Reading Pushkin's Eugene Onegin in Russian: A Parallel-Text Russian Reader (Reading Russian)

The novel in verse Eugene Onegin — inarguably the most important work in the entire Russian canon, by its greatest poet, Alexander Pushkin — is simply required reading for anyone interested in Russian literature. Now, it’s more accessible than ever in the original: this volume provides the entire Russian text, marked for stress, and with extensive linguistic, historical, and cultural footnotes, to ensure that intermediate to advanced students of Russian can make sense of Pushkin’s every word — with the help of a parallel English translation, made expressly for this purpose, that sticks as closely as possible to the meaning of the Russian original. Vocab notes include aspectual pairs and conjugation types for verbs, irregular plurals and other forms for nouns, and contemporary equivalents for all archaic forms found in the text.

Combining a conversational tone and digressive structure with a simple but powerful story, Eugene Onegin tells of a jaded aristocrat (Onegin), an idealistic young poet (Lensky), and a provincial girl (Tatyana) who risks her honor for the sake of love. The aftermath of her gamble, culminating in a pointlessly destructive duel, changes everyone involved — until, by the novel’s end, the tables are turned in unexpected ways. Along the way, Pushkin meditates on the vanities of high society; on the destructive passage of time (both as a mere elegiac lament, and as a brutal reality); on the relationship between life and literature; on provincial and city life; on inspiration and creativity; and more. The result is a complex and subtle portrait of Russian life — panoramic and dramatic, yet minutely detailed, and intimately told.

About the Author...

Originally from Franklin, Tennessee, Mark Pettus holds a PhD in Slavic Languages and Literatures from Princeton University. Altogether, he’s spent around six years living, studying, and working in Russia. Today he is a lecturer in Slavic Languages and Literatures at Princeton. Mark is the author of the Russian Through Propaganda textbook series (Books 1 and 2), and its continuation, Russian Through Poems and Paintings (Books 3 and 4). He is now working on additional books for students of Russian, including the Reading Russian series of which the present volume is a part.

Check out www.russianthroughpropaganda.com for a variety of resources for students of Russian language, literature, and culture.