The Project Gutenberg eBook, Eugene Oneguine [Onegin], by Aleksandr
Sergeevich Pushkin, Translated by Henry Spalding

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Title: Eugene Oneguine [Onegin]
A Romance of Russian Life in Verse

Author: Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin

Release Date: December 27, 2007 [eBook #23997]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EUGENE ONEGUINE [ONEGIN]***

E-text prepared by Stephen Leary <www.stephenleary.com>

EUGENE ONEGUINE [Onegin]:

A Romance of Russian Life in Verse

by

ALEXANDER PUSHKIN

Translated from the Russian by Lieut.-Col. [Henry] Spalding

London
Macmillan and Co.
1881

PREFACE

Eugene Oneguine, the chief poetical work of Russia's greatest poet,
having been translated into all the principal languages of Europe
except our own, I hope that this version may prove an acceptable
contribution to literature. Tastes are various in matters of poetry,
but the present work possesses a more solid claim to attention in
the series of faithful pictures it offers of Russian life and manners.
If these be compared with Mr. Wallace's book on Russia, it will be
seen that social life in that empire still preserves many of the
characteristics which distinguished it half a century ago--the period
of the first publication of the latter cantos of this poem.

Many references will be found in it to our own country and its
literature. Russian poets have carefully plagiarized the English--
notably Joukovski. Pushkin, however, was no plagiarist, though
undoubtedly his mind was greatly influenced by the genius of Byron--
more especially in the earliest part of his career. Indeed, as will
be remarked in the following pages, he scarcely makes an effort to
disguise this fact.

The biographical sketch is of course a mere outline. I did not think
a longer one advisable, as memoirs do not usually excite much interest
till the subjects of them are pretty well known. In the "notes" I
have endeavored to elucidate a somewhat obscure subject. Some of the
poet's allusions remain enigmatical to the present day. The point of
each sarcasm naturally passed out of mind together with