The great Russian poet, dramatist, and prose writer Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837) took a decade (1823-1833) to write his "magnum
opus," the "novel-in-verse" Eugene Onegin. He published it serially in parts, writing it in an iambic tetrameter in unique
cantos, now called the "Onegin cantos" or the "Pushkin stanzas." The cantos consist of fourteen lines with a aBaBccDDeFFeGG rhyme scheme. The central plot, as translator Walter Arndt describes it in one of his edition prefaces, "concerned, as (Vladimir) Nabokov has put it, with the ''afflictions, affections, and fortunes of three young men--Onegin, the bitter lean fop; Lensky, the tempermental minor poet; and Pushkin, their friend--and three young ladies--Tatyana, Olga, and Pushkin''s muse''--There are three settings (the country estates, Moscow, St. Petersburg)...and the author plays a triple role--that of narrator, or an acquaintance of the hero, and of a character in the poem." Onegin, a jaded young dandy from the big city of St. Petersburg, travels to the country to ingratiate himself into the affection of a dying uncle. There he meets the idealistic and romantic poet Lensky, who introduces him to the sisters Larina--Olga, with whom Lensky has strong affections, and Olga''s younger sister Tatyana. Tatyana falls in
love with Onegin. She writes him a letter pledging her love to him and telling him that she "is his." But Onegin condescendingly rejects this offer of her love as the infatuation of an underage girl. Instead, angered by Lensky''s dragging him to Olga''s nameday party, he asks Olga to dance and flirts with her, much to Lensky''s displeasure. Lensky challenges his friend to a duel with pistols. Seconds are appointed and, opportunities for reconciliation scorned, the duel takes place. Onegin kills Lensky and leaves the country estates to take a distant military assignment. Tatyana has disturbed dreams of Onegin and visits his uncle''s estate to scan the books that he was reading so as to judge his character. Several years pass, and the scene changes to Moscow, to which Onegin has come to attend the most prominent balls and interact with the leaders of old Russian society. He sees the most beautiful woman, who now captures the attention of all and is central to society''s whirl, and realizes that it is that same Tatyana whose love he had once turned away. Now she is married to an aged general. At first Tatyana pretends that she does not recognize the now mature Onegin, but then treats him with politeness, but cooly. But he writes to her passionately now and asks to see her in private, away from her husband, with whom he briefly speaks. At last he contrives to stand in her presence away from others'' eyes and presents to her the opportunity to renew their past love. Tatyana admits (James Falen translation here of the famous canto 47 from Chapter 8) that "''happiness was ours...so nearly!/ It came so close!...but now my fate/ Has been decreed...I love you (why should I dissemble?);/But I am now another''s wife,/And I''ll be faithful all my life''." Calling upon Onegin''s "manly honor," she sends him away. So marital fidelity, with which the poet Pushkin struggled, is a central theme of Eugene Onegin, but there are many other themes and interesting digressions from differing narrative perspectives. Every Russian has a favorite canto or cantos and many can recite parts of this novel-length poem from memory (Tatyana''s letter, for example, is very widely known). The great Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) made an opera from Eugene Onegin that was first performed in 1879. Tchaikovsky''s opera ptheme of Onegin''s relationship with Tatyana, but it elevates the character of Tatyana''s husband, General Gremin, who sings the famous bass aria "All ages submit to love," telling the suitor of his wife, "Onegin, I''ll not begin to dissemble/Madly I love Tatyana." Both Pushkin''s novel-in-verse and Tchaikovsky''s opera are enduring classics.