Eugene Onegin: A Novel in Verse by Alexander Pushkin

Eugene Onegin is a novel in verse set in the Russian gentry world of the early nineteenth century. Onegin is a bored, fashionable young man from St Petersburg who inherits a country estate and meets the poet Lensky and the thoughtful, romantic Tatyana. Her sincere feelings and his cool response begin a story of love, pride, friendship and missed chances. The narrator chats, digresses and jokes along the way, giving a vivid picture of Russian society. Written in a special fourteen-line stanza, it is the great classic of Russian poetry and inspired Tchaikovsky's opera.