Eugene Onegin
Alexander Pushkin · 1799–1837 · Russia
Originally Yevgeny Onegin (Russian)
Why it matters
A novel in verse of miraculous lightness: the bored dandy, the bookish Tatyana, a duel, and a reversal that still stings. It fixed the Russian literary language and seeded the whole Golden Age; Russians know its stanzas by heart.
At a glance
romancesatire
Difficulty 6/10fast pace224 pagesSonnet-stanza verse form and constant authorial digression complicate a simple plot.
Deep dive
Why the reversal Pushkin spends eight chapters building toward lands with no aftermath at all, and what a stanza pattern has to do with it.
Where to go next
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Nikolai Gogol · 1842Dead SoulsLvl 5Medium pace
Mikhail Lermontov · 1840A Hero of Our TimeLvl 4Medium pace
Ivan Turgenev · 1862Fathers and SonsLvl 3Medium pace
Leo Tolstoy · 1878Anna KareninaLvl 5Medium pace
Vladimir Nabokov · 1955LolitaLvl 8Medium pace