Eugene Onegin

Pierre, unconscious from fear, jumped up and ran back to the battery, as the only refuge from all the horrors that surrounded him.
While Pierre was entering the trench, he noticed that no shots were heard at the battery, but some people were doing something there. Pierre did not have time to understand what kind of people they were. He saw the senior colonel lying with his back to him on the rampart, as if examining something below, and he saw one soldier he noticed, who, breaking forward from the people holding his hand, shouted: “Brothers!” – and saw something else strange.
But he had not yet had time to realize that the colonel had been killed, that the one shouting “brothers!” There was a prisoner who, in front of his eyes, was bayoneted in the back by another soldier. As soon as he ran into the trench, a thin, yellow, sweaty-faced man in a blue uniform, with a sword in his hand, ran at him, shouting something. Pierre, instinctively defending himself from the push, since they, without seeing, ran away from each other, put out his hands and grabbed this man (it was a French officer) with one hand by the shoulder, with the other by the proud. The officer, releasing his sword, grabbed Pierre by the collar.
For several seconds, they both looked with frightened eyes at faces alien to each other, and both were at a loss about what they had done and what they should do. “Am I taken prisoner or is he taken prisoner by me? - thought each of them. But, obviously, the French officer was more inclined to think that he had been taken prisoner, because Pierre’s strong hand, driven by involuntary fear, squeezed his throat tighter and tighter. The Frenchman wanted to say something, when suddenly a cannonball whistled low and terribly above their heads, and it seemed to Pierre that the French officer’s head had been torn off: he bent it so quickly.
Pierre also bowed his head and let go of his hands. Without thinking any more about who took whom prisoner, the Frenchman ran back to the battery, and Pierre went downhill, stumbling over the dead and wounded, who seemed to him to be catching his legs. But before he had time to go down, dense crowds of fleeing Russian soldiers appeared towards him, who, falling, stumbling and screaming, ran joyfully and violently towards the battery. (This was the attack that Ermolov attributed to himself, saying that only his courage and happiness could have accomplished this feat, and the attack in which he allegedly threw the St. George crosses that were in his pocket onto the mound.)
The French who occupied the battery ran. Our troops, shouting “Hurray,” drove the French so far behind the battery that it was difficult to stop them.
Prisoners were taken from the battery, including a wounded French general, who was surrounded by officers. Crowds of wounded, familiar and unfamiliar to Pierre, Russians and French, with faces disfigured by suffering, walked, crawled and rushed from the battery on stretchers. Pierre entered the mound, where he spent more than an hour, and from the family circle that accepted him, he did not find anyone. There were many dead here, unknown to him. But he recognized some. The young officer sat, still curled up, at the edge of the shaft, in a pool of blood. The red-faced soldier was still twitching, but they did not remove him.
Pierre ran downstairs.
“No, now they will leave it, now they will be horrified by what they did!” - thought Pierre, aimlessly following the crowds of stretchers moving from the battlefield.
But the sun, obscured by smoke, still stood high, and in front, and especially to the left of Semyonovsky, something was boiling in the smoke, and the roar of shots, shooting and cannonade not only did not weaken, but intensified to the point of despair, like a man who, straining himself, screams with all his might.

The main action of the Battle of Borodino took place in the space of a thousand fathoms between Borodin and Bagration’s flushes. (Outside this space, on the one hand, the Russians made a demonstration by Uvarov's cavalry in mid-day; on the other hand, behind Utitsa, there was a clash between Poniatowski and Tuchkov; but these were two separate and weak actions in comparison with what happened in the middle of the battlefield. ) On the field between Borodin and the flushes, near the forest, in an area open and visible from both sides, the main action of the battle took place, in the most simple, ingenuous way.
The battle began with a cannonade from both sides from several hundred guns.
Then, when the smoke covered the entire field, in this smoke two divisions moved (from the French side) on the right, Dessay and Compana, on fléches, and on the left the regiments of the Viceroy to Borodino.
From the Shevardinsky redoubt, on which Napoleon stood, the flashes were at a distance of a mile, and Borodino was more than two miles away in a straight line, and therefore Napoleon could not see what was happening there, especially since the smoke, merging with the fog, hid all terrain. The soldiers of Dessay's division, aimed at the flushes, were visible only until they descended under the ravine that separated them from the flushes. As soon as they descended into the ravine, the smoke of cannon and rifle shots on the flashes became so thick that it covered the entire rise of that side of the ravine. Something black flashed through the smoke - probably people, and sometimes the shine of bayonets. But whether they were moving or standing, whether they were French or Russian, could not be seen from the Shevardinsky redoubt.
The sun rose brightly and slanted its rays straight into the face of Napoleon, who was looking from under his hand at the flushes. Smoke lay in front of the flushes, and sometimes it seemed that the smoke was moving, sometimes it seemed that the troops were moving. People's screams could sometimes be heard behind the shots, but it was impossible to know what they were doing there.
Napoleon, standing on the mound, looked into the chimney, and through the small circle of the chimney he saw smoke and people, sometimes his own, sometimes Russians; but where what he saw was, he did not know when he looked again with his simple eye.
He stepped off the mound and began to walk back and forth in front of him.
From time to time he stopped, listened to the shots and peered into the battlefield.
Not only from the place below where he stood, not only from the mound on which some of his generals now stood, but also from the very flashes on which were now together and alternately the Russians, the French, the dead, the wounded and the living, frightened or distraught soldiers, it was impossible to understand what was happening in this place. For several hours at this place, amid incessant shooting, rifle and cannon fire, first Russians, sometimes French, sometimes infantry, sometimes cavalry soldiers appeared; appeared, fell, shot, collided, not knowing what to do with each other, screamed and ran back.
From the battlefield, his sent adjutants and orderlies of his marshals constantly jumped to Napoleon with reports on the progress of the case; but all these reports were false: both because in the heat of battle it is impossible to say what is happening at a given moment, and because many adjutants did not reach the real place of the battle, but conveyed what they heard from others; and also because while the adjutant was driving through the two or three miles that separated him from Napoleon, circumstances changed and the news he was carrying was already becoming incorrect. So an adjutant galloped up from the Viceroy with the news that Borodino had been occupied and the bridge to Kolocha was in the hands of the French. The adjutant asked Napoleon if he would order the troops to move? Napoleon ordered to line up on the other side and wait; but not only while Napoleon was giving this order, but even when the adjutant had just left Borodino, the bridge had already been recaptured and burned by the Russians, in the very battle in which Pierre took part at the very beginning of the battle.
An adjutant who rode up from a flush with a pale, frightened face reported to Napoleon that the attack had been repulsed and that Compan was wounded and Davout was killed, and meanwhile the flushes were occupied by another part of the troops, while the adjutant was told that the French had been repulsed and Davout was alive and only slightly shell-shocked. Taking into account such necessarily false reports, Napoleon made his orders, which either had already been carried out before he made them, or could not and were not carried out.
Marshals and generals, who were at a closer distance from the battlefield, but just like Napoleon, did not participate in the battle itself and only occasionally drove into the fire of bullets, without asking Napoleon, made their orders and gave their orders about where and where to shoot, and where to gallop on horseback, and where to run to foot soldiers. But even their orders, just like Napoleon’s orders, were also carried out to the smallest extent and were rarely carried out. For the most part, what came out was the opposite of what they ordered. The soldiers, who were ordered to go forward, were hit by grapeshot and ran back; the soldiers, who were ordered to stand still, suddenly, seeing the Russians suddenly appearing opposite them, sometimes ran back, sometimes rushed forward, and the cavalry galloped without orders to catch up with the fleeing Russians. So, two regiments of cavalry galloped through the Semenovsky ravine and just drove up the mountain, turned around and galloped back at full speed. The infantry soldiers moved in the same way, sometimes running completely different from where they were told. All the orders about where and when to move the guns, when to send foot soldiers to shoot, when to send horse soldiers to trample Russian foot soldiers - all these orders were made by the closest unit commanders who were in the ranks, without even asking Ney, Davout and Murat, not only Napoleon. They were not afraid of punishment for failure to fulfill an order or for an unauthorized order, because in battle it concerns what is most dear to a person - his own life, and sometimes it seems that salvation lies in running back, sometimes in running forward, and these people acted in accordance with the mood of the moment who were in the heat of battle. In essence, all these movements back and forth did not facilitate or change the position of the troops. All their attacks and attacks on each other caused them almost no harm, but harm, death and injury were caused by cannonballs and bullets flying everywhere throughout the space through which these people rushed. As soon as these people left the space through which cannonballs and bullets were flying, their superiors standing behind them immediately formed them, subjected them to discipline and, under the influence of this discipline, brought them back into the area of ​​fire, in which they again (under the influence of the fear of death) lost discipline and rushed about according to the random mood of the crowd.

Napoleon's generals - Davout, Ney and Murat, who were in the vicinity of this area of ​​​​fire and even sometimes drove into it, several times brought slender and huge masses of troops into this area of ​​​​fire. But contrary to what had invariably happened in all previous battles, instead of the expected news of the enemy’s flight, orderly masses of troops returned from there in upset, frightened crowds. They arranged them again, but there were fewer and fewer people. At midday, Murat sent his adjutant to Napoleon demanding reinforcements.
Napoleon was sitting under the mound and drinking punch when Murat's adjutant galloped up to him with assurances that the Russians would be defeated if His Majesty gave another division.
- Reinforcements? - Napoleon said with stern surprise, as if not understanding his words and looking at handsome boy adjutant with long, curled black hair (the same as Murat's hair). “Reinforcements! - thought Napoleon. “Why are they asking for reinforcements when they have half the army in their hands, aimed at the weak, unfortified wing of the Russians!”
“Dites au roi de Naples,” Napoleon said sternly, “qu"il n"est pas midi et que je ne vois pas encore clair sur mon echiquier. Allez... [Tell the Neapolitan king that it is not yet noon and that I do not yet see clearly on my chessboard. Go...]
Handsome adjutant boy with long hair, without letting go of his hat, sighing heavily, he galloped again to where people were being killed.
Napoleon stood up and, calling Caulaincourt and Berthier, began to talk with them about matters not related to the battle.
In the middle of the conversation, which was beginning to interest Napoleon, Berthier's eyes turned to the general and his retinue, who was galloping towards the mound on a sweaty horse. It was Belliard. He got off his horse, quickly walked up to the emperor and boldly, in a loud voice, began to prove the need for reinforcements. He swore on his honor that the Russians would die if the emperor gave another division.
Napoleon shrugged his shoulders and, without answering, continued his walk. Belliard began speaking loudly and animatedly to the generals of his retinue who surrounded him.
“You are very ardent, Beliard,” said Napoleon, again approaching the approaching general. “It’s easy to make a mistake in the heat of the fire.” Go and see, and then come to me.
Before Beliar had time to disappear from sight, a new messenger from the battlefield galloped up from the other side.
– Eh bien, qu"est ce qu"il y a? [Well, what else?] - said Napoleon in the tone of a man irritated by incessant interference.
“Sire, le prince... [Sovereign, Duke...],” the adjutant began.
- Requesting reinforcements? – Napoleon said with an angry gesture. The adjutant bowed his head affirmatively and began to report; but the emperor turned away from him, took two steps, stopped, returned back and called Berthier. “We need to give reserves,” he said, spreading his hands slightly. – Who do you think should be sent there? - he turned to Berthier, to this oison que j"ai fait aigle [the gosling that I made an eagle], as he later called him.
“Sir, should I send Claparède’s division?” - said Berthier, who memorized all the divisions, regiments and battalions.
Napoleon nodded his head affirmatively.
The adjutant galloped towards Claparede's division. And a few minutes later the young guard, standing behind the mound, moved from their place. Napoleon silently looked in this direction.
“No,” he suddenly turned to Berthier, “I cannot send Claparède.” Send Friant’s division,” he said.
Although there was no advantage in sending Friant’s division instead of Claparède, and there was even an obvious inconvenience and delay in stopping Claparède now and sending Friant, the order was carried out with precision. Napoleon did not see that in relation to his troops he was playing the role of a doctor who interferes with his medications - a role that he so correctly understood and condemned.
Friant's division, like the others, disappeared into the smoke of the battlefield. Adjutants continued to jump in from different directions, and everyone, as if by agreement, said the same thing. Everyone asked for reinforcements, everyone said that the Russians were holding their ground and producing un feu d'enfer [hellfire], from which the French army was melting.
Napoleon sat thoughtfully on a folding chair.
Hungry in the morning, Mr. de Beausset, who loved to travel, approached the emperor and dared to respectfully offer His Majesty breakfast.

Year of publication of the book: 1825

Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin” is one of the most significant works in the work of the Russian poet. It took Pushkin more than seven years to write it, and the publication of this novel in verse took place one chapter at a time. The first chapter of the novel “Eugene Onegin” was published in 1825, and the entire work was published only in 1933. Since then, the work has been republished several times in more than 20 languages, and the novel “Eugene Onegin” itself has become one of the most significant works in world literature. Therefore, it is not at all surprising that the author of the novel occupies the highest place in our rating, and his works are represented in large numbers in the ratings of our site.

Subsequently main character novel "Eugene Onegin" leaves for Europe, and Olga soon gets married. Only the image of Tatyana in the novel remains unchanged. She refuses all suitors and, in search of a match for her daughter, her parents take her to St. Petersburg. Here she becomes an unapproachable socialite. At the same time, Evgeny Onegin returns to St. Petersburg. He is still full of blues, but at one of the balls he is again introduced to Tatyana. Now he falls in love with her and asks for her attention. But she's cold. And only once, having called Tatiana to openness, Onegin learns that she still loves him, but she is given to another and will be faithful to him. This is where the novel ends.

The novel “Eugene Onegin” on the Top books website

Despite the years, the novel “Eugene Onegin” is still popular to read. In many ways, schoolchildren also contribute to the popularization of the work, for whom “Eugene Onegin” should be read according to the school curriculum. In addition, they write essays based on the novel “Eugene Onegin”. All these factors, combined with the genius of the work, allowed the novel to take first place in our rating. In addition, quite legitimately, the novel “Eugene Onegin” occupies the highest place in our ranking. At the same time, the position of the novel is quite stable, which is typical for truly iconic works.

You can read the novel “Eugene Onegin” online on the Top Books website.

“Eugene Onegin” reflected the entire life of Russian society at the beginning of the 19th century. However, two centuries later, this work is interesting not only in historical and literary terms, but also in terms of the relevance of the questions that Pushkin posed to the reading public. Everyone, opening the novel, found something of their own in it, empathized with the characters, noted the lightness and mastery of the style. And quotes from this work have long become aphorisms, they are pronounced even by those who have not read the book itself.

A.S. Pushkin created this work for about 8 years (1823-1831). The history of the creation of “Eugene Onegin” began in Chisinau in 1823. It reflected the experience of “Ruslan and Lyudmila”, but the subject of the image was not historical and folklore characters, but modern heroes and the author himself. The poet also begins to work in line with realism, gradually abandoning romanticism. During the period of Mikhailovsky exile, he continued to work on the book, and completed it during his forced imprisonment in the village of Boldino (Pushkin was detained by cholera). Thus, the creative history of the work has absorbed the most “fertile” years of the creator, when his skill evolved at breakneck speed. So his novel reflected everything that he learned during this time, everything that he knew and felt. Perhaps the work owes its depth to this circumstance.

The author himself calls his novel “a collection motley chapters“, each of the 8 chapters has relative independence, because the writing of “Eugene Onegin” took a long time, and each episode opened a certain stage in Pushkin’s life. The book was published in parts, each release becoming an event in the world of literature. The complete edition was published only in 1837.

Genre and composition

A.S. Pushkin defined his work as a novel in verse, emphasizing that it is lyrical-epic: the plot line, expressed by the love story of the heroes (epic beginning), is adjacent to digressions and author’s reflections (lyrical beginning). This is why the genre of Eugene Onegin is called a “novel.”

"Eugene Onegin" consists of 8 chapters. In the first chapters, readers are introduced to central character Evgeniy, they move with him to the village and meet their future friend - Vladimir Lensky. Further, the drama of the story increases due to the appearance of the Larin family, especially Tatyana. The sixth chapter is the culmination of the relationship between Lensky and Onegin and the escape of the main character. And in the finale of the work there is a denouement of the storyline of Evgeniy and Tatiana.

Lyrical digressions are related to the narrative, but it is also a dialogue with the reader; they emphasize the “free” form, the closeness to an intimate conversation. The same factor can explain the incompleteness and openness of the ending of each chapter and the novel as a whole.

About what?

A young nobleman, already disillusioned with life, inherits an estate in the village and goes there, hoping to dispel his blues. It begins with the fact that he was forced to sit with his sick uncle, who left his family nest to his nephew. However, the hero soon becomes bored with rural life; his existence would become unbearable if not for his acquaintance with the poet Vladimir Lensky. Friends are “ice and fire,” but differences did not interfere with friendly relations. will help you figure this out.

Lensky introduces his friend to the Larin family: the old mother, sisters Olga and Tatyana. The poet has long been in love with Olga, a flighty coquette. The character of Tatyana, who herself falls in love with Evgeny, is much more serious and integral. Her imagination had been picturing a hero for a long time; all that remained was for someone to appear. The girl suffers, is tormented, writes a romantic letter. Onegin is flattered, but understands that he cannot respond to such a passionate feeling, so he gives a harsh rebuke to the heroine. This circumstance plunges her into depression, she anticipates trouble. And trouble really came. Onegin decides to take revenge on Lensky because of an accidental disagreement, but chooses a terrible means: he flirts with Olga. The poet is offended and challenges yesterday's friend to a duel. But the culprit kills the “slave of honor” and leaves forever. The essence of the novel “Eugene Onegin” is not even to show all this. The main thing worth paying attention to is the description of Russian life and the psychologism of the characters, which develops under the influence of the depicted atmosphere.

However, the relationship between Tatiana and Evgeniy is not over. They meet at a social evening, where the hero sees not a naive girl, but a mature woman in full splendor. And he falls in love. He is also tormented and writes a message. And he meets with the same rebuke. Yes, the beauty did not forget anything, but it’s too late, she was “given to someone else”: . The failed lover is left with nothing.

The main characters and their characteristics

The images of the heroes of “Eugene Onegin” are not a random selection characters. This is a miniature of Russian society of that time, where all the known types of noble people are scrupulously listed: the poor landowner Larin, his secular but degenerate wife in the village, the exalted and insolvent poet Lensky, his flighty and frivolous passion, etc. They all represent imperial Russia its heyday. No less interesting and original. Below is a description of the main characters:

1. Evgeny Onegin is the main character of the novel. It carries within itself dissatisfaction with life, fatigue from it. Pushkin talks in detail about the environment in which the young man grew up, about how the environment shaped his character. Onegin's upbringing is typical of the nobles of those years: a superficial education aimed at being successful in decent society. He was not prepared for real business, but exclusively for secular entertainment. Therefore, from a young age I was tired of the empty glitter of balls. He has “direct nobility of soul” (he feels a friendly attachment to Lensky, does not seduce Tatyana, taking advantage of her love). The hero is capable of deep feelings, but is afraid of losing freedom. But, despite his nobility, he is an egoist, and narcissism underlies all his feelings. The essay contains the most detailed description of the character.
2. Very different from Tatyana Larina, this image appears ideal: an integral, wise, devoted nature, ready to do anything for love. She grew up in a healthy environment, in nature, and not in the light, so real feelings are strong in her: kindness, faith, dignity. The girl loves to read, and in books she drew a special, romantic image, shrouded in mystery. It was this image that was embodied in Evgenia. And Tatyana gave herself up to this feeling with all passion, truthfulness and purity. She did not seduce, did not flirt, but took upon herself the courage to confess. This brave and honest act did not find a response in Onegin’s heart. He fell in love with her seven years later, when she shone in the world. Fame and wealth did not bring happiness to the woman; she married someone she didn’t love, but Eugene’s courtship is impossible, family vows are sacred to her. More about this in the essay.
3. Tatyana's sister Olga is not of great interest, there is not a single sharp corner in her, everything is round, it is not for nothing that Onegin compares her to the moon. The girl accepts Lensky's advances. And any other person, because why not accept, she is flirtatious and empty. There is immediately a huge difference between the Larin sisters. The youngest daughter took after her mother, a flighty socialite who was forcibly imprisoned in the village.
4. However, it was the flirtatious Olga that the poet Vladimir Lensky fell in love with. Probably because it’s easy to fill the emptiness with your own content in dreams. The hero still burned with a hidden fire, felt subtly and analyzed little. He has high moral concepts, so he is alien to the light and is not poisoned by it. If Onegin talked and danced with Olga only out of boredom, then Lensky saw this as a betrayal, his former friend became an insidious tempter of a sinless girl. In Vladimir’s maximalist perception, this is immediately a break in relations and a duel. The poet lost in it. The author poses the question, what could await the character if the outcome is favorable? The conclusion is disappointing: Lensky would have married Olga, become an ordinary landowner and become vulgar in routine vegetation. You may also need .

Themes

• The main theme of the novel “Eugene Onegin” is extensive - this is Russian life. The book shows life and upbringing in the world, in the capital, village life, customs and activities, typical and at the same time unique portraits of characters are drawn. Almost two centuries later, the heroes contain features inherent in modern people; these images are deeply national.
• The theme of friendship is also reflected in Eugene Onegin. The main character and Vladimir Lensky were in close friendship. But can it be considered real? They got together by chance, out of boredom. Evgeniy sincerely became attached to Vladimir, who warmed the hero’s cold heart with his spiritual fire. However, just as quickly he is ready to insult a friend by flirting with his beloved, who is happy about it. Evgeny thinks only about himself, the feelings of other people are absolutely unimportant to him, so he could not save his comrade.
• Love is also an important theme of the work. Almost all writers talk about it. Pushkin was no exception. True love is expressed in the image of Tatiana. It can develop against all odds and remain for life. No one loved and will love Onegin as much as the main character. If you miss this, you remain unhappy for the rest of your life. Unlike the sacrificial, all-forgiving feelings of the girl, Onegin’s emotions are self-love. He was afraid of a timid girl who had fallen in love for the first time, for whose sake he would have to give up the disgusting but familiar light. But Evgeny was captivated by the cold, secular beauty, with whom visiting was already an honor, let alone loving her.
• Theme of the extra person. The trend of realism appears in Pushkin’s works. It was the environment that raised Onegin to be so disappointed. It was precisely this that preferred to see superficiality in the nobles, the focus of all their efforts on creating secular splendor. And nothing else is needed. On the contrary, education in folk traditions, the company of ordinary people made the soul healthy and the nature whole, like Tatyana’s.
• Theme of devotion. Tatyana is faithful to her first and strongest love, but Olga is frivolous, changeable and ordinary. Larina's sisters are completely opposite. Olga reflects a typical secular girl, for whom the main thing is herself, her attitude towards her, and therefore she can change if there is a better option. As soon as Onegin said a couple nice words, she forgot about Lensky, whose affection is much stronger. Tatyana’s heart is faithful to Evgeniy all her life. Even when he trampled on her feelings, she waited a long time and could not find another (again, unlike Olga, who was quickly consoled after Lensky's death). The heroine had to get married, but in her heart she continued to be faithful to Onegin, even though love has ceased to be possible.

Problems

The problematics in the novel “Eugene Onegin” are very indicative. It reveals not only psychological and social, but also political shortcomings and even entire tragedies of the system. For example, the outdated, but no less creepy, drama of Tatyana’s mother is shocking. The woman was forced into marriage, and she broke under the pressure of circumstances, becoming an evil and despotic mistress of a hated estate. Here's what actual problems raised

• The main problem that is raised throughout realism in general, and by Pushkin in Eugene Onegin in particular, is the destructive influence of secular society on the human soul. A hypocritical and greedy environment poisons the personality. It imposes external requirements of decency: a young man must know a little French, read a little fashionable literature, be decently and expensively dressed, that is, make an impression, seem, and not be. And all the feelings here are also false, they only seem. That's why secular society It takes away the best from people, it cools the brightest flame with its cold deception.
• Eugenia’s blues is another problematic issue. Why does the main character become depressed? Not just because he was spoiled by society. The main reason is that he does not find the answer to the question: why is all this? Why does he live? To go to theaters, balls and receptions? The absence of a vector, direction of movement, awareness of the meaninglessness of existence - these are the feelings that overcome Onegin. Here we are faced with the eternal problem of the meaning of life, which is so difficult to find.
• The problem of selfishness is reflected in the image of the main character. Realizing that no one would love him in a cold and indifferent world, Eugene began to love himself more than anyone else in the world. Therefore, he doesn’t care about Lensky (he only relieves boredom), about Tatyana (she can take away his freedom), he thinks only about himself, but for this he is punished: he remains completely alone and is rejected by Tatyana.

Idea

The main idea of ​​the novel “Eugene Onegin” is to criticize the existing order of life, which dooms more or less extraordinary natures to loneliness and death. After all, there is so much potential in Evgenia, but there is no business, only social intrigue. There is so much spiritual fire in Vladimir, and besides death, only vulgarization in a feudal, suffocating environment can await him. There is so much spiritual beauty and intelligence in Tatyana, and she can only be the hostess of social evenings, dress up and carry on empty conversations.

People who do not think, do not reflect, do not suffer - these are the ones for whom it is suitable existing reality. This is a consumer society that lives at the expense of others, which shines while those “others” vegetate in poverty and filth. The thoughts that Pushkin thought about deserve attention to this day and remain important and pressing.

Another meaning of “Eugene Onegin”, which Pushkin laid down in his work, is to show how important it is to preserve individuality and virtue when temptations and fashions are rampant around, subjugating more than one generation of people. While Evgeny was chasing new trends and playing the cold and disappointed hero Byron, Tatyana listened to the voice of her heart and remained true to herself. Therefore, she finds happiness in love, albeit unrequited, and he finds only boredom in everything and everyone.

Features of the novel

The novel “Eugene Onegin” is a fundamentally new phenomenon in the literature of the early 19th century. He has a special composition - it is a “novel in verse”, a lyric-epic work of large volume. In lyrical digressions, the image of the author, his thoughts, feelings and ideas that he wants to convey to readers emerges.

Pushkin amazes with the ease and melodiousness of his language. His literary style is devoid of heaviness and didacticism; the author knows how to talk about complex and important things simply and clearly. Of course, a lot needs to be read between the lines, since harsh censorship was merciless even towards geniuses, but the poet is also not a natural person, so he was able to tell in the elegance of verse about the socio-political problems of his state, which were successfully hushed up in the press. It is important to understand that before Alexander Sergeevich, Russian poetry was different; he made a kind of “revolution of the game.”

The peculiarity also lies in the image system. Evgeny Onegin is the first in the gallery of “superfluous people”, who contain enormous potential that cannot be realized. Tatyana Larina “raised” female images from the place of “the main character needs to love someone” to an independent and complete portrait of a Russian woman. Tatyana is one of the first heroines who looks stronger and more significant than the main character, and does not hide in his shadow. This is how the direction of the novel “Eugene Onegin” manifests itself - realism, which will more than once open the theme of the superfluous person and touch upon the difficult fate of women. By the way, we also described this feature in the essay “”.

Realism in the novel "Eugene Onegin"

"Eugene Onegin" marks Pushkin's transition to realism. In this novel, the author first raises the topic of man and society. A personality is not perceived separately, it is part of a society that educates, leaves a certain imprint or completely shapes people.

The main characters are typical, but at the same time unique. Eugene is an authentic secular nobleman: disappointed, superficially educated, but at the same time not like those around him - noble, intelligent, observant. Tatyana is an ordinary provincial young lady: she was brought up on French novels, filled with the sweet dreams of these works, but at the same time she is “Russian in soul,” wise, virtuous, loving, harmonious in nature.

It is precisely in the fact that for two centuries readers see themselves and their acquaintances in the heroes, it is precisely in the inescapable relevance of the novel that its realistic orientation is expressed.

Criticism

The novel “Eugene Onegin” evoked a great response from readers and critics. According to E.A. Baratynsky: “Everyone interprets them in their own way: some praise them, others scold them, and everyone reads them.” Contemporaries criticized Pushkin for the “labyrinth of digressions”, for the insufficiently defined character of the main character, and careless language. The reviewer Thaddeus Bulgarin, who supported the government and conservative literature, especially distinguished himself.

However, V.G. understood the novel best. Belinsky, who called it “an encyclopedia of Russian life,” is a historical work, despite the absence of historical characters. Indeed, a modern lover of belles lettres can study Eugene Onegin from this point of view to learn more about the noble society of the early 19th century.

And a century later, the comprehension of the novel in verse continued. Yu.M. Lotman saw complexity and paradox in the work. This is not just a collection of quotes familiar from childhood, it is an “organic world”. All this proves the relevance of the work and its significance for Russian national culture.

What does it teach?

Pushkin showed the life of young people and how their fate could turn out. Of course, fate depends not only on the environment, but also on the heroes themselves, but the influence of society is undeniable. The poet showed the main enemy that affects young nobles: idleness, aimlessness of existence. Alexander Sergeevich’s conclusion is simple: the creator calls not to limit oneself to secular conventions and stupid rules, but to live life to the fullest, guided by moral and spiritual components.

These ideas remain relevant today, before modern people Often a choice arises: to live in harmony with oneself or to break oneself for the sake of some benefits or public recognition. By choosing the second path, chasing illusory dreams, you can lose yourself and discover with horror that your life is over and nothing has been done. This is what you need to fear most.

The plot of "Eugene Onegin"

Description of the novel “Eugene Onegin”

The ruler is weak and crafty
The bald dandy, the enemy of labor
Accidentally warmed by fame
He ruled over us then
…………………….

The first Russian novel in verse. A new model of literature as an easy conversation about everything. Gallery of eternal Russian characters. A revolutionary love story for its era, which became 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's friend, challenges Onegin to a duel and dies. Tatyana gets married and becomes a high society lady. Now Evgeny falls in love with her, but Tatyana remains faithful to her husband. At this moment the author interrupts the narration - “the novel ends nothing» 1 Belinsky V. G. Complete works. In 13 volumes. M., Leningrad: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1953-1959. IV. C. 425. ⁠ .

Although the plot of Eugene Onegin is uneventful, the novel had a huge impact on Russian literature. Pushkin brought to the literary forefront socio-psychological types that would 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 (Tatyana at the beginning of the novel); a poet-dreamer who dies at the first collision with reality (Lensky); Russian woman, the embodiment of grace, intelligence and aristocratic dignity (Tatiana at the end of the novel). This is, finally, a whole gallery of character portraits representing Russian noble society in all its diversity (cynic Zaretsky, “old men” Larina, provincial landowners, Moscow bar, 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 modern nobility; at the same time, Pushkin himself, like Onegin, behaves provocatively and dresses like a dandy. Odessa and (to a lesser extent) Moldavian impressions are reflected in the first chapter of the novel and in Onegin's Travels.

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 Mikhailovskoye) in the period from August 1824 to November 1826. Pushkin experienced himself (and described in Chapter Four) the boredom of life in the village, where in winter there is no entertainment except books, drinking and sleigh rides. The main pleasure is communicating with neighbors (for Pushkin this is the Osipov-Wulf family, who lived on 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 was fading. Having lost the attention of his contemporaries, during the three months of the Boldino 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 Tsarskoe Selo. The book is ready. In the future, Pushkin only rearranges the text and edits individual stanzas.

Pushkin's office in the Mikhailovskoye museum-estate

How is it written?

“Eugene Onegin” concentrates the main thematic and stylistic findings of the previous creative decade: the type of disappointed hero is reminiscent of romantic elegies and the poem “Prisoner of the Caucasus”, the fragmentary plot is about it and other “southern” (“Byronic”) poems of Pushkin, stylistic contrasts and the author's irony - about the poem "Ruslan and Lyudmila", conversational intonation - about friendly poetic messages Arzamas poets "Arzamas" is a literary circle that existed in St. Petersburg in 1815-1818. Its members included poets and writers (Pushkin, Zhukovsky, Batyushkov, Vyazemsky, Kavelin) and political figures. The people of Arzamas opposed conservative policies and archaic literary traditions. Relations within the circle were friendly, and the meetings were like fun get-togethers. For Arzamas poets, the favorite genre was a friendly message, an ironic poem full of hints, 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 Travels, returning the reader first to the middle of the plot, and then, in the last line, to the moment the work begins author above the text (“So I lived in Odessa then...”). The novel lacks traditional signs 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 method of expression is mockingly demonstrated by" 2 Lotman Yu. M. Pushkin: Biography of the writer. Articles and notes (1960-1990). "Eugene Onegin": Commentary. St. Petersburg: Art-SPb, 1995. P. 195. ⁠ . The question “how to write?” worries 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 meta-novel (a novel about how a novel is written).

Now I’m not writing a novel, but a novel in verse - a devilish difference

Alexander Pushkin

Helps Pushkin do without an exciting plot poetic form(“...I’m now writing not a novel, but a novel in verse—diabolical difference" 3 Pushkin A.S. Complete works. In 16 volumes. M., Leningrad: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1937-1949. T.13. C. 73. ⁠ ). The author-narrator plays a special role in the construction of the text, whose constant presence motivates countless deviations from the main intrigue. Such digressions are usually called lyrical, but in reality they turn out to be very different - lyrical, satirical, literary polemical, whatever. The author talks about everything he deems necessary (“The novel requires chatter" 4 Pushkin A.S. Complete works. In 16 volumes. M., Leningrad: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1937-1949. T. 13. P. 180. ⁠ ) - and the narrative moves with an almost motionless plot.

Pushkin's text is characterized by a multiplicity of points of view expressed by the author-narrator and characters, and a stereoscopic combination of contradictions that arise when different views on the same subject collide. Is Evgeniy original or imitative? What kind of future awaited Lensky - great or ordinary? All these questions are given different, and mutually exclusive, answers in the novel. “Behind this construction of the text lay the idea of ​​the fundamental incompatibility of life in literature,” and 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. P. 196. ⁠ . This was an innovation: in the Romantic era, the points of view of the author and the narrator were usually merged into a single lyrical self, and 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 was oriented toward the average style and colloquial speech of an educated society and was open to new European borrowings. The second united high and low styles, based, on the one hand, on book-church literature and the odic tradition of the 18th century, on the other, 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 amazed his contemporaries, but we have become accustomed to it since childhood and often do not feel stylistic contrasts, much less stylistic nuances. Having abandoned 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 of linguistic styles and the creation of a new national literary language.

Joshua Reynolds. Laurence 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 contemporary Pushkin romantic poem, including experiments in parody literature, "defamiliarizing" Defamiliarization is a literary technique that turns familiar things and events into strange ones, as if seen for the first time. Defamiliarization allows you to perceive what is being described not automatically, but more consciously. The term was introduced by literary critic Viktor Shklovsky. ⁠ literary style (from French and Russian irocomic Irocomic poetry is a parody of epic poetry: everyday life with drinking and fighting is described in high calm. Among the typical examples of Russian irocomic poems are “Elisha, or the Irritated Bacchus” by Vasily Maykov, “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 rude and vulgar language. If initially irocomic poetry, where the low was spoken of in a high syllable, was opposed to burlesque, then by the 18th century both types of poetry were perceived as one comic genre. ⁠ poetry to Byron’s “Don Juan”) and plot narration (from Stern to Hoffmann and the same Byron). From irocomics, “Eugene Onegin” inherited a playful clash of styles and a parody of elements of the heroic epic (for example, the “introduction” imitating the beginning of a classical epic). From Stern and Sternians Laurence Sterne (1713-1768) - English writer, author of novels " Sentimental Journey on France and Italy" and "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman." Sternism is called literary tradition, which 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 “Letters of a Russian Traveler” by Karamzin. ⁠ Inherited are rearranged chapters and omitted stanzas, constant distraction from the main plot thread, a game with a traditional plot structure: the beginning and the denouement are absent, and the ironic “introduction”, in Sternian style, 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, chapter by chapter, from 1825 to 1832. In addition to entire chapters, published in separate books, what we would now call teasers appeared in almanacs, magazines and newspapers - small fragments of the novel (from a few 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. The work of Alexander Pushkin. Third edition”) was published in January 1837, a week and a half before the poet’s death.

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

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

How was she received?

In different ways, including in the poet’s immediate circle. In 1828, Baratynsky wrote to Pushkin: “We have released two more songs from Onegin.” Everyone interprets them in their own way: some praise them, others scold them, and everyone reads them. I really love the extensive plan of your Onegin; but the greater number do not understand it.” The best critics wrote about the “emptiness of content” of the novel ( Ivan Kireevsky Ivan Vasilyevich Kireevsky (1806-1856) - religious philosopher and literary critic. In 1832, he published the magazine “European,” which was banned by the authorities because of an article by Kireyevsky himself. He gradually moved away from Westernizing views towards Slavophilism, however, the conflict with the authorities repeated - in 1852, because of his article, the Slavophil publication “Moscow Collection” was closed. At the heart of Kireyevsky’s philosophy is the doctrine of “integral thinking,” which transcends the incompleteness of rational logic: it is achieved primarily through faith and asceticism. ⁠ ), stated that this “brilliant toy” cannot have “claims to either the unity of content, or the integrity of the composition, or the harmony of presentation” (Nikolai Nadezhdin), they found in the novel “a lack of connection and plan” ( Boris Fedorov Boris Mikhailovich Fedorov (1794-1875) - poet, playwright, children's writer. He worked as a theater censor and 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. ⁠ ), “many continuous deviations from the main subject” were considered “tiring” (aka) and, finally, they came to the conclusion that the poet “repeats himself” (Nikolai Polevoy) Nikolai Alekseevich Polevoy (1796-1846) - literary critic, publisher, writer. He is considered the ideologist of the “third estate”. He introduced the term “journalism” into use. From 1825 to 1834 he published the Moscow Telegraph magazine; after the magazine was closed by the authorities, Polevoy’s political views became more conservative. Since 1841, it has been publishing the magazine “Russian Messenger”. ⁠ , and the last chapters mark the “complete fall” of Pushkin’s talent (Thaddei Bulgarin) Thaddeus 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 Napoleonic detachment and even took part 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 magazine “Northern Archive”, the first private newspaper with a political department “Northern Bee” and the first theatrical almanac “Russian Waist”. 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 “curtailed its remaining part to one chapter, and responded to the claims of the Zoils with “The Little House in Kolomna,” the whole pathos of which lies in the affirmation of absolute creative freedom will" 6 Shapir M.I. Articles about Pushkin. M.: Languages Slavic cultures, 2009. P. 192. ⁠ .

One of the first to realize the “enormous historical and social significance” of “Eugene Onegin” Belinsky 7 Belinsky V. G. Complete works. In 13 volumes. M., Leningrad: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1953-1959. T. 7. P. 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 picture poetically true to reality Russian society into the famous era" 8 Belinsky V. G. Complete works. In 13 volumes. M., Leningrad: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1953-1959. T. 7. P. 445. ⁠ , and therefore “Onegin” can be called an encyclopedia of Russian life and highly popular work" 9 Belinsky V. G. Complete works. In 13 volumes. M., Leningrad: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 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 from the beginning to the end of the novel “remains the most insignificant vulgarity”, Tatyana - just a fool (in her head “the amount of brain was very insignificant” and “this small amount was in the most deplorable condition" 10 Pisarev D.I. Complete works and letters in 12 volumes. M.: Nauka, 2003. T. 7. P. 225, 230, 252. ⁠ ). Conclusion: instead of working, the heroes of the novel do nonsense. Pisarev's reading of Onegin was ridiculed Dmitry Minaev Dmitry Dmitrievich Minaev (1835-1889) - satirist poet, translator of Byron, Heine, Hugo, Moliere. Minaev gained fame thanks to his parodies and feuilletons, and was the leading author of the popular satirical magazines Iskra and Alarm Clock. In 1866, due to collaboration with the magazines Sovremennik and Russkoe Slovo, he spent four months in the Peter and Paul Fortress. ⁠ in the brilliant parody “Eugene Onegin of Our Time” (1865), where the main character is presented as a bearded nihilist - something like Turgenev’s Bazarov.

Another decade and a half later, Dostoevsky in his "Pushkin's speech" Dostoevsky gives a speech about Pushkin in 1880 at a meeting of the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature, its main thesis was the idea of ​​the poet’s nationality: “And never before has any Russian writer, either before or after him, 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-based”) 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 as has never happened before.” Pushkin" 11 Dostoevsky F. M. Diary of a Writer. 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. T. 14. P. 429. ⁠ . Just like for Belinsky, who believed that Tatyana embodies the “type of Russian women" 12 Belinsky V. G. Complete works. In 13 volumes. M., Leningrad: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1953-1959. T. 4. P. 503. ⁠ , Tatyana for Dostoevsky is “a positive type, not a negative one, this is a type of positive beauty, this is the apotheosis of the 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 as a hero at all: “Perhaps Pushkin would have done even better if he had named his poem after Tatyana, and not Onegin, for undoubtedly she is the main character poems" 14 Dostoevsky F. M. Diary of a Writer. 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. T. 14. P. 430. ⁠ .

Excerpts from Onegin began to be included in educational textbooks 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 // Lotmanov collection 4. M.: OGI, 2014. P. 251. ⁠ . By the end of the 19th century, a gymnasium canon was emerging that identified the “main” works of art of the 1820s-40s: “Woe from Wit”, “Eugene Onegin”, “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 in one way or another on Belinsky’s concept. And the landscape-calendar fragments of “Onegin” are memorized from elementary school as virtually independent, ideologically neutral and aesthetically exemplary works (“Winter! Peasant, triumphant...”, “Driven by the spring rays...”, “The sky was already breathing in 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 techniques of many Russian novels and stories directly go back to Pushkin’s novel: the main character as an “extra person” who is unable to find use for his remarkable talents in life; a heroine who is morally superior to the protagonist; contrasting “pairing” of characters; even a duel in which the hero gets involved. This is all the more striking since “Eugene Onegin” is a “novel in verse,” and in Russia, from the mid-1840s, a half-century era of prose began.

Belinsky also noted that “Eugene Onegin” had “a huge influence on both modern... and subsequent Russian literature" 16 Belinsky V. G. Complete works. In 13 volumes. M., Leningrad: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1953-1959. T. 4. P. 501. ⁠ . Onegin, like Lermontov’s Pechorin, is “the hero of our time,” and vice versa, Pechorin is “the Onegin of our time" 17 Belinsky V. G. Complete works. In 13 volumes. M., Leningrad: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1953-1959. T. 4. P. 265. ⁠ . Lermontov openly points out this continuity with the help of anthroponymy: the surname Pechorin is formed from the name of the northern river Pechora, just like the surnames 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 heroes of modern times.<...>Onegin's descendant 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, betraying Pechorin" 18 Vinogradov V.V. Lermontov’s prose style // Literary heritage. M.: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1941. T. 43/44. P. 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); a duel takes place between the heroes. Turgenev’s “Fathers and Sons” reproduces a somewhat similar set of characters (antagonists Pavel Kirsanov and Evgeny Bazarov; sisters Katerina Lokteva and Anna Odintsova), but the duel takes on an openly travesty character. The theme of the “superfluous man” raised in “Eugene Onegin” runs through all the most important works of Turgenev, to whom, in fact, this term belongs (“The Diary of an Extra Man,” 1850).

“Eugene Onegin” is the first Russian meta-novel that created a special tradition. In the novel “What is to be done?” Chernyshevsky talks about 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 "The Gift" is a novel about the poet Godunov-Cherdyntsev, who writes poetry, wanting to write like Pushkin, whom he idolizes, and at the same time is forced to work on the biography of Chernyshevsky, whom he hates. In Nabokov, as well 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), not Pushkin (the author).

What is the “Onegin stanza”?

All of 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 out 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 hexameter. Named after the English poet Edmund Spenser, who introduced this stanza into poetic practice. ⁠ - to English. Apparently, this is why Pushkin did not want to use a 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 rhyme, The most commonly used type of rhyme in quatrains, lines rhyme alternately (abab). ⁠ quatrain adjacent rhyme, Here adjacent lines rhyme: the first with the second, the third with the fourth (aabb). This type of rhyme is most common in Russian folk poetry. ⁠ quatrain girdle rhyme In this case, the first line rhymes with the fourth, and the second with the third (abba). The first and fourth lines seem to 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: the first has four lines, the second and third have three each. The rhyming method is abab ccd eed. As the name suggests, in Russian poetry it was used primarily for writing odes. ⁠ stanzas 19 Sperantov V.V. Miscellanea poetologica: 1. Was there a book. Shalikov the inventor of the “Onegin stanza”? // Philologica. 1996. T. 3. No. 5/7. pp. 125-131. pp. 126-128. ⁠ And sonnet 20 Grossman L.P. Onegin stanza // Pushkin / Ed. N.K. Piksanova. M.: Gosizdat, 1924. Coll. 1. pp. 125-131. ⁠ .

Romance requires chatter

Alexander Pushkin

The first rhyme of the stanza is women's Rhyme with stress on the penultimate syllable. ⁠ , final - men's Rhyme with stress on the last syllable. ⁠ . Female rhyme pairs do not follow female ones, and male ones do not follow male ones (alternance rule). The meter is iambic tetrameter, the most common metrical 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 short 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 a strict regulation, the retreats stand out effectively. Firstly, there are inclusions of other metrical forms: letters of the heroes to each other, written in astronomical iambic tetrameter, and a song of girls written in trochee 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 begun in one stanza is completed in the next. For example, in chapter three:

Tatyana jumped into another hallway,
From the porch to the yard, and straight into the garden,
Flying, flying; look back
He doesn't dare; ran around instantly
Curtains, bridges, meadow,
Alley to the lake, woods,
I broke the siren bushes,
Flying through the flower beds to the stream
And gasping for breath, onto the bench

XXXIX.
Fell...

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

In addition to numerous parodies of Onegin, later examples of Onegin's 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 “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 treasured stanzas is pleasant,” and begins the first line of the first stanza with the words “My father was one of the unsociable...” (as in Onegin: “My uncle of the most fair rules..."). Igor Severyanin composes a “novel in stanzas” (!) under the title “Royal Leandra” (1925) and in the poetic introduction he explains: “I am writing in Onegin’s stanza.”

There were attempts to vary Pushkin’s find: “Other stanzas similar to Onegin’s were invented as a matter of competition. Almost immediately following Pushkin, Baratynsky wrote his poem “The Ball”, also in fourteen lines, but with a different structure... And in 1927, V. Nabokov wrote the “University Poem”, inverting the rhyme order of the Onegin stanza from end to to the beginning" 24 Gasparov M. L. Onegin stanza // Gasparov M. L. Russian verse of the early 20th century in the comments. M.: Fortuna Limited, 2001. P. 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 down in a line.

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

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

Russian State Library

Why are the secondary characters interesting in the novel?

The locations 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 vary amazingly according to toponymy.

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

Other contemporaries of the poet are named full names, if we are talking about 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 early Baratynsky's poem "Feasts"). “Another poet” who “depicted the first snow for us in a luxurious style” 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 reductions" 26 Shapir M.I. Articles about Pushkin. M.: Languages ​​of Slavic Cultures, 2009. P. 282. ⁠ . Therefore, when Tatyana meets Prince Vyazemsky, Pushkin reports: “V. somehow got hooked on her” (and not “Vyazemsky somehow got hooked on her,” as modern publications print). The famous passage: “Du comme il faut (Shishkov, forgive me: / 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: “Wilhelm, forgive me: / 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. P. 715. ⁠ . By adding names for the author that are only hinted at in the text, modern editors, Shapir concludes, simultaneously violate the norms of Pushkin’s ethics and poetics.

Francois Chevalier. Evgeny Baratynsky. 1830s. State Museum fine arts them. A. S. Pushkin. Baratynsky is mentioned in the novel as “The Singer of Feasts and languid sadness”

Karl Reichel. Pyotr Vyazemsky. 1817. All-Russian Museum of A. S. Pushkin, St. Petersburg. In the lines “Another poet in a luxurious style / Painted the first snow for us,” Pushkin had in mind Vyazemsky, the author of the elegy “The First Snow”

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

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. In what years 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 that in our novel time is calculated according to the calendar” (note 17). But does the novel's time coincide with the historical one? 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 he was twenty-six years old...”). Onegin broke up with the Author a year before. If the Author’s biography repeats Pushkin’s, then this separation occurred in 1820 (in May Pushkin was exiled to the south), and the duel took place in 1821. This is where the first problem arises. The duel took place two days after Tatiana’s name day, and Tatiana’s name day is January 12 (old style). According to the text, the name day was celebrated on Saturday (in drafts - on Thursday). However, in 1821, January 12 fell on a Wednesday. However, perhaps the name day celebration 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 in the period from the summer of 1820 to January 1821, then Onegin was born in 1795 or 1796 (he is three to four years younger than Vyazemsky and three to four years younger 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 social life of St. Petersburg young man at the end of 1819 of the year" 28 Pushkin A.S. Complete works. In 16 volumes. M., Leningrad: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1937-1949. T. 6. P. 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 metropolitan life in the first chapter clearly refers to the end of the 1810s, and not to 1813, when it had just ended. Patriotic War 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 carousing at the Talon restaurant, has not yet returned to St. Petersburg due to 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

Despite everything, we continue to count down from 1821. When Lensky died in January 1821, he was “eighteen years old,” which means he was born in 1803. The text of the novel does not say when Tatyana was born, but Pushkin told Vyazemsky that Tatyana’s letter to Onegin, written in the summer of 1820, is “a letter from a woman, also 17 years old, and also in love.” Then Tatyana was also born in 1803, and Olga was a year younger than her, maximum 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 lady” Larina was about forty at the time she met Onegin. However, there is no indication of Tatiana’s age in the final text of the novel, so it is possible that all the Larins were a couple of years older.

Tatyana arrives in Moscow at the end of January or February 1822 and (in the fall?) gets married. Meanwhile, Evgeniy wanders. According to the printed "Excerpts from Onegin's Travels", he arrives in Bakhchisarai three years after the Author. Pushkin was there in 1820, Onegin, therefore, in 1823. In stanzas not included in the printed text of the Travels, 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 to St. Petersburg. At a reception in the fall of 1824, he meets Tatiana, who has been married “about two years.” Everything seems to fit, but in 1824 Tatyana could not speak with the Spanish ambassador at this reception, 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. P. 718. ⁠ . Onegin's letter to Tatiana, followed by their explanation, is dated spring (March?) 1825. But is it really possible for this noble lady to final date only 22 years old?

There are many such minor inconsistencies in the text of the novel. At one time, literary critic Joseph Toibin 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. P. 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 that Pushkin’s contemporaries read?

Contemporaries managed to read several versions of Onegin. In the editions of individual chapters, the poems were accompanied by various kinds of additional texts, not all of which were included in the consolidated edition. Thus, the prefaces to a separate edition of Chapter One (1825) included the note “Here is the beginning of a large poem that 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 author’s attitude towards the forms of storytelling changed (Pushkin is now more interested in prose), readers towards the author (Pushkin is losing popularity, the public believes that he has “written himself out”), and the author towards the public (he becomes disappointed in it - I would like to say “ mental abilities" - aesthetic readiness to accept "Onegin"). Therefore, Pushkin broke off the novel mid-sentence, published the former ninth chapter as the eighth, and published the former eighth (“Onegin’s Travels”) in excerpts, placing it at the end of the text after the notes. The novel acquired an open ending, slightly camouflaged by a closed mirror composition (it is formed by the characters’ exchange of letters and a return to the Odessa impressions of the first chapter at the end of “The Journey”).

Excluded from the text of the first consolidated edition (1833): the introductory note to chapter one, “Conversation between a bookseller and a poet,” and some stanzas published in editions of individual chapters. Notes for all chapters are included in a special section. The dedication to Pletnev, originally prefixed to the double edition of chapters four and five (1828), is placed in note 23. Only in the latter lifetime edition(1837) we find the familiar to us architectonics: The general form of the text structure and the relationship of its parts. A 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 Ludwigovich Hoffman (1887-1959) - philologist, poet and Pushkin scholar. His fame was brought to him by The Book of Russian Poets of the Last Decade, an anthology of articles on Russian symbolism. Since 1920, Hoffmann worked at the Pushkin House and 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 studies. ⁠ published the monograph “Missing 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 the academic Complete Works of Pushkin (editor of the volume is Boris Tomashevsky). This edition implements the principle of “layer-by-layer” reading and presentation of draft and white manuscripts (from final readings to early versions).

The main text of the novel in the same collection was printed “according to the 1833 edition with the text arranged according to the 1837 edition; censorship and typographical distortions of the 1833 edition were corrected according to autographs and previous editions (individual chapters and excerpts)" 32 Pushkin A.S. Complete works. In 16 volumes. M., Leningrad: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1937-1949. T. 6. P. 660. ⁠ . Subsequently, this text was reprinted in scientific and mass publications, with rare exceptions and with some spelling variations. In other words, the critical text of Eugene Onegin, to which we are accustomed, does not coincide with any of the publications published during Pushkin’s lifetime.

Joseph Charlemagne. Scenery sketch for Pyotr Tchaikovsky's opera "Eugene Onegin". 1940

Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images

No: they are the dynamic "equivalent" text 33 Tynyanov Yu. N. About the composition of “Eugene Onegin” // Tynyanov Yu. N. Poetics. History of literature. Movie. M.: Nauka, 1977. P. 60. ⁠ , in their place the reader is free to substitute anything he wants (compare with the role of improvisation in some musical genres). Moreover, it is impossible to fill in the gaps consistently: some stanzas or parts of stanzas have been abbreviated, while others were never written.

Further, some stanzas are present in the manuscripts but not in the printed text. There are stanzas that were present in the editions of individual chapters, but excluded from the consolidated edition (for example, an extensive 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 excerpt “Women” published in 1827 in the Moskovsky Vestnik - the initial stanzas of chapter four, which in a separate edition of chapters four and five were 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 transform the history of the text's creation into an artistic device. The author plays with the text, not only excluding fragments, but also, conversely, including them “under special conditions.” Thus, the author’s notes contain the beginning of a stanza that is not included in the novel (“It’s time: the pen asks for rest...”), and the final two stanzas of chapter six in the main text and in the notes are given by the author in different editions.

Manuscript of "Eugene Onegin". 1828

Wikimedia Commons

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

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

Pushkin wrote his novel without 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 published during Pushkin’s lifetime, although there is information that he gave it to Nikolai 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. P. 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, what was written was not completely destroyed. Part of the text has been preserved in the form of the author’s cipher, which was solved by Pushkin scholar Pyotr Morozov in 1910. The cryptography hides only the first quatrains of 16 stanzas, but does not in any way record the remaining 10 lines of each stanza. In addition, several stanzas survived in a separate draft and in messages from the poet’s friends.

As a result, from the entire chapter, an excerpt of 17 stanzas has reached us, 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 obvious. In many places the text is analyzed hypothetically. Even the first, perhaps the most famous line of the tenth chapter (“The ruler is weak and crafty,” about Alexander I) can only be read tentatively: Pushkin’s code says “Vl.”, 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 contrasted with 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 the time. Among Pushkin’s acquaintances there were several graduates of Gottingen, and all of them were distinguished by free-thinking: the Decembrist Nikolai Turgenev and his brother Alexander, Pushkin’s lyceum teacher Alexander Kunitsyn. ⁠ "black curls up to shoulders" 38 Muryanov M.F. Portrait of Lensky // Questions of literature. 1997. No. 6. P. 102-122. ⁠ . Thus, Onegin and Lensky, in everything opposite friend friend, they even have different hairstyles.

At a social event, Tatyana “wears a raspberry beret / Speaks to 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 1st half of the 19th century, the beret was only a women's headdress, and, moreover, only for married ladies. Being part of the ceremonial dress, it was not worn either at balls, or in the theater, or at dinner parties. evenings" 39 Kirsanova R. M. Costume in Russian artistic culture XVIII - first half of XX centuries. (Encyclopedia experience). M.: TSB, 1995. P. 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.

At the Talon restaurant, Onegin and Kaverin drink “comet wine.” What kind of wine? This is le vin de la Comète, a champagne from the 1811 vintage, the superior quality of which was attributed to the influence of the 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. Comet Wine // Pushkin and his contemporaries: Materials and research. L.: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1930. Issue. XXXVIII/XXXIX. pp. 71-75. ⁠ .

Perhaps Pushkin would have even done better if he had named 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 you and I speak, in reality there are many outdated words and expressions. Why do they become obsolete? Firstly, because the language changes; secondly, because the world it describes is changing.

During the duel, Onegin’s servant Guillo “stands behind the nearby stump.” How to interpret this behavior? All illustrators depict Guillot perched nearby near a small stump. All translators use words meaning "the lower part of a felled, sawed or broken tree." The Dictionary of the Pushkin Language interprets this passage in exactly the same way. However, if Guillo 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 on many texts 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 “cut down, cut down or broken") 41 Penkovsky A. B. Studies of the poetic language of the Pushkin era. M.: Znak, 2012. pp. 533-546. ⁠ .

Another large group of words is outdated vocabulary, denoting outdated realities. In particular, horse-drawn transport has become exotic these days - its economic role has been leveled, the terminology associated with it has disappeared from the common language and today is mostly unclear. 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 lead horse) was usually a teenager or even a small boy, so that it would be easier for the horse to carry him. The postilion must be a boy, but for the Larins he is “bearded”: they have not gone out for so long and have been sitting around in the village that they already have a postilion got old 42 Dobrodomov I. G., Pilshchikov I. A. Vocabulary and phraseology of “Eugene Onegin”: Hermeneutical essays. M.: Languages ​​of Slavic Cultures, 2008. pp. 160-169. ⁠