G n woe from mind characteristic. Characteristics of the heroes of the comedy “Woe from Wit” by Griboyedov: images of characters, characters (list)

Eugene Onegin" - a novel written by Pushkin, is one of the cult Russian works that has gained worldwide fame and has been translated into many languages. This is also one of the novels written in poetic form, which gives it a special style and relevance to the work of a wide range of readers, who often quote passages by heart, remembering them from school.

Alexander Sergeevich spent about seven years to fully complete the narrative line. He begins work on the first stanzas at the beginning of May 23, settling in the territory of Chisinau and finishes the last stanzas of the work on September 25, 1830 in Boldin.

ChapterI

Pushkin begins to create a poetic work in Chisinau on May 9, 1823. Finishes it in the same year on October 22 in Odessa. Then the author revised what he had written, so the chapter was published only in 1825, and the second edition was published at the end of March 1829, when the book was actually finished.

ChapterII

The poet begins the second chapter as soon as the first is completed. By November 3, the first 17 stanzas were written, and on December 8 it was completed and included 39. In 1824, the author revised the chapter and added new stanzas; it was released only in 1826, but with a special indication of when it was written. In 1830 it was published in another edition.

ChapterIII

Pushkin begins writing the passage on February 8, 1824 in the resort of Odessa, and by June he managed to finish writing to the place where Tatyana writes a letter to her lover. He created the remaining part in his beloved Mikhailovsky and was completed on October 2, 1824; it was published in mid-October of the twenty-seventh year.

ChapterIV

In October 1824, while in Mikhailovskoye, the poet begins to write another chapter, which stretches over a couple of years due to other creative ideas. This happened due to the fact that during this time the author worked on such works as “Boris Godunov” and “Count Nikulin”. The author finished work on the chapter on January 6, 1826, at which moment the author added the last stanza.

ChapterV

The author begins the fifth chapter a few days before he finished the previous one. But writing took time, since it was created with significant breaks in creativity. On November 22, 1826, Alexander Sergeevich completed this part of the story, and after that it was edited several times until the finished version was obtained.

The edition was combined with the previous part of the narrative and printed on the last day of January 1828.

ChapterVI

Alexander Sergeevich began to create an excerpt from the work while in Mikhailovsky throughout 1826. Exact dates there is no writing, since the original manuscripts have not survived. According to assumptions, he completed it in August 1827, and in 1828 it was published for a wide range of readers.

ChapterVII

According to critics, the seventh chapter was started immediately after the sixth was written. So around August 1827. The narrative itself was written with long breaks in creativity, and by mid-February 1828 only 12 stanzas had been created. The chapter was completed in Malinniki, and then was published as a book, but only by mid-March 1830.

ChapterVIII

It began on December 24, 1829 and was completed only at the end of September 1830 on the territory of Boldin. On October 5, 1831, on the territory of Tsarskoe Selo, Pushkin writes an excerpt from Onegin’s written address to his beloved. The entire chapter was published in 1832, and on the cover there is an inscription: “The last chapter of Eugene Onegin.”

Chapter about Onegin's journey

Part of the narrative was not published in the whole novel, but was written, according to the author’s assumption, he wanted to place it in eighth place immediately after the seventh chapter, and lead to the death of Onegin in the work.

ChapterX(drafts)

Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin planned to release part of the work, but it was never published, and only isolated excerpts and drafts have reached the modern reader. Presumably the author was going to send the main character on a long journey through the Caucasus, where he was supposed to be killed.

But the sad ending did not reach the reader; it was already quite tragic, since Eugene himself late realized the feelings that were strong in him, and his beloved had already managed to get married.

A distinctive feature is that all chapters were published separately, and only then the book was published in full. The society of that time was eagerly awaiting the release of the next excerpts in order to find out how the fate of Eugene Onegin, who could not see sincere feelings during. Some of the parts never saw the light of day, such as chapter ten. Readers can only guess what the fate of the main characters turned out to be after the end of the book narrative.

The history of the creation of Eugene Onegin briefly

"Eugene Onegin" is the first work written in realistic direction and the only example of a novel in verse in Russian literature. To this day, it occupies a vital place in the multifaceted work of the great Russian poet and writer Alexander Pushkin. The process of writing the work from the first to the last stanzas of the novel took many years. During these years, some of the most important events in the history of the country took place. At the same time, Pushkin was “reborn” into the first realist writer of Russian literature, and the previous view of reality was destroyed. This, of course, is reflected in the novel. The plans and tasks of Alexander Pushkin as an author are changing, compositional structure and the plan of “Onegin” take on a different look, the characters and fates of its heroes lose a certain part of their romanticism.

Alexander Sergeevich worked on the novel for more than seven years. The whole soul of the poet came to life in the work. According to the poet himself, the novel became “the fruit of the mind of cold observations and the heart of sorrowful notes.”

Alexander Sergeevich began the process of creating the novel in the spring of 1823 in Chisinau, while in exile. Despite the obvious influence of romanticism, the work is written in a realistic style. The novel was supposed to consist of nine chapters, but ended up with eight. Fearing long-term persecution by the authorities, the poet destroyed fragments of the chapter “Onegin's Travels” that could become provocative.

The novel in verse was published in editions. This is called a "chapter edition". Excerpts were published in magazines. Readers were eagerly awaiting the release of the new chapter. And each of them made a splash in society.

The first complete edition was published only in 1833. The last lifetime publication occurred in January 1837 and contained the author's corrections and typos. Subsequent editions were subjected to severe criticism and censorship. Names were changed and spelling was unified.

From the plot of the novel you can glean almost everything you need about the era in which the characters are located: characters, conversations, interests, fashion. The author very clearly reflected the life of Russia of that period, everyday life. The atmosphere of the existence of the heroes of the novel is also true. Sometimes the novel is called historical, since this work almost thoroughly conveys the era in which the main plot unfolds. Thus, the famous Russian literary critic Vissarion Grigorievich Belinsky wrote: “First of all, in Onegin we see a poetically reproduced picture of Russian society, taken in one of most interesting moments its development" Based on this statement, it can be assumed that the critic views the work as a historical poem. At the same time, he noted that there is not a single historical figure in the novel. Belinsky believed that the novel is a genuine encyclopedia of Russian life and truly folk work.

The novel is a unique work of world literature. The entire volume of the work is written in an unusual “Onegin stanza”, excluding the letters of Evgeniy and Tatiana. Fourteen lines of iambic tetrameter were created by Alexander Sergeevich specifically for writing a novel in verse. The unique combination of stanzas became distinctive feature works, and subsequently in the “Onegin stanza” Mikhail Lermontov wrote the poem “Tambov Treasurer” in 1839. Analysis of Platonov’s story The Little Soldier essay

“The Little Soldier” is a famous work written by the Soviet writer Platonov. The story tells about wartime and how difficult it was to live then. The title of the work can be divided into two parts.

More than seven years (1823-1830) and published it in separate chapters: the first chapter of the novel appeared as a separate book in 1825, the second in 1826, the third in 1827, at the beginning of 1828 the fourth and fifth chapters appeared, and in March 1828 - the sixth, the seventh was published in March 1830 and the last - the eighth - was published in 1832. The original concept of the novel changed during this time. The general outline of the novel included nine chapters.

However, in the first complete edition of Eugene Onegin (1833), Pushkin included eight chapters and “Excerpts from Onegin’s Journey.” In the preface, the poet noted that “he released an entire chapter from his novel, in which Onegin’s journey through Russia was described.” Thus, in comparison with the original plan of the novel, the place of the eighth chapter was taken by the ninth “Big Light”, and the eighth chapter “Journey” turned into “Excerpts from Onegin’s Journey”. The stanzas of “Travel” were written at different times: the description of Odessa dates back to 1825, the first five stanzas of the published text were written in the fall of 1829, and the last ones on September 18, 1830 in Boldino, where Pushkin completed work on the novel.

In addition, at the same time in Boldino, Pushkin wrote the tenth chapter of “Eugene Onegin” - a kind of historical chronicle of the pre-Decembrist era. However, Pushkin burned the manuscript of the tenth chapter, and only separate excerpts from the drafts have reached us (the poet encrypted the draft text, and literary scholars managed to decipher incomplete 16 stanzas). The tenth chapter is not included in the canonical text of the novel.

Having completed work on “Eugene Onegin” on September 26, 1830, the poet noted the main dates of work:

"Onegin"

Part one

III Part two

VI Part Three

Preface

Handra (written in Chisinau, Odessa, 1823)

Poet (Odessa, 1824)

Young lady (Odessa, Mikhailov., 1824)

Village (Mikhailovskoe, 1825)

Name Day (Mikhail, 1825, 1826)

Duel (Mikhail, 1826)

Moscow (Mikhail, P/B 1827)

Wandering (Moscow, Boldin., 1829)

Big light (Boldino, 1830). 7 years 4 months 17 days.

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  The narrative part of the novel is built according to a clear and harmonious plan. The first and second chapters are a wide-ranging exposition: the author in them (continued) Having defined the novel in the dedication to P. A. Pletnev as"собранье пестрых глав", Пушкин подчеркивает еще одну ключевую черту !} realistic work: novel Pushkin worked very fruitfully in Boldino. He wrote about four hundred poems, the 8th, 9th and 10th chapters of “Eugene Onegin” but the artistic features of the novel. The originality of its genre. When Pushkin decided to write the novel "Eugene Onegin", he had only the first of the romantic novels published.
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"Eugene Onegin"- a novel in verse, written in 1823-1831, one of the most significant works Russian literature.

"Eugene Onegin" history of creation

Pushkin worked on this novel for over seven years, from 1823 to 1831. The novel was, according to the poet, the “fruit” of “the mind, cold observations and the heart of sorrowful notes.” Pushkin called working on it a feat - of all his creative heritage only “Boris Godunov” he characterized with the same word. The work shows, against a broad background of pictures of Russian life, dramatic fate the best people noble intelligentsia.

Pushkin began work on Onegin in May 1823 in Chisinau, during his exile. The author abandoned romanticism as a leading creative method and started writing realistic novel in verse, although in the first chapters the influence of romanticism is still noticeable. Initially, it was assumed that the novel in verse would consist of 9 chapters, but Pushkin subsequently reworked its structure, leaving only 8 chapters. He excluded the chapter “Onegin's Travels” from the main text of the work, including its fragments as an appendix to the main text. There was a fragment of this chapter, where, according to some sources, it was described how Onegin sees military settlements near the Odessa pier, and then there were comments and judgments, in some places in an overly harsh tone. Fearing possible persecution by the authorities, Pushkin destroyed this fragment of Onegin's Travels.

The novel covers events from 1819 to 1825: from the foreign campaigns of the Russian army after the defeat of Napoleon to the Decembrist uprising. These were the years of development of Russian society, the reign of Alexander I. The plot of the novel is simple and well known, in the center of it - love story. In general, the novel “Eugene Onegin” reflected the events of the first quarter of the 19th century, that is, the time of creation and the time of action of the novel approximately coincide.

Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin created a novel in verse similar to Lord Byron’s poem “Don Juan”. Having defined the novel as “a collection colorful chapters", Pushkin highlights one of the features of this work: the novel is, as it were, “opened” in time (each chapter could be the last, but can also have a continuation), thereby drawing the readers’ attention to the independence and integrity of each chapter. The novel has truly become an encyclopedia of Russian life in the 1820s, since the breadth of topics covered in it, the detail of everyday life, the multi-plot composition, the depth of description of the characters’ characters, and now reliably demonstrate to readers the features of life of that era.

This is what gave V. G. Belinsky the basis to conclude in his article “Eugene Onegin”:

“Onegin can be called an encyclopedia of Russian life and a highly folk work.”

From the novel, as from the encyclopedia, you can learn almost everything about the era: how they dressed, what was in fashion, what people valued most, what they talked about, what interests they lived. “Eugene Onegin” reflects the whole of Russian life. Briefly, but quite clearly, the author showed a fortress village, lordly Moscow, secular St. Petersburg. Pushkin truthfully depicted the environment in which the main characters of his novel, Tatyana Larina and Evgeny Onegin, live, and reproduced the atmosphere of the city noble salons in which Onegin spent his youth.

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 that has become an archetype 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

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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 both poets and writers (Pushkin, Zhukovsky, Batyushkov, Vyazemsky, Kavelin), and politicians. 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...”). Absent in the novel traditional signs 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

The poetic form helps Pushkin get by without an exciting plot (“...now I’m not writing 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 the 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 focused on the middle style and colloquial speech educated society, was open to new European borrowings. The second united high and low styles and relied, on the one hand, on book-church literature and odic literature. tradition XVIII century, on the other - on folk literature. Giving preference to one or the other linguistic means, 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

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Richard Westall. George Gordon Byron. 1813 National Portrait Gallery, London

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What influenced her?

"Eugene Onegin" was based on the broadest European cultural tradition from French psychological prose of the 17th-18th centuries to modern 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 typical examples Russian irocomic poems - “Elisha, or the Irritated Bacchus” by Vasily Maykov, “Dangerous Neighbor” by Vasily Pushkin. ⁠ And burlesque In burlesque poetry comic effect is based on the fact that they speak in rude and vulgar language epic heroes and gods. If initially irocomic poetry, where the low was spoken of in a high syllable, was opposed to burlesque, then to XVIII 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 the novels A Sentimental Journey through 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 larger number doesn’t understand him.” 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 published the magazine “Russian Bulletin”. ⁠ , 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 literary process 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” is 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 ​​of 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 poetically true to reality picture of Russian society as it is known 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 Russian word“I spent four months in the Peter and Paul Fortress. ⁠ in the brilliant parody “Eugene Onegin of Our Time” (1865), where main character is represented by 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 Amateurs 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 as 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 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. ⁠ . TO end of the 19th century century, a gymnasium canon is being formed, highlighting the “main” works of art of the 1820s-40s: in this series, “Woe from Wit”, “Eugene Onegin”, “Hero of Our Time” and “Dead Souls” occupy an obligatory place. Soviet school programs in this regard, they 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 everything most important works Turgenev, to whom, in fact, this term belongs (“Diary of an Extra Man,” 1850).

“Eugene Onegin” is the first Russian meta-novel that created a special tradition. In the novel “What to do?” 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 emphasizes expressiveness and flexibility 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 thereby remind 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 “The 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 setting of the novel changes 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. "Steppe" landowners - satirical characters - are endowed with speaking 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 St. Petersburg big world- 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 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 of early Baratynsky is the 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 named after. 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 a 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 the Patriotic War had just ended 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 known 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 this noble lady really only 22 years old at the time of the final date?

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 publications 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 last lifetime edition (1837) do we find the familiar architectonics: General form the structure of the text 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 likes (cf. 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 separate publication chapters four and five have been 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 turn the history of the creation of the text into 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 full 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 the 20th century. (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. Research poetic language 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 little boy to make it easier for the horse to carry it. 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. ⁠

What comments to “Eugene Onegin” are most famous?

The first experience of scientific commentary on “Eugene Onegin” was undertaken back in the century before last: in 1877, the writer Anna Lachinova (1832-1914) published under the pseudonym A. Volsky two editions of “Explanations and Notes to the Novel by A. S. Pushkin “Eugene Onegin”. From monographic comments to Onegin, published in the 20th century, highest value have three - Brodsky, Nabokov and Lotman.

The most famous of them is the commentary by Yuri Lotman (1922-1993), first published as a separate book in 1980. The book consists of two parts. The first - "Essay on the life of the nobility of Onegin's time" - is a coherent presentation of the norms and rules that regulated the worldview and everyday behavior of a nobleman of Pushkin's time. The second part is the actual commentary, following the text from stanza to stanza and from chapter to chapter. In addition to explaining incomprehensible words and realities, Lotman pays attention to the literary background of the novel (the metaliterary polemics that spill out onto its pages and the various quotes with which it is permeated), and also interprets the behavior of the characters, revealing in their words and actions a dramatic clash of points of view and behavioral norms .

Thus, Lotman shows that Tatyana’s conversation with the nanny is comic qui pro quo "Who instead of whom." Latin expression meaning confusion, misunderstanding, when one thing is mistaken for another. In the theater, this technique is used to create a comic situation. ⁠ in which interlocutors belonging to two different sociocultural groups use the words “love” and “passion” in completely different meanings(for the nanny, “love” is adultery, for Tatyana it is a romantic feeling). The commentator convincingly demonstrates that, according to the author's plan, Onegin killed Lensky unintentionally, and readers familiar with dueling practice understand this from the details of the story. If Onegin wanted to shoot his friend, he would have chosen a completely different dueling strategy (Lotman tells which one).

How did Onegin end? - Because Pushkin got married. Married Pushkin could still write a letter to Onegin, but could not continue the romance

Anna Akhmatova

Lotman's immediate predecessor in the field under discussion was Nikolai Brodsky (1881-1951). The first, trial edition of his commentary was published in 1932, the last lifetime edition was published in 1950, then the book was published posthumously several times, remaining the main textbook for the study of Onegin in universities and pedagogical institutes until the publication of Lotman’s commentary.

Brodsky's text bears deep traces vulgar sociologism Within the framework of Marxist methodology, a simplified, dogmatic interpretation of the text, which is understood as a literal illustration of political and economic ideas. ⁠ . Just look at the explanation for the word “bolivar”: “A hat (with large brims, a flared cylinder at the top) in honor of a figure in the national liberation movement in South America, Simona Bolivar (1783-1830), was fashionable in that environment that followed political events, which sympathized with the struggle for the independence of the small people" 43 Brodsky N. L. “Eugene Onegin”: A Novel by A. S. Pushkin. Teacher's manual. M.: Education, 1964. P. 68-69. ⁠ . Sometimes Brodsky's commentary suffers from an overly straightforward interpretation of certain passages. For example, about the line “The jealous whisper of fashionable wives,” he seriously writes: “With a casually thrown image of a “fashionable wife,” Pushkin emphasized the disintegration of family foundations in... secular circle" 44 Brodsky N. L. “Eugene Onegin”: A Novel by A. S. Pushkin. Teacher's manual. M.: Education, 1964. P. 90. ⁠ .

Nevertheless, Nabokov, who made fun of Brodsky’s strained interpretations and depressingly clumsy style, was, of course, not entirely right in calling him an “ignorant compiler” - “uninformed.” compiler" 44 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. 2. P. 246. ⁠ . If we exclude the predictable “Sovietisms”, which can be considered inevitable signs of the times, in Brodsky’s book one can find a fairly good real-life and historical-cultural commentary on the text of the novel.

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

The four-volume work of Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) was published in the first edition in 1964, the second (corrected) in 1975. The first volume is occupied with an interlinear translation of Onegin into English, the second and third with an English commentary, the fourth with indexes and a reprint of the Russian text. Nabokov's commentary was translated into Russian late; The Russian translations of the commentary published in 1998-1999 (there are two of them) can hardly be considered successful.

Not only does Nabokov’s commentary exceed the volume of work of other commentators, Nabokov’s translation itself also performs commentary functions, interpreting certain words and expressions in the text of Eugene Onegin. For example, all commentators, except Nabokov, explain the meaning of the adjective in the line “Discharged in his wheelchair.” “Discharged” means “discharged from abroad.” This word has been replaced in modern language by a new word with the same meaning; now the borrowed “imported” is used instead. Nabokov does not explain anything, but simply translates: “imported.”

The volume of literary quotations identified by Nabokov and the literary and memoir parallels he provided to the text of the novel is not surpassed by any of the previous or subsequent commentators, and this is not surprising: Nabokov felt himself like no one else at home From English - “like home.” ⁠ not only in Russian literature, but also in European (especially French and English).

The discrepancy between personality and its lifestyle is the basis of the novel

Valentin Nepomnyashchiy

Finally, Nabokov was the only commentator on Onegin in the 20th century who knew the life of a Russian noble estate not from hearsay, but from his own experience, and easily understood much of what Soviet philologists did not catch. Unfortunately, the impressive volume of Nabokov’s commentary is created not only due to useful and necessary information, but also thanks to a lot of information that has the most distant relation to the commented work 45 Chukovsky K. I. Onegin in a foreign land // Chukovsky K. I. High art. M.: Soviet writer, 1988. pp. 337-341. ⁠ . But it's still very interesting to read!

In addition to the comments, the modern reader can find explanations of incomprehensible words and expressions in the “Dictionary of the Pushkin Language” (first edition - the turn of the 1950-60s; additions - 1982; consolidated edition - 2000). Prominent linguists and Pushkin scholars who had previously prepared a “large academic” edition of Pushkin participated in the creation of the dictionary: Viktor Vinogradov, Grigory Vinokur, Boris Tomashevsky, Sergei Bondi. In addition to the listed reference books, there are many special historical-literary and historical-linguistic works, the bibliography of which alone takes up a hefty volume.

Why don't they always help? Because the differences between our language and the language of the early 19th century are not point-blank, but cross-cutting, and with every decade they only grow, like “cultural layers” on city streets. No commentary can exhaust the text, but even the minimum necessary for understanding commentary on the texts of Pushkin’s era should already be line-by-line (and maybe even word-by-word) and multifaceted (real commentary, historical-linguistic, historical-literary, poetry, textual). Such a commentary was not created even for “Eugene Onegin”.