Eugene Onegin - Alexander Pushkin

Eugene Onegin is a novel in verse written by Alexander Pushkin, portraying the everyday life of the Russian nobility as it gradually turns into tragedy and quiet desperation. Set in early nineteenth-century Russia, Pushkin presents the main character, Eugene Onegin, as a wealthy and idle nobleman who inherits a fortune from his uncle. Yet despite his privilege and comfort, life appears dull and meaningless to him.

Eugene moves to the country estate left to him by his uncle. The property includes a large farm, but Eugene is too idle to manage it himself, so he chooses to rent it out instead. There, he meets his neighbor Vladimir Lensky, who introduces him to the Larin family. Lensky is engaged to Olga Larina, and through this connection Eugene first meets Tatyana Larina. 

Tatyana Larina is quiet, thoughtful, and deeply emotional. Unlike her sister Olga Larina, who is lively and sociable, Tatyana is more reserved and prefers reading and dreaming. She loves romantic novels, which shape her imagination and her idea of love. She is very bold from other girl at that time, she confessed that she love Eugene through out her letter, but Eugene reject her, and tell that he can't be a better husband of father, it's break Tatyana's heart. 

And so then she was called Tatiana.
Lacking her sister’s beauty, poise,
Her rosy freshness, in no manner
Would she attract a person’s gaze.
A wayward, silent, sad young maiden,
Shy as a doe, in forest hidden,

Although Eugene has everything : money, freedom, and education, but he doesn’t even know what he truly wants. He likes traveling and living freely, yet he denies his feelings and acts emotionally immature. His pride controls him; he could have stopped the duel and saved his friendship with Vladimir Lensky, but his ego is too strong. Honestly, he feels like a red flag character. In contrast, Lensky is more sincere and emotional, which makes a strong contrast between them.

After the duel, this moment becomes a turning point for Eugene. The narrator does not clearly tell us where he goes after leaving his country estate. Instead, the story shifts to the Larin family and their winter in Moscow. There, we see the growth and transformation of Tatyana Larina—a blooming into maturity and elegance that Eugene has already missed. This became Eugene's irony, that he rejects sincere love when it is freely given, but later desperately longs for it when it is forever out of reach. Can feel like karma, but it’s more subtle than simple punishment for him, he failed to recognize real love when it was in front of him.

Reading Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin, especially in the translation by Stanley Mitchell, feels like listening to a smart and slightly ironic friend telling you a story in a very poetic way. The poem is beautiful, and sometimes the narrator talks directly to you, like you are sitting beside him and he is sharing his thoughts honestly. The narrator feels like Pushkin himself, reflective, and emotional, but at the same time he feels like a character, not exactly the real Pushkin himself. The vocabulary can be quite difficult because sometimes it uses old-fashioned English, and I often have to stop and think about what a verse really means or who “he” is referring to. In the beginning, it was confusing, especially when the conversation shifts between characters, but finally I feel more feels softer, clearer, and very beautiful once you get into it. I love the beautiful description about Russian's peasant and city light as the identity.

A chill, dark dawn presages winter;
No labour’s heard upon the fields;
A wolf and hungry she-wolf enter
The road to find out what it yields;
Sensing the pair, a road horse, nearing,
Snorts – and the traveller goes tearing
Uphill, relieved to be alive;
No longer does the herdsman drive
His cows abroad while night is clinging,
No more at noontime does he sound
His horn to gather them around;
A maiden in her small hut, singing,
Spins by the crackling splintwood light,
A friend to every winter’s night.

This is the first time I read novel in verse and I like it. the verse of Eugene Onegin is trully artistic, and become my great start. I want to read another Puskin's works and interested in Aurora Leigh by Elizabeth Barret Browning, also a novel written in verse.

Ruang Buku Megga Rated : ✬✬✬✬ (4/5)

Title :  Eugene Onegin

Author : Alexander Pushkin

Publisher : Penguin Classics (Black Spine)
Year : November, 2008 (First Published in 1831)
Format / Pages : Softcover / 304 pages
ISBN : 9780140448108