This “novel in verse” (as it is subtitled), Evgenii [or Yevgeny] Onegin [Eugene Onegin], Alexander Pushkin’s masterpiece and the highest achievement of Russian poetry, was written over an eight-year period (1823-31) in the poet’s prime. It tells the story of a bored man-about-town, Eugene Onegin, who retires to the country on inheriting his uncle’s estate. There he meets and apparently befriends a young neighbour, Vladimir Lensky, who is in love with a local girl, named Olga Larina. Her elder sister, Tatiana, falls in love with Onegin and naïvely offers herself to him in a long letter, but he is not interested, and rejects her approach. Invited to Tatiana’s name-…
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