant, fell in love with poetry, the work of Schiller and Goethe, and began to write poetry himself. The light had not yet had time to tire him, and the soul of the young man was full of love, faith in friendship and vague dreams.

Handsome, in full bloom of years,
Kant's admirer and poet.
He is from foggy Germany
He brought the fruits of learning:
freedom dreams,
The spirit is ardent and rather strange,
Always an enthusiastic speech
And shoulder-length black curls.

Lensky was alien to village life, and the endless conversations of local landowners "about haymaking, about wine, about the kennel, about their relatives." In addition, Vladimir was rich and handsome, so everywhere he was accepted as a groom and all "daughters predicted their half-Russian neighbor."

All this forced Lensky to seek acquaintance with Onegin. They met, at first, because of the difference in characters, they were boring to each other, but then they began to see each other every day and really became friends. Friends constantly argued, Eugene listened with a smile to the passionate judgments of the poet, but did not cool his ardor.

They agreed. Wave and stone
Poetry and prose, ice and fire
Not so different from each other.
First, mutual differences
They were boring to each other;
Then they liked it;
then came every day on horseback
And soon they became inseparable.
So people (I repent first)
Nothing to do friends.

Vladimir told Evgeny the story of his love. From childhood he was in love with Olga Larina, the daughter of their neighbor Dmitry Larin, a friend of his father. They played together. Everything about Olga attracted Lensky. eyes like the sky, blue, smile, flaxen curls.

Her older sister name was Tatyana. She was not as beautiful as Olga, she seemed like a stranger in her family, she never played with other children, she did not like dolls, she often spent her days alone near the window. She liked the novels of Richardson and Rousseau early, they largely replaced her real life. Therefore, she was a naive and dreamy girl.

So, she was called Tatyana.
Nor the beauty of his sister,
Nor the freshness of her ruddy
She would not attract eyes.
Dika, sad, silent,
Like a forest doe, timid,
She is in her family
Seemed like a stranger girl.
She couldn't caress
To my father, not to my mother;
A child by herself, in a crowd of children
Didn't want to play and jump
And often all day alone
She sat silently by the window.

Larins lived a calm, simple life of rural landowners on the estate of the head of the family. Often in the evenings, neighbors and friends gathered at their place “and grieve, and slander, and laugh about something.” The parents of Tatyana and Olga sacredly observed the age-old traditions of the Russian people.

They kept in a peaceful life
Sweet old habits;
They have oily Shrovetide
There were Russian pancakes;
Twice a year they fasted;
Loved the round swing
Podbludny songs, round dance;
On Trinity Day, when the people
Yawning, listening to a prayer,
Tenderly on a beam of dawn
They shed three tears;
They needed kvass like air,
And at the table they have guests
They carried dishes according to their ranks.

Tatyana's father "was a kind fellow, belated in the last century." In her youth, her mother was in love with a brave sergeant and player, but at the behest of her parents she was led to the crown with Dmitry Larin.

And to dispel her grief,
The sensible husband left soon
To her village where she is
God knows who surrounded
I broke down and cried at first
Almost divorced her husband;
Then she took up housekeeping
I'm used to it and I'm satisfied.
The habit from above is given to us:
She is a substitute for happiness.

Larin heartily loved his wife, trusted her in everything, and happily, "calmly", without worries and troubles, spent his days next to her.

And so they both grew old.
And finally opened
Before the spouse of the door of the coffin,
And he received a new crown.
He died an hour before dinner
Mourned by his neighbor
Children and faithful wife
Purely cordial than the other.
He was a simple and kind gentleman,
And where his ashes lie,
The headstone reads:
humble sinner,
Dmitry Larin,
Lord's servant and foreman,
Sim eats the world under the stone.

Lensky visits the grave of Tatyana and Olga's father, "and, full of sincere sadness, Vladimir immediately drew a grave madrigal for him." At the grave of his parents, he reflects on the meaning of life.

So our windy tribe
Grows, worries, boils
And to the grave of great-grandfathers crowds.
Come, our time will come
And our grandchildren in a good hour
We will be driven out of the world!

One evening Lensky persuaded his friend to go with him to the Larins. Eugene did not mind, he was interested in seeing Olga, the girl Vladimir was so in love with. They were warmly welcomed, the evening passed unnoticed. Returning home, Onegin told Lensky that if he had chosen, he would undoubtedly have fallen in love with Tatyana, because there is nothing individual in Olga’s features, there is no life in them, “her face is round, red like this stupid moon.” Vladimir was offended and kept silent all the way.

Meanwhile, the appearance of Onegin in the Larins' house made a great impression on everyone. Many began to furtively interpret that the wedding of Eugene and Tatyana was just around the corner. Tatyana listened to these gossip with annoyance, but deep down she was glad for them. She fell in love with Eugene. All the images of the heroes of the novels, which she read with such greed, merged for her in one Onegin. She also imagined herself as the heroine of the novel, Clarissa, Julia and Delphine.

The time has come, she fell in love;
So the fallen grain into the ground
Springs are animated by fire.
For a long time her imagination
Burning with grief and longing,
Alkalo fatal food;
Long hearted yearning
It pressed her young breast;
The soul was waiting ... for someone,
And waited...
Eyes opened;
She said it's him!

The anguish of love poured out for Tatyana into real suffering. She became even sadder and with her sadness retired to a grove or garden. Love weighed heavily on the girl, but it was a painfully pleasant burden.

And then, one day, she decided to open her feelings to Onegin and wrote him a letter. In it, the girl naively and without embellishment expressed her loving and suffering soul.

I am writing to you - what more?
What else can I say?
Now, I know, it is in your will to punish Me with contempt.
But you, to my unfortunate share
Though a drop of pity keeping,
You won't leave me.
I know you were sent to me by God
Until the grave you are my keeper ...
You appeared to me in dreams
Invisible, you were already sweet to me,
Your wonderful look tormented me,
Your voice resounded in my soul
For a long time... no, it was not a dream!
You just walked in, I instantly knew
All numb, blazed
And in her thoughts she said: here he is!

Confessing her love, she asked Eugene to resolve her doubts about who he was - an angel or an insidious tempter, the unknown is worse than the bitter truth. May he, with his one word, either revive the hopes of her heart, or interrupt this heavy sleep. Tatyana sent her nanny's grandson with this letter to Onegin and was looking forward to an answer.

But a day passed, and there was still no answer. He was not there the next day either. Tatyana, pale as a shadow, spent all her time waiting. Lensky arrived, and when Tatyana's mother asked where his friend was, he replied that he promised to be there today, but, apparently, the post office delayed. And finally, when it was already beginning to get dark, Onegin appeared. Wanting a speedy explanation, the girl got up and went out into the alley. Eugene was already waiting for her there. He stood like a formidable shadow, "shining with his eyes." As if scorched by fire, the girl stopped.

But the consequences of an unexpected meeting
Today, dear friends,
I am unable to retell;
I must after a long speech
And take a walk and relax:
I'll finish it somehow.

Onegin, as mentioned earlier, has long been disappointed in love, "the less we love a woman, the easier she likes us." But Tatyana's letter touched him, the language of girlish dreams awakened in him a swarm of thoughts. Perhaps for a moment the former ardor was revived in him, but he did not want to deceive the gullibility of an innocent soul. Having met Tatyana in the alley in the garden, he told her that her sincerity was dear to him, if he wanted to become a spouse and father, he would not look for another besides her, but he was not created for bliss, his soul is alien to this. Marriage will be torment for both, he, having got used to it, will instantly fall out of love with her. He loves her with the love of a brother, and there can be nothing else between them. “Learn to rule yourself; not everyone will understand you like me; inexperience leads to trouble, ”onegin ended his rebuke. Tatyana listened to him through tears, not seeing anything around. Then Eugene accompanied the heartbroken girl to the house.
After this explanation, Tatyana began to fade and fade, sleep left her, her smile and virgin peace disappeared, nothing could stir her soul anymore.

Alas, Tatyana fades, Turns pale, goes out and is silent! Nothing occupies her, Her soul does not stir.

And the love of Vladimir and Olga was gaining strength. They constantly met, walked arm in arm in the garden, read novels to each other, played chess. Lensky wrote love poems in Olga's album. But only Olga did not read them.

Vladimir would write odes, but Olga would not read them. Has it happened to tearful poets To read their creations into the eyes of their beloved ones? They say that there are no higher awards in the world. And indeed, blessed is the modest lover, Reading his dreams to the Subject of songs and love, Pleasantly languid Beauty! Blessed ... though, perhaps, she is entertained in a completely different way.

Onegin, meanwhile, lived as a hermit, walked, read and slept, played billiards. Solitude and silence were his whole life.

At the seventh hour he got up in the summer
And went light
To the river running under the mountain;
Imitating the singer Gulnara,
This Hellespont swam across,
Then I drank my coffee
Going through a bad magazine
And dressed...

Walking, reading, deep sleep,
Forest shadow, the murmur of jets,
Sometimes black-eyed whites
A young and fresh kiss
Bridle obedient zealous horse,
Dinner is quite whimsical,
bottle of light wine,
Solitude, silence:
Here is life
Onegin is a saint;
And he is insensitive to her
Surrendered, red summer days
In careless bliss, not counting
Forgetting the city and friends
And the boredom of festive undertakings.
Autumn has come.
The day was getting shorter
Forests mysterious canopy
With a sad noise she was naked,
Fog fell on the fields
Noisy geese caravan
Stretched to the south: approaching
Pretty boring time;
November was already at the yard.
And now the frosts are cracking
And silver in the fields...
The river shines, dressed in ice.
Boys joyful people
Ice skates cut through the ice.

Eugene practically did not leave his estate and communicated only with Lensky, who could only talk about Olga. He was happy, their wedding was to take place soon. The poet was sure that he was loved, and this filled his soul with joy. Once Lensky brought Onegin an invitation to Tatyana's name day, saying that it was indecent to appear in the house twice and never show up there again. Eugene agreed.

That year, autumn weather Stood for a long time in the yard,
Winter was waiting, nature was waiting.
It only snowed in January...
Winter!.. The peasant, triumphant,
On firewood, updates the path;
His horse, smelling snow,
Trotting somehow;
Reins fluffy exploding,
A remote wagon flies;
The coachman sits on the irradiation
In a sheepskin coat, in a red sash.
Here is a yard boy running,
Planting a bug in a sled,
Transforming himself into a horse;
The scoundrel already froze his finger:
It hurts and it's funny
And his mother threatens him through the window...

On the night before the name day, Tatyana, who sincerely believed in all signs, had a terrible dream. She walks across a snowy clearing and sees that a noisy, dark stream is seething in the snowdrifts in front of her, through which two shaky perches are thrown. She stops and waits for someone to help her get to the other side. Suddenly, a huge disheveled bear rises from a snowdrift and gives her a clawed paw. She fearfully leans on it and crosses the stream. The girl goes on, and the bear follows her. She quickens her pace, but the bear does not lag behind. She runs into the forest, falls, the bear quickly grabs her and carries her to a lonely hut. Coming to her senses, Tatyana sees herself in the hallway, the bear is not around. Entering the room, the frightened girl sees monsters sitting at the table, with horns, dog and cock heads, witches, dwarfs, crayfish and spiders. And among them sits Onegin. He rules over this table, gives a sign - and everyone laughs, he drinks - and everyone drinks, frowns his eyebrows - everyone is silent. Suddenly a wind blew from the half-open door, extinguishing the fire of the lamps. Onegin goes to the girl and opens her to the eyes of hellish ghosts. Hooves, trunks, fangs, bloody tongues and bone fingers point to her. And everyone shouts: "Mine, mine"! Onegin shouts menacingly: "Mine!" And the whole gang is hiding in a frosty haze. Yevgeny quietly places her in a corner on a bench. Suddenly enter Lensky and Olga. Onegin starts scolding uninvited guests. The argument between them gets louder and louder. Eugene grabs a long knife and strikes Lensky. An unbearable cry is heard, the hut staggers... Tatyana woke up in horror. She was disturbed by the dream, but she did not dare to tell her sister.

But an ominous dream promises her
Many sad adventures.
A few days later she
Everyone was worried about it.
But with a purple hand
Dawn from the morning valleys
Leads out with the sun behind him
Happy birthday party.

The guests began to arrive. All the surrounding landowners came with their families. We sat at the table. In the midst of the fun, Lensky and Onegin appeared. Friends were joyfully greeted and seated right in front of Tatyana. The girl did not hear their greetings, she was stuffy, sick, tears rolled from her eyes. The poor thing almost fainted, but overcame herself and sat at the table. Onegin could not stand girlish swoons. He was already so angry that he was in such a noisy company, but, seeing Tatyana's trembling impulse, he became even more angry and decided to infuriate Lensky and take revenge on him for bringing him here. The rest did not notice the excitement of the girl.

Meanwhile, the fun continued. Wine flowed like a river. Congratulations began. When it was Onegin's turn, he, probably taking pity on the poor girl, bowed silently to her, and his gaze was so gentle that Tatyana's heart revived. However, Eugene did not change his mind about taking revenge on Lensky. When the dancing began, Onegin, secretly smiling, went up to Olga, danced one dance with her, another, started talking to her about trifles, whispered some vulgar madrigals into her ear, gently squeezed her hand. A proud blush blazed across the girl's face. Lensky could not believe his eyes. He invites her to the mazurka, but she refuses - she has already promised to dance it with Onegin. Lensky, unable to bear such a blow, runs out of the party in anger, and rushes home on horseback with the thought of a duel.
Lensky is unable to bear the blow; Cursing female pranks, It comes out, demands a horse And gallops. A pair of pistols, Two bullets - nothing more. All of a sudden they will solve his fate.

Noticing the disappearance of Lensky, Yevgeny got bored. Olga also became bored. The holiday ended, the guests stayed overnight with hospitable hosts, and only Onegin went home to sleep.

In the morning, Zaretsky, a former brawler and ataman of a gambling gang, and now a single father of a family, a peaceful landowner and an honest man, appeared to Yevgeny. He brought Onegin from Lensky challenge to a duel.

It was pleasant, noble,
Short call, il cartel:
Courteously, with cold clarity
He called his friend Lensky to a duel.

Onegin replied to the envoy that he was always ready. Zaretsky bowed and left, leaving Yevgeny alone with his thoughts. Onegin was dissatisfied with himself, he understood that he was wrong, he made fun of his first timid love. But it was too late.

Lensky at his estate was impatiently waiting for an answer. He was afraid that Yevgeny would somehow laugh it off, refuse the duel, and when Zaretsky brought him a positive answer, he was very happy. Tomorrow, before dawn, former friends will have to meet near the mill and shoot. Vladimir did not want to see Olga before the duel, but he could not stand it and went to her. At the sight of his beloved, both jealousy and annoyance disappeared from him. However, his determination was unshakable. He thought that he would be Olga's savior from the unworthy corrupter Onegin. The duel was finally decided.

Before dawn, the enemies, as previously agreed, met at the mill. The seconds, Zaretsky on Vladimir's side and the French servant Guillot on Yevgeny's side, prepared their pistols and counted thirty-two steps. There was a command to converge. Onegin, without ceasing to advance, raised his pistol and fired. Lensky fell. He was killed.

He lay motionless, and strange
There was a languid world of his chela.
He was wounded through the chest;
Smoking, blood flowed from the wound.
A moment ago
In this heart beat inspiration,
Enmity, hope and love,
Life played, blood boiled, -
Now, as in an empty house,
Everything in it is both quiet and dark;
It is silent forever.
The shutters are closed, the windows are whitewashed with chalk.
There is no hostess.
Where, God knows.
Lost a trace.

Eugene, horrified by the realization of what he had just done, hurried away. Zaretsky took the body of the murdered young man to the estate.

But whatever happens, reader,
Alas, young lover,
Poet, pensive dreamer,
Killed by a friendly hand!
There is a place: to the left of the village,
Where did the pet of inspiration live,
Two pines have grown together with their roots;
Beneath them the trickles meandered
Creek of the neighboring valley.
There the plowman likes to rest,
And plunge the reapers into the waves
Ringing jugs come;
There by the stream in the thick shade
A simple monument was erected.

Chased by spring rays,
From the surrounding mountains already snow Escaped muddy streams
To flooded meadows.
Nature's clear smile
Through a dream meets the morning of the year;
The skies are shining blue.
Still transparent, forests
As if they are turning green.
Bee for tribute in the field
Flies from the wax cell.
The valleys dry and dazzle;
The herds are noisy, and the nightingale
Already sang in the silence of the nights.

As time went. Terrible events in order forgotten Moscow, with golden crosses and ancient buildings. The Larins stopped at their old aunt's.

And so every day Tatyana is forced to go to family dinners, she is introduced to grandparents, and other numerous relatives. All the daughters of her mother's acquaintances try to make friends with her, dress in fashion and trust her with their heart secrets, demanding in return that she also open up to them. But the girl is of little interest in all this, and she does not want to reveal her heart to anyone. Prudish secular youths find Tanya unattractive, but she doesn't care about that either. Mother takes Tatyana to the Assembly, to other secular places. At one of the noisy balls, Tatyana meets her future husband.

And meanwhile, he does not take his eyes off her
Some important general.
Aunts blinked at each other
And Tanya was pushed with an elbow,
And each whispered to her:

Take a quick look to the left. -"Left? where? what is there?"
Well, whatever it is, look...
In that pile, see? ahead,
Where there are two more in uniforms...
Here he departed ... now he became sideways ...
-"Who? is this general fat?

Onegin (I'll take care of him again),
Killing a friend in a duel
Having lived without a goal, without labor
Until the age of twenty-six
Languishing in idle leisure
No service, no wife, no business,
Couldn't do anything.
They were overcome with anxiety,
Wanderlust (A Very Painful Property, A Voluntary Cross of Few)
He left his village
Forests and fields solitude,
Where is the bloodied shadow
Appeared to him every day
And began wandering without a goal,
accessible to the senses alone;
And travel to him
Like everything in the world, tired;
He returned and got
Like Chatsky, from the ship to the ball.

Eugene Onegin, after long wanderings, numerous adventures, which also bored him, returned to St. Petersburg and ended up at one of the balls at the house of Prince N, his old acquaintance. The crowd hesitated, a whisper ran through the hall, and the mistress of the house appeared with an important general. She was magnificent, not cold, not talkative, without any antics or imitative undertakings. She was nobility itself. There was not a hint of vulgarity in it. All the ladies moved closer to her, the men caught her eye, and all of them were lifted up by the nose and shoulders of the general who came with her.

The appearance of the dazzling hostess reminds Onegin of some familiar features. But he can't believe himself. Eugene asks the prince sitting next to him whom he sees in front of him. And he says with a smile that this is Tatyana Larina, his wife. The princess also recognized Onegin, but did not show her excitement in any way. Eugene wanted to speak to her, but was embarrassed and could not utter a word. Tatyana disappeared, but he remained motionless. That evening Onegin quickly left the social event and went home. His thoughts were full only of Tatyana.

Is it the same Tatyana,
Which he alone
At the beginning of our romance
In a deaf, distant side,
In the good fervor of moralizing,
I used to read instructions
The one from which he keeps
Letter where the heart says
Where everything is outside, everything is free,
That girl... is it a dream?
The girl he
Neglected in humble share,
Was she with him now?
So indifferent, so bold?

And the next morning, Evgeny was brought a note from Prince N, in which he invited him to the evening. Onegin, wishing with all his heart to see Tatiana once again, immediately agreed. He looked forward to the hour indicated in the invitation. Exactly on time, he entered the prince's house and found the princess alone. Like last time, Onegin could not utter a word, and only the husband who came broke the private conversation, which was so painful for Yevgeny. Other guests arrived, very interesting people. The fun began. But Onegin was occupied all evening only with Tatyana, already seeing in her not a simple-hearted girl in love with him, but an indifferent princess, the goddess of the Neva. There was no doubt - Eugene was in love with Tatyana. But she didn't notice him. Every day he came to the prince's house, but the princess sometimes met him with one bow, and on a visit she spoke to him several times.

Love for all ages;
But to young, virgin hearts
Her impulses are beneficial,
Like spring storms to fields:
In the rain of passions they freshen up,
And they are renewed, and they ripen,
And mighty life gives
And lush color and sweet fruit.
But at a late and barren age,
At the turn of our years
Sad passion dead trail:
So cold autumn storms
The meadow is turned into a swamp
And expose the forest around.

Onegin began to dry up, the doctors suspected consumption, but he knew the true reason.

Tormented by passion, he decided to write
Tatyana is a letter, as she once was to him.

In the letter, he confessed to all his mistakes, to his cruelty, and blamed himself for Lensky's death. But he felt that he was already punished by the fact that he was deprived of Tatiana's company. Onegin asked that he not be suspected of cunning, his declaration of love was open and sincere. And his fate is in the hands of Tatyana.

When I accidentally met you,
I notice a spark of tenderness in you,
I didn't dare believe her.
Habit sweet did not give way;
Your hateful freedom
I didn't want to lose.
Another one tore us apart...
Unfortunate victim
Lensky Pal...
From everything that is dear to the heart,
Then I tore off my heart;
Alien to everyone, not bound by anything,
I thought: liberty and peace
replacement for happiness. My God!
How wrong I was, how punished...
No, every minute to see you,
Follow you everywhere
The smile of the mouth, the movement of the eyes
Catch with loving eyes
Listen to you for a long time, understand
Soul all your perfection,
Freeze before you in agony,
To turn pale and go out ... that's bliss!

But there was no answer. Onegin wrote several more letters, but he did not receive an answer to them either. Once he met Tatyana in the meeting, but on her face he read only anger - and realized that there was no hope.

After that, Eugene closed himself in his office and began to read everything indiscriminately. But only his eyes read, and his thoughts were far away. His heart sank. Days passed, winter ended. Onegin, pale, like a dead man, decided to see Tatyana for the last time. Arriving at the house of Prince N, he did not find anyone in the hallway and went into the princess's room. Tatyana was sitting alone, all in tears, untidy, pale, and reading some letter. It was now easy to recognize the former Tanya Larina in her. Eugene fell at her feet. She shuddered and said nothing, there was no anger in her eyes, only mute reproach was read in them. Finally, she quietly asked him to get up. She reminded him of his rebuke in the alley, but did not blame him for it, although for her love then it was a terrible test. Then Onegin acted, albeit cruelly, but nobly. What is he doing now. Why is he following her. Is it because now she is rich and noble? Or maybe because her shame, if she responded to his passion, would immediately become noticeable in society, and this would bring him the glory of a seducer? Either way, his letters humiliate her. She'd give anything now to have it all back. But now it's too late. Eugene must leave her. She is given to another and will be faithful to him for a century.

I got married.
You must,
I ask you to leave me;
I know there is in your heart
And pride and direct honor.
I love you (why lie?)
But I am given to another;
I will be faithful to him forever.

With these words, Tatyana left. Onegin remained standing, as if struck by thunder, with his heart immersed in a storm of terrible sensations.

And here is my hero
In a minute, evil for him,
Reader, we will now leave,
For a long time... forever.
Behind him, we are quite one way
Wandered around the world.
Let's congratulate each other on the shore.
Hooray! Long ago (wouldn't it?) it's time!

You see, doctor, I feel "superfluous"...
- Do not worry, you have the usual "Onegin's syndrome."

Moscow, Tverskoy Boulevard, 24, restaurant "Tverbul", ten in the evening. He sits alone at the table, the waiter comes up: “How do you like it as usual?” - With a rehearsed signature waiter's smile and courtesy developed over the years, he asks the guest. The guest silently nods shortly, although it is clear from his face that neither the food nor the waiter, who has become bored for so long, arouses the slightest interest in him. He's been coming here for a long time, not just to eat. He is controlled by banal boredom and a hidden need to feel part of this society. And if he used to be helped to cope with the first by noisy parties in the circle of Moscow bohemia, dates with secular ladies suitable for him in status, then the second point always remained a problem for him. And now, as usual, he is sitting in Tverbul, trying to occupy himself with reading the latest issue of the most trendy magazine, where they write about people like him, successful and recognizable at secular parties, washing down all this glossy boredom with elite whiskey, which has just filed by a polite waiter.
Today this person will give us a very intimate, personal interview. We will not name him, because, believe me, many of what he says will be relevant not only to him, but to a whole generation of exactly the same “bored in Tverbul” or “modern Onegins”.
If suddenly you can’t remember who Onegin is, but immediately remembered your last meeting with a friend in Tverbul, then don’t worry, our journalist also had to re-read his school writings based on A.S. Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin”. Here is what he found most significant:
In "Eugene Onegin" Pushkin creates a typical image of his contemporary, a representative of the Russian noble intelligentsia of the 20s of the XIX century:
I liked his features
Dreams involuntary devotion
Inimitable strangeness
And a sharp, chilled mind.
I was embittered, he is sullen;
We both knew the passion game
The life tormented both of us;
The heat in both hearts was extinguished.
Onegin is a "secular St. Petersburg young man", "a child of fun and luxury." Eugene leads a life typical of the aristocratic youth of that time: noisy evenings, expensive restaurants, theaters, magnificent balls, new acquaintances, love affairs ... He spent eight years of his youth on this ... But involuntary devotion to the hero’s dreams, “inimitable strangeness and sharp, chilled mind "Onegin, a sense of honor and nobility could not help but lead him to disappointment in secular society, in his life. The blues and boredom took possession of the hero. And attempts to find their calling in some useful occupation were unsuccessful. Neither love nor friendship could save Onegin from spiritual emptiness. Disappointed in fleeting and empty relationships with secular ladies, Eugene missed Tatyana's real, sincere and deep feeling for him. And because of his own selfishness, he lost a friend.
So, we are presented with the image of an “extra person”, estranged from society, disappointed in life, in his best feelings, who has not found his real vocation, bored and skeptical of everything. In this image, we see a whole generation of noble intelligentsia of the 20s of the XIX century, described by Pushkin in the novel. They, who avoided the service of tsarism and did not want to be in the ranks of the silent ones, were doomed to inaction. However, Pushkin leaves the ending of the novel open, without putting an end to the life of his hero...
So, we can observe the fate and life of the new Onegins today. And our guest is one of them.
JOURNALIST: Good evening!
GUEST: Good.
JOURNALIST: Once in one interview you called yourself the modern Onegin. What do you have in common with Pushkin's hero?
GUEST: You see, I, like him, feel superfluous...
JOURNALIST: How does this manifest itself?
GUEST: By my 30s, I have achieved a lot, of course, not without the help of my father's connections. I have everything that an ordinary person can dream of, that an ordinary person can aspire to. I do not disdain to be invited to significant events by the "cream of our society", the creative intelligentsia is always glad to see me at the sensational premiere of some newfangled director. But I’m tired of all this, don’t think that I’m “snickering”, no, I appreciate everything that I have, my status is dear to me, but I know for sure what will happen tomorrow, what they will write about in the news, what they will say on radio. And the worst thing is that I know that no matter what I do, nothing will change anyway.
When I was young and believed in freedom of speech, in the honor and valor of public service workers, in the incorruptibility of journalists, in sincere and bright love, true friendship, yes, in the end, in Santa Claus, I tried to do something: I saw some kind of problem, looked for ways to solve it, worked as a journalist and an official, but all in vain. I didn’t need money, I didn’t pursue career growth, I just wanted to solve some problem, to do something for the benefit of society. This is probably why I didn’t succeed: everything always rested on a system where no one cared about the problems that bothered society, and even more so before me, who arrogantly tried to solve these problems. Now I have joined the art, I liked this environment more. Although, secretly, everything is the same. All these high-profile premieres, closed film screenings, star parties... Behind the search for life's meanings and the screen faces of stellar talents, vanity is hidden, another way to earn money, to amuse one's pride. Very little is left of the real, of what can be considered art. It seems to me that I have forgotten how to see this real, there is only one falsehood in everything.
I got lost in this tinsel, in the pathos of Moscow institutions, in the insincerity of the people around me. In this city, in this country, in this life, I have not found a place for myself. I don't go to the polls, not because I don't have a civil position, I just don't see the point in it. I don't go to rallies because I don't understand what these people are protesting against, what alternative they offer. I do not believe the news, because I know how they are created and what qualifications they go through before appearing on the air. I do not believe people whose every word is bought or carefully weighed, thought out.
But every evening I sit in Tverbul, I write posts on Facebook just like that, out of boredom, I write my column in a notorious magazine, I flicker from time to time on television.
(with irony) Probably, I should have set other goals for myself, maybe something worked out in my personal life ...
JOURNALIST: I think that many readers will not understand you, a person who has money, fame, high status...
GUEST: You know, I suddenly lost interest in our conversation. Good luck.
JOURNALIST: I understand you. Goodbye.
The guest leaves the Tverbul, the journalist finishes his whiskey, opens his laptop and hastily prepares the interview he has just recorded for publication. He knows that it will seem strange, but he still believes that it can change at least something in someone.

Alexander Pushkin introduces the reader to the main character of his novel, Eugene Onegin "philosopher at eighteen" going to the ball. At the age of 17, Eugene Onegin was an adherent of secular fashion, attended balls,
learned " too early to be hypocritical", in his young years he had already become a genius in "science of tender passion." It is obvious that our hero had many sexual relations with married women, and with girls whom he "alone gave lessons in silence."
At the balls Eugene Onegin "killed eight years, losing life the best color", by the age of 26. More precisely, according to Pushkin: « Having lived without a goal, without labor, until the age of twenty-six.

Making out the inheritance of a rich uncle, Eugene Onegin at the age of 26 found himself in a remote village. All his mistresses remained in St. Petersburg, and then the young landowner's daughter Tatyana Larina, having read romance novels, falls in love with a mysterious young man like a child, and sends a love letter to Onegin and offers herself to him: “ That is the will of heaven: I am yours!

Nowhere in the novel is Tatyana Larina's age indicated when she sent this letter to Evgeny. Pushkin gives only frank hints at the young age of Tatyana Larina. “She seemed like an alien girl in her own family” . She didn’t play with dolls and burners, she didn’t go to the meadow with her younger sister Olenka and her “little friends”, but read English romance novels avidly.

British muse of fiction
The maiden's dream is disturbing.

Pushkin does not have random words, but exact definitions: maiden - age from 7 to 15 years, claims the famous dictionary Vladimir Dahl, a contemporary of the poet.

Eugene Onegin refuses intimacy to this teenage girl who has read romance novels, he understands that her feeling is immature.
... having received Tanya's message,
Onegin was deeply touched...
Perhaps the feelings of the ardor of the old
He took possession of him for a moment;
But he didn't want to cheat.
The trust of an innocent soul.

It turns out that Eugene Onegin did not want to destroy the innocent girl, and therefore refused her, tactfully taking all the blame on himself so as not to injure Tatyana. And at the end of the meeting he gave the girl good advice:

Learn to control yourself;
Not everyone will understand you like me;
Inexperience leads to trouble.

Pushkin himself explained everything about the relationship between Yevgeny and Tatyana and himself assessed the act of his hero.

You will agree, my reader,
What a very nice act
With sad Tanya our friend.

Eugene, acted nobly, keeping secret the very fact of Tatyana's letter, did not brag to his friends and compromise the young girl. He is a real man!

Who is not bored to be hypocritical,
Repeat one thing differently
Trying to make sure
What everyone is sure for a long time,
All the same to hear objections,
Destroy prejudice,
Which were not and are not
A GIRL AT THIRTEEN!

Let's open the fourth chapter of "Eugene Onegin", it begins with the famous lines:

The less we love a woman,
The easier it is for her to like us.

But in the continuation of Pushkin's lines, usually no one delves into them, although they contains the solution to the mystery of the novel!

And the more we ruin it
In the midst of seductive nets.
Debauchery used to be cold-blooded
Science was famous for love,
Blowing about himself everywhere
And enjoying without loving.
But this important fun
Worthy of old monkeys
Vaunted grandfather's times ...

In a letter to his younger brother Lev, 23-year-old Alexander Pushkin put it more specifically: “The less a woman is loved, the sooner they can hope to possess her, but this fun is worthy of an old monkey of the 18th century.”

Nanny of Tatyana Larina really went down the aisle at 13, but debauchery "old monkeys" was not there, because her husband Vanya was even younger!
And that's it, Tanya! DURING THESE SUMMER
We haven't heard of love;
And then I would drive from the world
My dead mother-in-law.
IN THESE SUMMERS (that is, at your age, Tatyana), the nanny had already gone down the aisle, and she was 13 years old.

Why, then, did our ideal for the married Tatyana flare up with passion?

After long wanderings, Onegin returned to Petersburg.

And travel to him
Like everything in the world, tired;
He returned and got
Like Chatsky, from the ship to the ball.

At the very first ball, Onegin saw for the first time a secular lady, a general's wife, the most beautiful lady in the capital, immediately fell in love with her and tried to get closer, risking his reputation and the reputation of Tatyana and her husband. Onegin hardly recognized the very girl Tatyana in the secular beauty.

Is it the same Tatyana,
Which he alone
At the beginning of our romance
In a deaf, distant side,
In the good fervor of moralizing,
I used to read instructions...

“Is it the same Tatyana?
That GIRL... Is this a dream?
The GIRL he
neglected in a humble share?

"You were not news
Humble GIRL love?- Tatyana herself rebukes the hero.

This is another confirmation of the age of Tatyana's okrokovitsa. Whether she was at the first meeting with Onegin adult girl would hardly have changed beyond recognition. And a 13-year-old teenage girl, after 3-4 years, transformed from an ugly duckling into a real beauty.

* * *
Why did Pushkin indicate the age of his favorite heroine Tatyana Larina - 13 years old?

In other Pushkin's works, all of his heroines in love were older. Dunyasha, daughter of the station master, ran away with a hussar after 14 years. The young lady-peasant Lisa, Masha Troekurova, beloved of the young Dubrovsky, and Marya Gavrilovna from the Snowstorm, who secretly escaped from her father's house down the aisle, turned 17 years old. Captain's daughter Masha is all 18 years old.

Yes, Pushkin deliberately made Tatyana so young!
If Eugene Onegin rejected the love of 17-year-old Tatyana Larina, questions could really arise for him. Soulless, callous man!

Namely, at such a young age of Tatyana Larina, Pushkin was able to emphasize the high morality of his beloved hero Onegin, whom he largely wrote off from himself.

By the way, at the beginning of the 19th century, completely different customs reigned in Russia, and if the 26-year-old Onegin had become close to the 13-year-old Tatyana, this would not have caused outrage or rejection of society, but would have looked quite normal.

Unfortunately, in modern society there was an opinion that Tatyana was a victim, a sufferer, and Eugene Onegin was a womanizer, inflicted a deep mental trauma on her. In fact, Onegin is the hero of our time.
It's time to finally restore justice! A 26-year-old man quite naturally refused intimacy to a 13-year-old girl, and the progressive public condemns him for this noble act!

***
Pushkin in his works always reported the age of his heroes and heroines.
Lensky "nearly eighteen years old."
And how old was Olga then, whom the 17-year-old Lensky was going to marry? Maximum 12 years. Where is that written?

Pushkin only pointed out that Olga was the younger sister of 13-year-old Tatyana. A little lad Lensky (that is, at 8 years old) he was "a touching witness to her INFANT amusements."(Infant - up to 3 years. From 3 to 7 - a child).

We believe: if the boy Lensky was 8 years old, then Olga was 2 - 3 years old. By the time of the duel, he was almost 18, and she was 12 years old. And how was Lensky indignant when young Olga danced with Onegin?

A little from diapers
Coquette, windy child!
She knows the trick
Already learned to change!

Olga was Lensky's fiancee at the age of 12, but don't forget what time it was. Here is what he wrote Belinsky in an article about Onegin:

“A Russian girl is not a woman in the European sense of the word, not a person: she is something else, like a bride ... She is barely twelve years old, and her mother, reproaching her for laziness, for her inability to hold on ... tells her: “Aren’t you ashamed, madam: you are already a bride!”

And at the age of 18, according to Belinsky, “she is no longer the daughter of her parents, not the beloved child of their hearts, but a burdensome burden, ready to stale goods, extra furniture, which, just look, will drop from the price and will not get away with it.”

Such an attitude towards girls, and early marriages, are explained not by the wildness of Russian customs, but by common sense. Families in Russia were, as a rule, large - the church forbade abortions, many children were born.

Parents tried to quickly marry the girl (“extra mouth”) into a strange family, while she looks young. Yes, and a dowry for her was required less than for a withered maiden. Proverb: The age-old girl is like an autumn fly!

In the case of the Larins, the situation was even more acute. The girls' father Dmitry Larin died, and the mother had to urgently attach her daughters-brides!
Literary critic Yuri Lotman in the comments to the novel "Eugene Onegin" wrote:

“In the beginning of the 19th century, young noblewomen entered into marriage early. True, the frequent marriages of 14-15-year-old girls in the 18th century began to go out of common practice, and 17-19 years old became the normal age for marriage. Early marriages, which were the norm in peasant life, were not uncommon at the end of the 18th century for provincial noble life unaffected by Europeanization.

The mother of Nikolai Gogol was married at the age of 14.23-year-old poet Vasily Zhukovsky fell in love with Masha Protasova when she was 12 years old. The hero of "Woe from Wit" Chatsky fell in love with Sophia when she was 12-14 years old.

“However, the time of the first hobbies of a young reader of novels began much earlier. And the surrounding men looked at the young noblewoman as a woman already at an age at which subsequent generations would see in her only a child.

literary parallels.

In Russian literature, there is only one heroine who, out of the love of readers, approaches Tatyana Larina - this is Natasha Rostova from the novel "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy.

Natasha Rostova is also a noblewoman, we first meet in the novel on her name day. In love with officer Drubetskoy, she caught Boris in a secluded place and kissed him on the lips. Embarrassed, Boris also confessed his love to the girl, but asked not to kiss again for 4 years and "Then I will ask for your hand."

The love situation is exactly like in "Eugene Onegin", but it does not cause any controversy among readers, or the condemnation of officer Drubetskoy. Count Rostov, Natasha's father, recalls the past years in small talk, and reminds the girls that their mothers got married at 12-13 years old.

The first Russian novel in verse. New model literature as an easy conversation about everything. Gallery of eternal Russian characters. Revolutionary for its era, a love story that has become the archetype of romantic relationships for many generations to come. Encyclopedia of Russian life. Our everything.

comments: Igor Pilshchikov

What is this book about?

The capital's rake Eugene Onegin, having received an inheritance, leaves for the village, where he meets the poet Lensky, his bride Olga and her sister Tatyana. Tatyana falls in love with Onegin, but he does not reciprocate her feelings. Lensky, jealous of the bride for a friend, challenges Onegin to a duel and dies. Tatyana marries and becomes a high society lady. Now Eugene falls in love with her, but Tatyana remains faithful to her husband. At this point, the author interrupts the narrative - "the novel ends nothing» 1 Belinsky VG Complete Works. In 13 volumes. M., L.: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1953-1959. IV. C. 425. ⁠ .

Although the plot of "Eugene Onegin" is not rich in events, the novel had a huge impact on Russian literature. Pushkin brought socio-psychological characters to the forefront of literature, which will occupy readers and writers of several subsequent generations. This is an “extra person”, an (anti)hero of his time, hiding his true face behind the mask of a cold egoist (Onegin); a naive provincial girl, honest and open, ready for self-sacrifice (Tatiana at the beginning of the novel); a poet-dreamer who perishes at the first encounter with reality (Lensky); Russian woman, the embodiment of grace, intelligence and aristocratic dignity (Tatiana at the end of the novel). This, finally, is a whole gallery of characterological portraits representing Russian noble society in all its diversity (the cynic Zaretsky, Larina's "old men", provincial landowners, Moscow bars, metropolitan dandies and many, many others).

Alexander Pushkin. Around 1830

Hulton Archive/Getty Images

When was it written?

The first two chapters and the beginning of the third were written in the "southern exile" (in Chisinau and Odessa) from May 1823 to July 1824. Pushkin is skeptical and critical of the existing order of things. The first chapter is a satire on the modern nobility; at the same time, Pushkin himself, like Onegin, behaves provocatively and dresses like a dandy. Odessa and (to a lesser extent) Moldovan impressions are reflected in the first chapter of the novel and in Onegin's Journey.

The central chapters of the novel (from the third to the sixth) were completed in the "northern exile" (in the Pskov family estate - the village of Mikhailovsky) in the period from August 1824 to November 1826. Pushkin experienced (and described in chapter four) the boredom of life in the countryside, where in winter there is no entertainment other than books, drinking and sleigh rides. The main pleasure is communication with neighbors (for Pushkin, this is the Osipov-Wulf family, who lived in the Trigorskoye estate not far from Mikhailovsky). The heroes of the novel spend their time in the same way.

The new Emperor Nicholas I returned the poet from exile. Now Pushkin constantly visits Moscow and St. Petersburg. He is a "superstar", the most fashionable poet in Russia. The seventh (Moscow) chapter, begun in August-September 1827, was completed and rewritten on November 4, 1828.

But the age of fashion is short-lived, and by 1830 Pushkin's popularity is coming to naught. Having lost the attention of his contemporaries, in the three months of the Boldin autumn (September - November 1830) he wrote dozens of works that made him famous among his descendants. Among other things, in the Nizhny Novgorod family estate of the Pushkins, Boldin, Onegin's Journey and the eighth chapter of the novel were completed, and the so-called tenth chapter of Eugene Onegin was partially written and burned.

Almost a year later, on October 5, 1831, Onegin's letter was written in Tsarskoye Selo. The book is ready. In the future, Pushkin only rearranges the text and edits individual stanzas.

Pushkin's office in the museum-estate "Mikhailovskoe"

How is it written?

"Eugene Onegin" concentrates the main thematic and stylistic finds of the previous creative decade: the type of a disappointed hero is reminiscent of romantic elegies and the poem "Prisoner of the Caucasus", a fragmentary plot - about it and other "southern" ("Byronic") Pushkin's poems, stylistic contrasts and the author's irony - about the poem "Ruslan and Lyudmila", colloquial intonation - about friendly poetic messages Arzamas poets "Arzamas" - a literary circle that existed in St. Petersburg in 1815-1818. Its members were both poets and writers (Pushkin, Zhukovsky, Batyushkov, Vyazemsky, Kavelin) and politicians. The people of Arzamas opposed conservative politics and archaic literary traditions. Relations within the circle were friendly, and meetings were like fun gatherings. For Arzamas poets, the favorite genre was a friendly message, an ironic poem full of allusions understandable only to the recipients. ⁠ .

For all that, the novel is absolutely anti-traditional. The text has neither a beginning (the ironic "introduction" is at the end of the seventh chapter), nor an end: the open ending is followed by excerpts from Onegin's Journey, returning the reader first to the middle of the plot, and then, in the last line, to the moment the work began. the author over the text (“So I lived then in Odessa...”). The novel lacks the traditional features of a novel plot and familiar characters: “All types and forms of literature are naked, openly revealed to the reader and ironically compared with each other, the conventionality of any mode of expression is mockingly demonstrated. author" 2 Lotman Yu. M. Pushkin: Biography of the writer. Articles and notes (1960-1990). "Eugene Onegin": Commentary. St. Petersburg: Art-SPb, 1995. C. 195. ⁠ . The question "how to write?" excites Pushkin no less than the question "what to write about?". The answer to both questions is "Eugene Onegin". This is not only a novel, but also a metanovel (a novel about how a novel is written).

Now I'm not writing a novel, but a novel in verse - a diabolical difference

Alexander Pushkin

The poetic form helps Pushkin to do without an exciting plot ("... now I am not writing a novel, but a novel in verse - a diabolical difference" 3 Pushkin A.S. Complete Works. In 16 volumes. M., L.: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1937-1949. T.13. C. 73. ⁠ ). A special role in the construction of the text is acquired by the narrator, who, with his constant presence, motivates countless deviations from the main intrigue. It is customary to call such digressions lyrical, but in reality they turn out to be very different - lyrical, satirical, literary-polemical, whatever. The author talks about everything he sees fit (“The novel requires chatter" 4 Pushkin A.S. Complete Works. In 16 volumes. M., L.: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1937-1949. T. 13. C. 180. ⁠ ) - and the narrative moves with an almost motionless plot.

Pushkin's text is characterized by a plurality of points of view expressed by the narrator and characters, and a stereoscopic combination of contradictions that arise when different views on the same subject collide. Is Eugene original or imitative? What future awaited Lensky - great or mediocre? All these questions in the novel are given different, and mutually exclusive answers. “Behind such a construction of the text lay the idea of ​​the fundamental incompatibility of life in literature,” and the open ending symbolized “the inexhaustibility of possibilities and endless variability reality" 5 Lotman Yu. M. Pushkin: Biography of the writer. Articles and notes (1960-1990). "Eugene Onegin": Commentary. St. Petersburg: Art-SPb, 1995. C. 196. ⁠ . This was an innovation: in the romantic era, the points of view of the author and the narrator usually merged into a single lyrical "I", while other points of view were corrected by the author's.

Onegin is a radically innovative work not only in terms of composition but also in style. In his poetics, Pushkin synthesized the fundamental features of two antagonistic literary movements of the early 19th century - Young Karamzinism and Young Archaism. The first direction focused on the average style and colloquial speech of an educated society, was open to new European borrowings. The second united the high and low styles, relied, on the one hand, on book-church literature and the odic tradition of the 18th century, and on the other hand, on folk literature. Giving preference to one or another linguistic means, the mature Pushkin was not guided by external aesthetic standards, but made his choice based on how these means work within the framework of a specific plan. The novelty and unusualness of Pushkin's style struck contemporaries - and we have become accustomed to it since childhood and often do not feel stylistic contrasts, and even more so stylistic nuances. Rejecting the a priori division of stylistic registers into "low" and "high", Pushkin not only created a fundamentally new aesthetics, but also solved the most important cultural task - the synthesis language styles and the creation of a new national literary language.

Joshua Reynolds. Lawrence Stern. 1760. National Portrait Gallery, London. Pushkin borrowed the tradition of long lyrical digressions from Stern and Byron.

Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council

Richard Westall. George Gordon Byron. 1813 National Portrait Gallery, London

Wikimedia Commons

What influenced her?

"Eugene Onegin" relied on the broadest European cultural tradition from French psychological prose of the 17th-18th centuries to the modern romantic poem by Pushkin, including experiments in parody literature, "deleting" Detachment is a literary technique that turns familiar things and events into strange ones, as if seen for the first time. Detachment allows you to perceive what is described not automatically, but more consciously. The term was introduced by literary critic Viktor Shklovsky. ⁠ literary style (from French and Russian iroikocomic Heroic poetry is a parody of epic poetry: everyday life with drinking parties and fights is described in a high calm. Among the characteristic examples of Russian heroic poems are Elisha, or the Irritated Bacchus by Vasily Maikov, Dangerous Neighbor by Vasily Pushkin. ⁠ and burlesque In burlesque poetry, the comic effect is based on the fact that epic heroes and gods speak in rough and vulgar language. If initially heroic poetry, where the low was spoken of in a high style, was opposed to burlesque, then by the 18th century both types of poetry were perceived as one humorous genre. ⁠ poetry to Byron's "Don Juan") and storytelling (from Stern to Hoffmann and the same Byron). Eugene Onegin inherited a playful clash of styles and a parody of elements of the heroic epic from iroikomics (for example, the "introduction" imitating the beginning of a classical epic). From Stern and Sternians Laurence Sterne (1713-1768), English novelist, author of A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy and The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. Sternianism refers to the literary tradition that his novels laid down: in Stern's texts, lyricism is combined with ironic skepticism, the chronology of the narrative and its coherence are violated. In Russian literature, the most famous Sternian work is Karamzin's Letters from a Russian Traveler. ⁠ rearranged chapters and omitted stanzas, incessant distraction from the main plot thread, a game with a traditional plot structure are inherited: there is no outset and denouement, and the Sternian-style ironic “introduction” is transferred to chapter seven. From Stern and from Byron - lyrical digressions, occupying almost half of the novel's text.

Initially, the novel was published serially, one by one - from 1825 to 1832. In addition to entire chapters that were published as separate books, teasers, as we would say now, appeared in almanacs, magazines and newspapers - small fragments of the novel (from several stanzas to a dozen pages).

The first consolidated edition of Eugene Onegin was published in 1833. The last lifetime edition (“Eugene Onegin, a novel in verse. Composition by Alexander Pushkin. Third edition”) was published in January 1837, a week and a half before the death of the poet.

"Eugene Onegin", second edition of the 1st chapter. St. Petersburg, printing house of the Department of Public Education, 1829

"Onegin" ("Onegin"). Directed by Martha Fiennes. USA, UK, 1999

How was it received?

In different ways, including in the immediate environment of the poet. In 1828, Baratynsky wrote to Pushkin: “We have published two more Onegin songs. Everyone talks about them in his own way: some praise, others scold, and everyone reads. I am very fond of the extensive plan of your Onegin; but most do not understand it. The best critics wrote about the "emptiness of the content" of the novel ( Ivan Kireevsky Ivan Vasilyevich Kireevsky (1806-1856) was a religious philosopher and literary critic. In 1832, he published the journal European, which was banned by the authorities because of an article by Kireevsky himself. He gradually moves away from Westernist views towards Slavophilism, however, the conflict with the authorities is repeated - in 1852, because of his article, the Slavophile edition of the Moscow Collection was closed. Kireevsky's philosophy is based on the doctrine of "integral thinking", which surpasses the incompleteness of rational logic: it is achieved primarily by faith and asceticism. ⁠ ), declared that this “brilliant toy” could not have “claims either to the unity of content, or to the integrity of the composition, or to the harmony of presentation” (Nikolai Nadezhdin), found in the novel “lack of connection and plan” ( Boris Fedorov Boris Mikhailovich Fedorov (1794-1875) - poet, playwright, children's writer. He worked as a theater censor, wrote literary reviews. His own poems and dramas were not successful. He often became the hero of epigrams, a mention of him can be found in Pushkin: “Perhaps, Fedorov, don’t come to me, / Don’t put me to sleep - or don’t wake me up later.” It's funny that one of Fedorov's quatrains was mistakenly attributed to Pushkin until the 1960s. ⁠ ), “a lot of continuous deviations from the main subject” was considered “tedious” (aka) in it, and, finally, they came to the conclusion that the poet “repeats himself” (Nikolay Polevoy) Nikolai Alekseevich Polevoy (1796-1846) - literary critic, publisher, writer. It is considered the ideologist of the "third estate". Introduced the term "journalism". From 1825 to 1834 he published the Moscow Telegraph magazine, after the closing of the magazine by the authorities, Polevoy's political views became more conservative. Since 1841 he has been publishing the journal Russkiy Vestnik. ⁠ , and the last chapters mark the "perfect fall" of Pushkin's talent (Faddeus Bulgarin) Faddey Venediktovich Bulgarin (1789-1859) - critic, writer and publisher, the most odious figure in the literary process of the first half of the 19th century. In his youth, Bulgarin fought in the Napoleonic detachment and even participated in the campaign against Russia, but by the mid-1820s he became an ultra-conservative and, in addition, an agent of the Third Section. He published the journal "Northern Archive", the first private newspaper with a political department "Northern Bee" and the first theatrical almanac "Russian Thalia". Bulgarin's novel "Ivan Vyzhigin" - one of the first Russian picaresque novels - was a resounding success at the time of publication. ⁠ .

In general, “Onegin” was received in such a way that Pushkin abandoned the idea of ​​continuing the novel: he “rolled up the rest of it to one chapter, and responded to the claims of the Zoils with “The House in Kolomna”, the whole pathos of which lies in the assertion of the absolute freedom of the creative will" 6 Shapir M. I. Articles about Pushkin. M.: Languages ​​of Slavic cultures, 2009. S. 192. ⁠ .

One of the first "tremendous historical and social significance" of "Eugene Onegin" realized Belinsky 7 Belinsky VG Complete Works. In 13 volumes. M., L.: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1953-1959. T. 7. C. 431. ⁠ . In the 8th and 9th articles (1844-1845) of the so-called Pushkin cycle (formally it was a very detailed review of the first posthumous edition of Pushkin's works), he puts forward and substantiates the thesis that "Onegin" is a poetically true picture Russian society into a well-known era" 8 Belinsky VG Complete Works. In 13 volumes. M., L.: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1953-1959. T. 7. C. 445. ⁠ , and therefore "Onegin" can be called an encyclopedia of Russian life and highly popular work" 9 Belinsky VG Complete Works. In 13 volumes. M., L.: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1953-1959. C. 503. ⁠ .

Twenty years later, the ultra-left radical Dmitry Pisarev, in his article “Pushkin and Belinsky” (1865), called for a radical revision of this concept: according to Pisarev, Lensky is a meaningless “idealist and romantic”, Onegin “remains the most insignificant vulgarity” from the beginning to the end of the novel, Tatyana - just a fool (in her head, “the amount of brain was very small” and “this small amount was in the most deplorable condition" 10 Pisarev D. I. Complete collection of works and letters in 12 volumes. M.: Nauka, 2003. T. 7. C. 225, 230, 252. ⁠ ). Conclusion: instead of working, the heroes of the novel are engaged in nonsense. Pisarevskoe reading of "Onegin" ridiculed Dmitry Minaev Dmitry Dmitrievich Minaev (1835-1889) - satirist poet, translator of Byron, Heine, Hugo, Molière. Minaev gained fame thanks to his parodies and feuilletons, was the leading author of the popular satirical magazines Iskra and Alarm Clock. In 1866, due to cooperation with the magazines Sovremennik and Russkoye Slovo, he spent four months in the Peter and Paul Fortress. ⁠ in the brilliant parody "Eugene Onegin of Our Time" (1865), where the protagonist is presented as a bearded nihilist - something like Turgenev's Bazarov.

A decade and a half later, Dostoevsky, in his "Pushkin's speech" Dostoevsky delivers a speech about Pushkin in 1880 at a meeting of the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature, her main thesis was the idea of ​​the poet’s nationality: “And never before, not a single Russian writer, either before or after him, has united so sincerely and kindly with his people, like Pushkin. With a preface and additions, the speech was published in the Writer's Diary. ⁠ (1880) put forward a third (conditionally "soil") interpretation of the novel. Dostoevsky agrees with Belinsky that in "Eugene Onegin" "real Russian life is embodied with such creative power and with such completeness, which has not happened before Pushkin" 11 Dostoevsky F. M. Writer's Diary. 1880, August. Chapter two. Pushkin (essay). Pronounced on June 8 at a meeting of the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature // Dostoevsky F. M. Collected Works in 15 volumes. St. Petersburg: Nauka, 1995, vol. 14, p. 429. ⁠ . Just as for Belinsky, who believed that Tatyana embodies "the type of Russian women" 12 Belinsky VG Complete Works. In 13 volumes. M., L.: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1953-1959. T. 4. C. 503. ⁠ , Tatyana for Dostoevsky - “this is a positive type, not a negative one, this is a type of positive beauty, this is the apotheosis of a Russian woman”, “this is a solid type, standing firmly on its own soil. She is deeper than Onegin and, of course, smarter. his" 13 ⁠ . Unlike Belinsky, Dostoevsky believed that Onegin was not suitable for heroes at all: “Maybe Pushkin would have done even better if he called his poem after Tatyana, and not Onegin, because she is undoubtedly the main character poems" 14 Dostoevsky F. M. Writer's Diary. 1880, August. Chapter two. Pushkin (essay). Pronounced on June 8 at a meeting of the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature // Dostoevsky F. M. Collected Works in 15 volumes. St. Petersburg: Nauka, 1995, vol. 14, p. 430. ⁠ .

Excerpts from "Onegin" began to be included in educational anthologies as early as 1843 of the year 15 Vdovin A. V., Leibov R. G. Pushkin at school: curriculum and literary canon in the 19th century // Lotman collection 4. M .: OGI, 2014. P. 251. ⁠ . By the end of the 19th century, a gymnasium canon was formed that singled out the “main” works of art of the 1820s and 1840s: Woe from Wit, Eugene Onegin, A Hero of Our Time and Dead Souls occupy an obligatory place in this series. Soviet school curricula in this regard continue the pre-revolutionary tradition - only the interpretation varies, but it is ultimately based one way or another on Belinsky's concept. And the landscape-calendar fragments of "Onegin" are memorized from the elementary grades as actually independent, ideologically neutral and aesthetically exemplary works ("Winter! The peasant, triumphant ...", "Chased by spring rays ...", "Already the sky breathed autumn. .." and etc.).

How did Onegin influence Russian literature?

"Eugene Onegin" is quickly becoming one of the key texts of Russian literature. The problematics, plot moves and narrative devices of many Russian novels and short stories directly go back to Pushkin's novel: the protagonist as an "extra person" who does not have the opportunity to find application in life for his remarkable talents; a heroine morally superior to the protagonist; contrasting "pairing" of characters; even the duel in which the hero gets involved. This is all the more striking because "Eugene Onegin" is a "novel in verse", and in Russia since the mid-1840s a half-century era of prose has begun.

Belinsky also noted that “Eugene Onegin” had “a huge influence both on modern ... and on subsequent Russian literature" 16 Belinsky VG Complete Works. In 13 volumes. M., L.: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1953-1959. T. 4. S. 501. ⁠ . Onegin, like Lermontov's Pechorin, is "a hero of our time", and vice versa, Pechorin is "this is the Onegin of our time" 17 Belinsky VG Complete Works. In 13 volumes. M., L.: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1953-1959. T. 4. C. 265. ⁠ . Lermontov openly points to this continuity with the help of anthroponymy: the name Pechorin is formed from the name of the northern river Pechora, just like the names of the antipodes Onegin and Lensky - from the names of the northern rivers Onega and Lena located very far from one another.

Behind this construction of the text lay the idea of ​​the fundamental incompatibility of life in literature.

Yuri Lotman

Moreover, the plot of "Eugene Onegin" clearly influenced Lermontov's "Princess Mary". According to Viktor Vinogradov, “Pushkin's heroes were replaced by the heroes of modern times.<...>A descendant of Onegin - Pechorin is corroded by reflection. He is no longer able to surrender even to a belated feeling of love for a woman with that immediate passion, like Onegin. Pushkin's Tanya was replaced by Vera, who nevertheless cheated on her husband, indulging in Pechorin" 18 Vinogradov VV Style of Lermontov's prose // Literary heritage. M.: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1941. T. 43/44. S. 598. ⁠ . Two pairs of heroes and heroines (Onegin and Lensky; Tatyana and Olga) correspond to two similar pairs (Pechorin and Grushnitsky; Vera and Princess Mary); there is a duel between the characters. Turgenev reproduces a somewhat similar set of characters in Fathers and Sons (antagonists Pavel Kirsanov and Yevgeny Bazarov; sisters Katerina Lokteva and Anna Odintsova), but the duel acquires an openly travesty character. Raised in "Eugene Onegin" the theme of "superfluous man" runs through all the most important works of Turgenev, who, in fact, owns this term ("Diary of an Extra Man", 1850).

"Eugene Onegin" is the first Russian metanovel that created a special tradition. In the novel "What to do?" Chernyshevsky discusses how to find a plot for a novel and build its composition, and Chernyshevsky's parodic "insightful reader" vividly resembles Pushkin's "noble reader", to whom the author-narrator ironically addresses. Nabokov's "Gift" is a novel about the poet Godunov-Cherdyntsev, who composes poetry, wanting to write like Pushkin, whom he idolizes, and at the same time is forced to work on a biography of Chernyshevsky, whom he hates. In Nabokov, just as later in Pasternak's novel Doctor Zhivago, poetry is written by a hero who is not equal to the author - a prose writer and a poet. Similarly, in Eugene Onegin, Pushkin writes a poem by Lensky: it is a parody poem written in the poetics of Lensky (the character) and not Pushkin (the author).

What is the "Onegin stanza"?

All Pushkin's poems written before 1830 were written astronomical iambic Not divided into stanzas. ⁠ . The exception is Onegin, the first major work in which the poet tried a strict strophic form.

Each stanza "remembers" its previous uses: the octave inevitably refers to the Italian poetic tradition, Spenserian stanza A nine-line stanza: eight verses in it are written in iambic pentameter, and the ninth - in six-meter. It is named after the English poet Edmund Spenser, who introduced this stanza into poetic practice. ⁠ - to English. Apparently, therefore, Pushkin did not want to use the ready-made strophic structure: unusual content requires an unusual form.

For his main work, Pushkin invented a unique stanza that had no direct precedents in world poetry. Here is the formula written down by the author himself: “4 croisés, 4 de suite, 1.2.1. et deux". That is: quatrain cross rhyming, The most commonly used type of rhyme in quatrains, lines rhyme through one (abab). ⁠ quatrain adjacent rhyme, Here adjacent lines rhyme: the first with the second, the third with the fourth (aabb). This type of rhyming is most common in Russian folk poetry. ⁠ quatrain encircling rhyme In this case, the first line rhymes with the fourth, and the second with the third (abba). The first and fourth lines, as it were, encircle the quatrain. ⁠ and the final couplet. Possible strophic patterns: one of the varieties odic A stanza of ten lines, the lines are divided into three parts: in the first - four lines, in the second and third - three each. The way of rhyming is abab ccd eed. As the name implies, in Russian poetry it was used primarily for writing odes. ⁠ stanzas 19 Sperantov VV Miscellanea poetologica: 1. Was there a book. Shalikov the inventor of the "Onegin stanza"? // Philologica. 1996. Vol. 3. No. 5/7. pp. 125-131. C. 126-128. ⁠ and sonnet 20 Grossman L.P. Onegin stanza // Pushkin / Ed. N. K. Piksanova. Moscow: Gosizdat, 1924. Sat. 1. S. 125-131. ⁠ .

The novel requires chatter

Alexander Pushkin

The first rhyme of the stanza female Rhyme with stress on the penultimate syllable. ⁠ , final - male Rhyme with stress on the last syllable. ⁠ . Female rhyming pairs do not follow female ones, male rhyming pairs do not follow male ones (alternance rule). Size - iambic tetrameter, the most common metric form in the poetic culture of Pushkin's time.

Formal rigor only sets off the expressiveness and flexibility of poetic speech: “Often the first quatrain sets the theme of the stanza, the second develops it, the third forms a thematic turn, and the couplet gives a clearly formulated resolution. Topics" 21 ⁠ . The final couplets often contain witticisms and thus resemble brief epigrams. At the same time, you can follow the development of the plot by reading only the first quatrains 22 Tomashevsky B.V. The tenth chapter of "Eugene Onegin": The history of the solution // Literary heritage. M.: Zhur.-gaz. Association, 1934. T. 16/18. pp. 379-420. C. 386. ⁠ .

Against the backdrop of such strict regulation, retreats stand out effectively. Firstly, these are interspersed with other metrical forms: the characters' letters to each other, written in iambic tetrameter astrophic, and the girls' song, written in trochaic trimeter with dactylic endings Rhyme with stress on the third syllable from the end. ⁠ . Secondly, these are the rarest (and therefore very expressive) pairs of stanzas, where a phrase that begins in one stanza ends in the next. For example, in chapter three:

Tatyana jumped into another hallway,
From the porch to the yard, and straight to the garden,
Flying, flying; look back
Don't dare; immediately ran around
Curtains, bridges, meadow,
Alley to the lake, forest,
I broke the bushes of sirens,
Flying through the flower beds to the stream
And panting, on the bench

XXXIX.
Fell...

Interstrophic transfer metaphorically depicts the fall of the heroine on the bench after a long running 23 Shapir M. I. Articles about Pushkin. M.: Languages ​​of Slavic cultures, 2009. C. 82-83. ⁠ . The same technique is used in the description of the death of Lensky, who falls, killed by Onegin's shot.

In addition to numerous parodies of Onegin, later examples of the Onegin stanza include original works. However, this stanza turned out to be impossible to use without direct references to Pushkin's text. Lermontov in the very first stanza of The Tambov Treasurer (1838) declares: “I am writing Onegin in size.” Vyacheslav Ivanov in the poetic introduction to the poem "Infancy" (1913-1918) stipulates: "The size of the cherished stanzas is pleasant", and the first line of the first stanza begins with the words "My father was from the unsociable ..." (as in "Onegin": "My uncle of the most honest rules..."). Igor Severyanin composes a "novel in stanzas" (!) under the title "Leander's Piano" (1925) and explains in the poetic introduction: "I am writing in a Onegin stanza."

There were attempts to vary Pushkin's discovery: “In the order of rivalry, other stanzas were invented, similar to Onegin's. Almost immediately after Pushkin, Baratynsky wrote his poem "Ball" also in fourteen lines, but of a different structure ... And in 1927, V. Nabokov wrote the "University Poem", turning the rhyming order of the Onegin stanza from the end to beginning" 24 Gasparov M. L. Onegin stanza // Gasparov M. L. Russian verse at the beginning of the 20th century in the comments. M.: Fortuna Limited, 2001. S. 178. ⁠ . Nabokov did not stop there: the last paragraph of Nabokov's "The Gift" only looks prosaic, but in fact it is a Onegin stanza written in a line.

"Onegin" (Onegin). Directed by Martha Fiennes. USA, UK, 1999

Mstislav Dobuzhinsky. Illustration for "Eugene Onegin". 1931–1936

Russian State Library

What are the secondary characters in the novel about?

The scenes of the novel change from chapter to chapter: St. Petersburg (new European capital) - village - Moscow (national-traditional patriarchal center) - South of Russia and the Caucasus. The characters surprisingly vary according to toponymy.

Philologist Maxim Shapir, having analyzed the naming system of characters in Pushkin's novel, showed that they are divided into several categories. The "steppe" landlords - satirical characters - are endowed with speaking names (Pustyakov, Petushkov, Buyanov, etc.). The author calls Moscow bars without surnames, only by their first and patronymic names (Lukerya Lvovna, Lyubov Petrovna, Ivan Petrovich, Semyon Petrovich, etc.). Representatives of the St. Petersburg high society - real faces from Pushkin's environment - are described in semi-hints, but readers easily recognized in these anonymous portraits real people: “The old man, joking in the old way: / Superbly subtle and clever, / Which is somewhat funny today” - His Excellency Ivan Ivanovich Dmitriev, and “Avid for epigrams, / An angry gentleman at everything” - His Excellency Count Gabriel Frantsevich Moden 25 Shapir M. I. Articles about Pushkin. M.: Languages ​​of Slavic cultures, 2009. C. 285-287; Vatsuro V. E. Comments: I. I. Dmitriev // Letters of Russian writers of the 18th century. L.: Nauka, 1980. S. 445; Proskurin O. A. / o-proskurin.livejournal.com/59236.html . ⁠ .

Other contemporaries of the poet are called by their full names when it comes to the public side of their activities. For example, “The Singer of Feasts and languid sadness” is Baratynsky, as Pushkin himself explains in the 22nd note to “Eugene Onegin” (one of the most famous works of early Baratynsky is the poem “Feasts”). “Another poet” who “with a luxurious style / Depicted the first snow for us” is Prince Vyazemsky, the author of the elegy “The First Snow”, Pushkin explains in the 27th note. But if the same contemporary "appears on the pages of the novel as a private person, the poet resorts to asterisks and cuts" 26 Shapir M. I. Articles about Pushkin. M.: Languages ​​of Slavic cultures, 2009. C. 282. ⁠ . Therefore, when Tatyana meets Prince Vyazemsky, Pushkin reports: “V. somehow got hooked on her” (and not “Vyazemsky somehow got hooked on her,” as they print modern editions). The famous passage: "Du comme il faut (Shishkov, I'm sorry: / I don't know how to translate)" - did not appear in this form during Pushkin's lifetime. At first, the poet intended to use the initial "Sh.", but then replaced it with three asterisks Typographic sign in the form of an asterisk. ⁠ . A friend of Pushkin and Baratynsky, Wilhelm Kuchelbecker, believed that these lines were addressed to him, and read them: “Forgive me, Wilhelm: / I don’t know how translate" 27 Lotman Yu. M. Pushkin: Biography of the writer. Articles and notes (1960-1990). "Eugene Onegin": Commentary. St. Petersburg: Art-SPb, 1995. C. 715. ⁠ . Shapir concludes that by adding names for the author that are only a hint in the text, modern editors, Shapir concludes, simultaneously violate the norms of Pushkin's ethics and poetics.

Francois Chevalier. Evgeny Baratynsky. 1830s. State Museum of Fine Arts. A. S. Pushkin. Baratynsky is mentioned in the novel as "The Singer of Feasts and languid sadness"

Carl Reichel. Pyotr Vyazemsky. 1817 years. All-Russian Museum of A. S. Pushkin, St. Petersburg. In the lines “Another poet with a luxurious style / Depicted the first snow for us,” Pushkin meant Vyazemsky, the author of the elegy “The First Snow”

Ivan Matyushin (engraving from an unknown original). Wilhelm Küchelbecker. 1820s. All-Russian Museum of A. S. Pushkin, St. Petersburg. During the life of Pushkin, in the passage “Du comme il faut (Shishkov, sorry: / I don’t know how to translate), asterisks were printed instead of a surname. Küchelbecker believed that they were hiding the name "Wilhelm" under them.

When do the events described in the novel take place and how old are the characters?

The internal chronology of "Eugene Onegin" has long intrigued readers and researchers. What year does the action take place? How old are the characters at the beginning of the novel and at the end? Pushkin himself wrote without hesitation (and not just anywhere, but in the notes included in the text of Onegin): “We dare to assure you that in our novel time is calculated according to the calendar” (note 17). But does Roman time coincide with historical time? Let's see what we know from the text.

During the duel, Onegin is 26 years old ("... Having lived without a goal, without labor / Until the age of twenty-six ..."). Onegin broke up with the Author a year before. If the biography of the Author repeats Pushkin's, then this parting took place in 1820 (in May Pushkin was exiled to the south), and the duel took place in 1821. Here the first problem arises. The duel took place two days after Tatiana's name day, and the name day - Tatiana's day - is January 12 (according to the old style). According to the text, name days were celebrated on Saturday (in drafts - on Thursday). However, in 1821 January 12 fell on a Wednesday. However, perhaps the celebration of the name day was postponed to one of the next days (Saturday).

If the main events (from Onegin's arrival in the village to the duel) still take place between the summer of 1820 and January 1821, then Onegin was born in 1795 or 1796 (he is three or four years younger than Vyazemsky and three or four years older than Pushkin), and began to shine in St. Petersburg when he was "almost eighteen years old" - in 1813. However, in the preface to the first edition of the first chapter, it is directly stated that “it contains a description of the secular life of a St. Petersburg young man at the end of 1819 of the year" 28 Pushkin A.S. Complete Works. In 16 volumes. M., L.: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1937-1949. T. 6. C. 638. ⁠ . Of course, we can ignore this circumstance: this date was not included in the final text (editions of 1833 and 1837). Nevertheless, the description of life in the capital in the first chapter clearly refers to the end of the 1810s, and not to 1813, when the Patriotic War had just ended and the foreign campaign against Napoleon was in full swing. The ballerina Istomina, whose performance Onegin watches in the theater, had not yet danced in 1813; hussar Kaverin, with whom Onegin is hanging out at the Talon restaurant, has not yet returned to St. borders 29 Baevsky V.S. Time in "Eugene Onegin" // Pushkin: Research and Materials. L.: Nauka, 1983. T. XI. pp. 115-130. C. 117. ⁠ .

"Onegin" is a poetically true picture of Russian society in a certain era

Vissarion Belinsky

In spite of everything, we continue to count from 1821. When Lensky died in January 1821, he was "eighteen years old", so he was born in 1803. When Tatyana was born, the text of the novel does not say, but Pushkin informed Vyazemsky that Tatyana's letter to Onegin, written in the summer of 1820, is "a letter from a woman, moreover, 17 years old, and also in love." Then Tatyana was also born in 1803, and Olga was a year younger than her, a maximum of two (since she was already a bride, she could not be less than fifteen). By the way, when Tatyana was born, her mother was hardly more than 25 years old, so the “old woman” Larina was about forty at the time she met Onegin. However, there is no indication of Tatyana's age in the final text of the novel, so it is possible that all Larins were a couple of years older.

Tatiana arrives in Moscow at the end of January or February 1822 and (in the autumn?) gets married. Meanwhile, Eugene wanders. According to the printed "Excerpts from Onegin's Journey", he arrives in Bakhchisaray three years after the Author. Pushkin was there in 1820, Onegin, therefore, in 1823. In stanzas not included in the printed text of the Journey, the Author and Onegin meet in Odessa in 1823 or 1824 and part ways: Pushkin goes to Mikhailovskoye (this happened in the last days of July 1824), Onegin goes to St. Petersburg. At a reception in the autumn of 1824, he meets Tatyana, who has been married "for about two years." It seems that everything fits together, but in 1824 Tatyana could not speak with the Spanish ambassador at this event, since Russia did not yet have diplomatic relations with Spain 30 Eugene Onegin: A Novel in Verse by Aleksandr Pushkin / Translated from the Russian, with a Commentary, by Vladimir Nabokov. In 4 vols. N.Y.: Bollingen, 1964. Vol. 3. P. 83; Lotman Yu. M. Pushkin: Biography of the writer. Articles and notes (1960-1990). "Eugene Onegin": Commentary. St. Petersburg: Art-SPb, 1995. C. 718. ⁠ . Onegin's letter to Tatyana, followed by their explanation, is dated spring (March?) 1825. But is this noble lady really only 22 years old at the time of the final meeting?

There are many such minor inconsistencies in the text of the novel. At one time, literary critic Iosif Toybin came to the conclusion that in the 17th note, the poet had in mind not historical, but seasonal chronology (the timely change of seasons within the novel time) 31 Toybin I. M. "Eugene Onegin": poetry and history // Pushkin: Research and materials. L.: Nauka, 1979. T. IX. S. 93. ⁠ . Apparently, he was right.

"Eugene Onegin". Directed by Roman Tikhomirov. USSR, 1958

Mstislav Dobuzhinsky. Illustration for "Eugene Onegin". 1931–1936

Russian State Library

How does the text of Onegin that we know today compare with the one read by Pushkin's contemporaries?

Contemporaries managed to read several versions of Onegin. In the editions of individual chapters, the poems were accompanied by all sorts of additional texts, of which not all of them were included in the consolidated edition. So, the preface to a separate edition of the first chapter (1825) was the note "Here is the beginning of a great poem, which will probably not be finished ..." and a dramatic scene in verse "A conversation between a bookseller and a poet."

Initially, Pushkin conceived a longer work, perhaps even in twelve chapters (at the end of a separate edition of chapter six, we read: "The end of the first part"). However, after 1830, the attitude of the author to the forms of narration changed (Pushkin is now more interested in prose), readers to the author (Pushkin is losing popularity, the public believes that he has "signed out"), the author to the public (he becomes disappointed in her - I want to say " mental abilities" - aesthetic readiness to accept "Onegin"). Therefore, Pushkin broke off the novel in mid-sentence, published the former ninth chapter as the eighth, published the former eighth ("Onegin's Journey") in excerpts, placing it at the end of the text after the notes. The novel acquired an open ending, slightly camouflaged with a closed mirror composition (it is formed by the exchange of letters between the characters and a return to the Odessa impressions of the first chapter at the end of the Journey).

From the text of the first consolidated edition (1833) are excluded: an introductory note to the first chapter, "A conversation between a bookseller and a poet" and some stanzas that were printed in editions of individual chapters. Notes to all chapters are placed in a special section. The dedication to Pletnev, originally prefaced with a double edition of chapters four and five (1828), is placed in note 23. Only in the last lifetime edition (1837) do we find the usual architectonics: The general form of the structure of the text and the relationship of its parts. The concept of a larger order than composition - understood as the arrangement and relationships of details within large parts of the text. ⁠ the dedication to Pletnev becomes the dedication of the entire novel.

In 1922 Modest Hoffman Modest Ludvigovich Hoffman (1887-1959) - philologist, poet and Pushkinist. Fame brought him "The book of Russian poets last decade» - an anthology of articles about Russian symbolism. Since 1920, Hoffmann worked in the Pushkin House, published a book about Pushkin. In 1922, Hoffmann went on a business trip to France and did not return. In exile he continued to study Pushkin. ⁠ published the monograph "Missed stanzas of "Eugene Onegin". The study of draft editions of the novel began. In 1937, on the centenary of the poet's death, all known printed and handwritten versions of Onegin were published in the sixth volume of Pushkin's Academic Complete Works (volume editor Boris Tomashevsky). This edition implements the principle of "layered" reading and submission of draft and white manuscripts (from final readings to early versions).

The main text of the novel in the same collection is printed “according to the edition of 1833 with the location of the text according to the edition of 1837; censorship and typographical distortions of the 1833 edition have been corrected according to autographs and previous editions (individual chapters and excerpts)" 32 Pushkin A.S. Complete Works. In 16 volumes. M., L.: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1937-1949. T. 6. C. 660. ⁠ . In the future, in scientific and mass publications, with the rarest exceptions and with some spelling variations, this particular text was reprinted. In other words, the critical text of "Eugene Onegin", to which we are accustomed, does not coincide with any of the publications that came out during Pushkin's lifetime.

Joseph Charlemagne. Set design for Pyotr Tchaikovsky's opera "Eugene Onegin". 1940

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No: they are a dynamic "equivalent" text 33 Tynyanov Yu. N. On the composition of "Eugene Onegin" // Tynyanov Yu. N. Poetics. History of literature. Movie. M.: Nauka, 1977. S. 60. ⁠ , the reader is free to substitute anything in their place (compare with the role of improvisation in some musical genres). Moreover, it is impossible to fill in successive stops: some stanzas or parts of stanzas have been abridged, while others have never been written.

Further, some stanzas are present in the manuscripts but not in the printed text. There are stanzas that were in the editions of individual chapters, but excluded from the consolidated edition (for example, a detailed comparison of "Eugene Onegin" with Homer's "Iliad" at the end of chapter four). There are stanzas printed separately as excerpts from "Eugene Onegin", but not included either in a separate edition of the corresponding chapter, or in a consolidated edition. Such, for example, is the passage “Women” published in 1827 in the Moscow Bulletin - the initial stanzas of chapter four, which in a separate edition of chapters four and five are replaced by a series of numbers without text.

This "inconsistency" is not an accidental oversight, but a principle. The novel is filled with paradoxes that turn the story of the creation of the text into an artistic technique. The author plays with the text, not only excluding fragments, but, on the contrary, including them “under special conditions”. So, in the author's notes, the beginning of a stanza that was not included in the novel (“It's time: the pen asks for rest ...”) is given, and the two final stanzas of chapter six in the main text and in the notes are given by the author in different editions.

Manuscript "Eugene Onegin". 1828

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"Eugene Onegin". Directed by Roman Tikhomirov. USSR, 1958

Was there a so-called tenth chapter in "Eugene Onegin"?

Pushkin wrote his novel, not yet knowing how he would finish it. The tenth chapter is a continuation option rejected by the author. Because of its content (a political chronicle of the turn of the 1810s-20s, including a description of the Decembrist conspirators), the tenth chapter of Onegin, even if it had been completed, could hardly have been printed during Pushkin's lifetime, although there is evidence that he gave it to Nicholas to read I 34 Lotman Yu. M. Pushkin: Biography of the writer. Articles and notes (1960-1990). "Eugene Onegin": Commentary. St. Petersburg: Art-SPb, 1995. C. 745. ⁠ .

The chapter was written in Boldin and was burned by the author on October 18 or 19, 1830 (there is a Pushkin note about this in one of the Boldin workbooks). However, the writing was not completely destroyed. Part of the text has been preserved in the form of the author's cipher, which in 1910 was deciphered by Pushkinist Pyotr Morozov. The cryptography hides only the first quatrains of 16 stanzas, but does not fix the remaining 10 lines of each stanza in any way. In addition, several stanzas survived in a separate draft and in the messages of the poet's friends.

As a result, a passage of 17 stanzas has come down to us from the entire chapter, none of which is known to us in its completed form. Of these, only two have a complete composition (14 verses), and only one is reliably rhymed according to the scheme of the Onegin stanza. The order of the surviving stanzas is also not entirely clear. In many places the text is parsed hypothetically. Even the first, perhaps the most famous line of the tenth chapter (“The ruler is weak and crafty”, about Alexander I) is read only presumably: Pushkin writes “Vl.” in the cipher, which Nabokov, for example, deciphered as "Lord" 35 Eugene Onegin: A Novel in Verse by Aleksandr Pushkin / Translated from the Russian, with a Commentary, by Vladimir Nabokov. In 4 vols. N.Y.: Bollingen, 1964. Vol. 1.Pp. 318-319. ⁠ . ⁠ . On the other hand, the short English haircut is opposed to the romantic German à la Schiller. This is the hairstyle of Lensky, a recent Göttingen student: The University of Göttingen was one of the most advanced educational institutions of that time. Among Pushkin's acquaintances there were several Göttingen graduates, and all of them were free-thinking: the Decembrist Nikolai Turgenev and his brother Alexander, Pushkin's lyceum teacher Alexander Kunitsyn. ⁠ "curls black to shoulders" 38 Muryanov M.F. Portrait of Lensky // Questions of Literature. 1997. No. 6. S. 102-122. ⁠ . Thus, Onegin and Lensky, in everything opposite to each other, differ even in hairstyles.

At a social event, Tatyana "in a raspberry beret / Speaks with the Spanish ambassador." What does this famous detail indicate? Is it really about the fact that the heroine forgot to take off her headdress? Of course not. Thanks to this detail, Onegin understands that in front of him is a noble lady and that she is married. A modern historian of European costume explains that the beret “appeared in Russia only at the beginning of the 19th century, simultaneously with other Western European headdresses that tightly covered the head: wigs and powdered hairstyles in the 18th century excluded their use. In the first half of the 19th century, the beret was only a women's headdress, and, moreover, only for married ladies. Being part of the front toilet, he was not filmed either at balls, or in the theater, or at evenings" 39 Kirsanova R. M. Costume in Russian artistic culture of the 18th - first half of the 20th centuries. (Experience encyclopedia). M.: BSE, 1995. C. 37. ⁠ . Berets were made from satin, velvet or other fabrics. They could be decorated with plumes or flowers. They were worn obliquely, so that one edge could even touch the shoulder.

In the Talon restaurant, Onegin and Kaverin drink “comet wine”. What's the wine? This is le vin de la Comète, an 1811 vintage champagne whose superlative quality was attributed to the influence of a comet now called C/1811 F1, which was clearly visible in the Northern Hemisphere from August to December 1811. of the year 40 Kuznetsov N. N. Wine of the comet // Pushkin and his contemporaries: Materials and research. L.: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1930. Issue. XXXVIII/XXXIX. pp. 71-75. ⁠ .

Maybe Pushkin would have done even better if he called his poem after Tatyana, and not Onegin, for she is undoubtedly the main character of the poem.

Fedor Dostoevsky

In addition, in the novel, which seems to be written in the same language as we speak, in reality there are many outdated words and expressions. Why do they become obsolete? First, because the language is changing; secondly, because the world that he describes is changing.

Here, during the duel, Onegin's servant Guillo "stands for the near stump." How to interpret such behavior? All illustrators depict Guillot nestled not far away near a small stump. All translators use words that mean "the lower part of a felled, sawn or broken tree." The Dictionary of the Language of Pushkin interprets this place in the same way. However, if Guillot is afraid of dying from a random bullet and hopes to hide from it, then why does he need a stump? No one thought about this until the linguist Alexander Penkovsky showed in a variety of texts from the Pushkin era that at that time the word "stump" had another meaning, in addition to the one it has today - this is the meaning of "tree trunk" (not necessarily " felled, sawn or broken") 41 Penkovsky A. B. Studies of the poetic language of the Pushkin era. M.: Znak, 2012. C. 533-546. ⁠ .

Another large group of words is obsolete vocabulary denoting obsolete realities. In particular, in our days horse-drawn transport has become exotic - its economic role has been leveled, the terminology associated with it has left the common language and is mostly unclear today. Let's remember how the Larins are going to Moscow. “On a skinny and shaggy nag / A bearded postilion sits.” The postilion (from German Vorreiter - the one who rides in front, on the front horse) was usually a teenager or even a small boy, so that it would be easier for the horse to carry him. The postilion should be a boy, but the Larins have it “bearded”: they didn’t leave for so long and sat in the village in the village that they already have a postilion grown old 42 Dobrodomov I. G., Pilshchikov I. A. Vocabulary and phraseology of "Eugene Onegin": Hermeneutic essays. M.: Languages ​​of Slavic cultures, 2008. C. 160-169. ⁠