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| Dover Publications |
Eugene Onegin is an epic poem written by Russian poet Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin. The poem published in 1833 profoundly depicts Russian culture of that period. Eugene Onegin is considered by Russian literary scholars as the first epic poem written in the Russian language since The Lay of the Host of Igor, (1185).* Eugene Onegin served as a template for future Russian literary works. In 1833 books written in Russian were rare, or of poor quality, or the product of the sentimentalists. Suddenly, Russian genius blossomed. Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol wrote, The Inspector General, (1836) a classic Russian comedy and play. The plot of The Inspector General was originally suggested to Nikolai Gogol by Alexander Pushkin. Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov, a great Russian poet, wrote the prose classic, A Hero Of Our Time, (1839). Ironically, Alexander Pushkin and Mikhail Lermontov were both killed in duels, although Mikhail Lermontov was allegedly shot in the back by a solider with a carbine rifle, during the duel, under the direct orders of Czar Nicholas. Czar Nicholas was a particularly spiteful man who crushed the Decembrists, exiled Alexander Pushkin, murdered Mikhail Lermontov, and exiled Fyodor Dostoevsky to Siberia. Nevertheless, in spite of the heavy handed censorship, the 1830 publications would spawn the Russian literary Rennisance, which reigned supreme until the Boleshivek revolution reduced Russian letters to petty partisan formulaic gibberish. After the publication of Eugene Onegin, during the Rennisance, the Russian people would be blessed to read and enjoy literary classics written in Russian. Everything from romance to the seminarists. The years of literature imported from Europe, and read mostly by aristocratic families, had come to an end.
N.B. French, the universal language, was taught to children by tutors in wealthy Russian homes. Speaking French coveyed aristocratic status upon the speaker. Alexander Pushkin spoke, read, and thought in French, not in Russian. Eugene Onegin changed the Russian literary landscape forever. Simply put, Alexander Pushkin wrote a poetic masterpiece in the neglected Russian language. Alexander Pushkin demolished the idea that Russian language and culture was barbaric and offered no artistic merit. Alexander Pushkin is a genius of the first order. Alexander Pushkin is the greatest Russian poet, and one of the greatest revolutionary thinkers Russia has ever produced.
Eugene Onegin is a story of a young girl, Tatyana, who is passionately in love with young rake Eugene. Eugene has inherited a country estate from his uncle; a man whom Eugene despised; adjacent to Tatyana's ancestral village. Eugene is a man notable for treading upon theatre patrons feet with crass indifference. Eugene has a remarkable tendency to offend people with a cavalier swagger. Eugene is a misanthrope; a precursor to the superfluous man; a wealthy landowner without any purpose in life, who is imprisoned by social convention, and who is unable to make any meaningful contribution to society. This lack of social graces will prompt Eugene to make callous decisions that will chart the decision-making process of Tatyana after she has matured into a sophisticated societal married woman and is forced to make a choice. Tatyana is stifled in a world of social ennui, but when forced to choose she refuses to abandon her husband for Eugene who is now passionately in love with her.
Tatyana is a young woman trapped on a landed estate in rural Russia before the emancipation of the serfs. Russia during this time was a highly stratified society with classes of people ranging from landed serfs to aristocratic gentlemen. Social mobility between classes was impossible. However, it was not uncommon for serf girls to become impregnated by landowners. Pushkin fathered a child with a servant girl on his family estate while in exile. Pushkin abandoned this girl, and when she died, he expressed in a poem no regret or interest in her or his child. On rare occasions, a landowner would marry a serf girl. But in most villages, the land owner's illegitimate children would live with the mother in poverty and would run about among the peasant children. However, for women, standards were inflexible and exacting. The slightest indiscretion could ruin the reputation of a young woman forever. A young woman writing a young man an innocent love letter was expressly forbidden. Public shaming of women accused of infidelity was not uncommon. Smearing pitch on a gate post of a home of an accused woman would invite public community ridicule and shame her forever. Even if the accusation had no basis in fact.
Tatyana faced a second problem. Young Russian women above twenty-five years old were considered by frantic parents as destined spinsters. Plus the availability of desirable suitors was limited by geography and class.
One fine day, Eugene agreed to accompany Lensky on a visit to the Larina household. Lensky was enamored with Olga Larina, a silly, flighty girl. Instantly, the family and community declared Eugene and older sister Tatyana Larina a perfect match. Tatyana was under tremendous family and social pressure to find a husband. Tatyana was willing to accept Eugene as a suitor. But was Eugene willing to accept Tatyana?
Occasionally Eugene would accompany Lensky when he visited Olga. Tatyana longed for these visits to see her imagined lover. On one occasion, when Eugene and Lensky left her home, Tatyana spied upon Eugene from her bedroom window. Tatyana passionately drew the initials E.O. in the frost on her windowpane. Tatyana loved Eugene!
Tatyana was a wholesome Russian girl, superstitious, she would not have refrained from casting salt over her shoulder to ward off the evil eye. She loved the outdoors and rustic life. Tatyana was also an impulsive, impatient, headstrong girl. When Eugene did not respond to her advances, Tatyana made a rash decision to send him a letter declaring her intention to serve as his faithful devoted wife, and she arranged a clandestine meeting with him in her family garden to discuss her proposition.
The letter and meeting were very dangerous for Tatyana if she were to be discovered.***
Before the meeting, Tatyana spent time in flights of fantasy, she would visit her favorite grove of trees and pick her favorite flowers. On the night of the engagement, when Eugene arrived, Tatyana raced from her bedroom down the stairs to the garden to speak to her lover before anyone could intervene. Eugene declined to offer Tatyana marriage, but Eugene did assure Tatyana he would extend her respectful "brotherly love." ****
Tatyana turned away from Eugene "in despair."
Vladimir Lensky was an idealist and a romantic with poetic aspirations. In contrast to Eugene, Lensky loved social gatherings and life. Lensky persuaded Eugene to attend a name day party for Tatyana, under the pretense there would be few guests. However, when they arrived at Tatyana's residence, every landowner in the district was in attendance at a grand ball. Eugene was extremely irritated by Lensky's ruse and vowed revenge. Losing all restraint, the impetuous Eugene taunted Lensky by forcing Olga to dance with him all evening. Lensky was so incensed he challenged Eugene to a duel. *****
Some may argue Eugene was a heartless beast who went to the duel with callous indifference as to the consequences of his actions. I disagree. I think Eugene did not care to fight and he would have found a plausible excuse to avoid the whole issue if it were not for the prompting of his second, Monsieur Guillot. Monsieur Gulliot is portrayed poetically as a retired military officer, a confused busybody, incompetent opportunist, drunkard, and mountebank. Eugene overslept, missing the scheduled rendezvous, and he would have probably dismissed the whole duel with ennui had not his second, Monsieur Guillot, arrived reminding him that he was late for the engagement. When Eugene killed Lensky he was horrified at this senseless act.
The specter of Lensky would haunt Eugene forever.
Eugene disappeared. He did not wish adieu to Tatyana, he simply ordered his carriage and horses one morning and vanished to parts unknown. Tatyana was abandoned without a thought. Alone and sorrowful Tatyana would take long walks until one day she arrived at Eugene's abandoned estate. There she conversed with the old caretaker who out of sympathy allowed Tatyana to access Eugene's study and to peruse Eugene's books. This was the pivotal moment for Tatyana. Tatyana diligently studied the underlined passages and marginal notes in Eugene's books to discern Eugene's soul. Also, the passage of time heals all wounds in love. Separated from Eugene her ardor cooled. Tatyana's feelings for Eugene had changed. Tatyana now knew the true Eugene. Tatyana saw her naive romantic idealism shatter like a pane of glass.******
After Eugene departed without a word after he killed Lensky in the duel, Tatyana stubbornly refused numerous proposals for her hand. But for poor Tatyana times were changing. Although Tatyana and Olga made numerous forays to Lensky's lonely grave to mourn Lensky shortly after the duel, over time memory fades and people are replaced. Tatyana's bosom companion Olga soon forgot poetic Lensky. Olga met and married a military man who was on assignment to a distant front. After Olga left with her husband, Tatyana faced terrible loneliness. Determined to do something, Tatyana's desperate mother decided to take Tatyana to Moscow to the matchmakers and marriage market. Tatyana was placed in a sleigh, driven to Moscow, shopped among balls, and eventually, she married a "fat general".** The idyllic lifestyle Tatyana had envisioned as a simple country housewife with Eugene had vanished forever.
Eugene traveled from one station to the next over countless versts for two years aimlessly wandering all over Russia. But one fine day he appeared at a social ball in Moscow. Victims of Eugene's old pranks were not happy to see him. But who did Eugene see dressed like a queen in her resplendent glory? A woman he had completely forgotten, Tatyana! Worse she was married to a fat general! When Eugene approached Tatyana she greeted him with majestic glacial reserve.
But instantly, Eugene fell madly in love with Tatyana!
The roles had been reversed. Tatyana was now indifferent to Eugene. When Eugene and Tatyana met by chance at receptions, Tatyana always met him with the same icy reserve. Eugene was so disconcerted he went into seclusion, a veritable recluse, he retired to his study reading books round the clock as a diversion. Did Eugene think Tatyana would thaw if he improved himself after a wasted youth of slothful dissipation? Eugene even penned two sincerely heartfelt letters to Tatyana. But these letters were never acknowledged by Tatyana with a reply. Nothing Eugene did improved his relationship with Tatyana. Tatyana was as cold and reserved as ever.
Driven to despair, Eugene was unable to endure another moment without Tatyana. Eugene threw down his book, ordered his coach and horses, and sped to Tatyana's home. Stealthily passing Tatyana's housekeeping staff, Eugene clamored up the stairs and burst into Tatyana's room. Tatyana was sitting on a chair sewing some lace. Eugene fell upon his knees and declared if Tatyana would forgo the "fat general" and renounce her unhappy artificial repugnant social life, he would take her to his country estate, provide for her welfare, and remain loyal to her forever. But Tatyana would not budge. Tatyana woefully explained even though she still loved him, and even though she did honestly prefer the homespun lifestyle she outlined in her letter, nevertheless, she would continue to live her current loveless life no matter how stifling.
Tatyana was convinced if she separated from her husband Eugene would regard her as a conquest, a trophy, to be bragged about in jest to all his deplorable friends and rivals all over Moscow. Tatyana simply did not trust Eugene. Tatyana thought Eugene's protestations of love poor acting and insincere attempts to manipulate her under false pretenses. Tatyana hated her husband and lifestyle but she would remain faithful all the same.
The "fat general"** makes an unexpected entry into the room ending the conversation.
Eugene and Tatyana are destined to live miserable lives forever apart.
Tatyana was wrong in her reasoning. I believe Eugene had abandoned his nefarious life and he had grown weary of his nomadic wanderings. Eugene did not return to Moscow by accident. I also believe the death of Lensky weighed like an albatross around Eugene's neck. The chance encounter with Tatyana gave Eugene a new sense of purpose in life. Eugene regretted his stupidly squandered years of dissipated youth.
But the reconciliation was not to be.
Afterward
Alexander Pushkin had intended a sequel for Eugene Onegin. But Alexander Pushkin was killed in a duel by Georges d'Anthes. Georges d'Anthes allegedly sent Alexander Pushkin an anonymous letter "Certificate of a Cuckold" implying that the court historian, Alexander Pushkin, had been made a cuckold by Czar Nicholas. There was abundant court rumor beautiful Natalia Pushkina and Czar Nicholas was entangled in a torrid affair. The insulting anonymous taunting letter prompted Alexander Pushkin to arrange a duel with Georges d'Anthes on January 27, 1837. The combatants approached each other in waist deep snow. Alexander Pushkin was shot in the hip, but Alexander Pushkin managed to return fire, the slug grazed Georges d'Anthes hand and knocked him off his feet. Despite the heroic effort of Konstantin Danzas, who performed on-site surgery, Alexander Pushkin died of infectious complications two days later. Alexander Pushkin was thirty-seven years old. It was reported that Alexander Pushkin from his sick bed looked at the books in his library and shouted: "goodbye old friends!" Thus, the Eugene Onegin sequel was never written. A great tragedy for Russia and world literature.
Footnotes
*Lays. Old Russian fables or songs were passed from father to son and recited or sung to audiences. Many lays cited Russian heroes and heroines. Many of these Russian heroes and heroines possessed supernatural powers. The content of the lays would evolve over time with additions and subtractions. For centuries, written language, except for a few clerics, was almost non-existent among the Russian people. The Lay of the Host of Igor was the first lay to be written down on paper in a Slavic language. Illustrations were added to the lay by cleric artists at unknown dates. It is important to note that in 1840, out of a Russian population of ten million souls, only one hundred and fifty thousand people could read. In certain aristocratic homes people could not speak or read Russian. Tatyana, when composing her letter, struggles to master fluent Russian grammar.
**In Russian literature generals are often lampooned derisively as bombastic, uncouth clowns.
***This concept was beautifully conveyed in opera when Tatyana began to compose her letter. She would write a line, stop in frustration, crumple up the sheet of paper, and toss it on the floor. A peasant servant enters the room and begins to gather up the discarded drafts of the letter, oblivious of the contents, or of the danger to Tatyana. The Peasant cannot read! To the peasant, the discarded drafts are nothing but useless rubbish to be removed and thrown out. The problem? If Tatyana's mother or nefarious vindictive people who could read discovered these drafts by accident, Tatyana could face hysterical recriminations, blackmail, or tragic social censure.
****In the poem and opera, Tatyana accuses Eugene of rejecting her in the country because of her rural upbringing and demeanor, but because of her newly acquired social polish and wealth, Eugene changed his mind and is now willing to accept her. Tatyana's bitter feelings are understandable, but her conclusion totally misses the point. Eugene did not care if Olga, Tatyana, or Catherine the Great wrote the letter. Eugene would have reacted to all of these women with the same aloof indifference. Social status meant nothing to Eugene. Eugene was so detached and jaded at the time from social anomie, he would have scoffed at the ardent desires of any woman without a pang of conscience, including the Czarina of Russia. And totally forget her next day. Eugene understood the tremendous pressure Tatyana was undergoing from her family to get married. After all, the community had matched Eugene and Tatyana and a wedding announcement was expected soon. Eugene demurred because he thought after attaining security, the good elements of marriage; love, beauty, would be replaced with self loathing and poisonous recriminations. A harebrained opinion Tatyana would make Eugene dearly pay for. But somewhere on the road, Eugene faced an existential crisis, thinking about the duel and Vladimir Lensky. Eugene wanted some relief from his pointless social malaise. A wife and family life suddenly seemed to be a better option than aimlessly wandering about Russia from one dirty station to the next. Eugene offered to take Tatyana away from her pointless social suffering and he had the means to make her happy. Tatyana refused because of the books she read, she did not understand the metamorphic change in Eugene. Pushkin could have turned Eugene Onegin into Anna Karenina, the general could have refused to give Tatyana a divorce, and the poem could have devolved into a long psychological dissertation of Tatyana and the brutal Russian process of obtaining a divorce for a woman against the wishes of her husband. But for Tatyana one intolerable situation would have been exchanged for another, with no net gain. Or Tatyana could have said "yes" to Eugene, "and they lived happily ever after," which would have destroyed the purpose of the story. Pushkin left the audience in agony over the fate of Eugene and Tatyana. This is why Eugene Onegin, "a novel in verse" will be acted out in operatic plays forever.
*****Opera, as a time saving device, always has Lensky challenge Eugene to the duel during the ball in front of Tatyana and Olga. But in the poem, Olga and Tatyana have no clue. Lensky pays one last charming visit to Olga, while Tatyana spends a sleepless night jealously angry at Eugene. Unexpected news of the death of Lensky would come as a complete surprise to both Olga and Tatyana.
******A Russian language professor once told me it is important to note that Tatyana read all of Eugene's books. Tatyana was not satisfied with a casual examination of Eugene's soul. Tatyana wanted to know everything about Eugene. Tatyana was very disappointed with what she found. Tatyana could not forgive Eugene for his amorphous indifference to life or for his callous disregard to her needs and interests. Tatyana was furious Eugene abandoned her. Tatyana wanted a husband who would take care of her, her children, and the village. Tatyana did not want a detached absentee landowner who places the enterprise into the hands of a unscrupulous overseer who would ruthlessly savage the peasants and swindle Eugene out of revenue by under reporting crop yields. Tatyana did not want to live with a dandified Oblomov in Moscow while the village decayed into dust. I think Tatyana developed a psychological aversion to Eugene no amount of begging or pleading could rectify. This may explain why Tatyana was so cold and unfeeling in Moscow, and why she rejected Eugene's entreaties point blank.
