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A review by atelierofbooks
Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin
5.0
A lot of reviews of Eugene Onegin are actually about the translations and Pushkin's meter, etc. So I'm not going to write about any of that.
Because what a beautiful story. Heartbreaking and soaked in emotion. Not at all heavy and mired in philosophical musings like many Russian classics, but somehow more powerful for it.
I can't decide if I want to shake Eugene or give him a hug. He's charming in a way, because there's an honesty in his bad manners. He's also self aware to an extent. But how miserable is it to be chronically dissaffected and bored? I kept thinking, "Why are you so consigned to unhappiness? Why are you so determined to be jaded?" It struck me as deeply foolish and deeply sad.
You get the sense that he's robbing himself of a full life. And then as the story unfolds you see that this self-centeredness not only robs him, but other (good, decent, innocent) people as well. Why does it take tragedy and loss to shock you back to life?
I wasn't sure how I felt about Tatiana until the end. She was different. Bookish and honest. But I never felt like she was more than a will-o-wisp girl who had cast herself as the lead in a Romantic era novel. I was afraid she would wither away from heartbreak Ophelia style. But wow. That last speech rejecting Eugene...it was like bellows breathing fire into this girl and suddenly she wasn't even Pushkin's creation, she was a whole person.
Tolstoy wrote Anna Karenina inspired by what would have happened had Tatiana made a different choice. So all things considered, I think she did the right thing. I did want her and Eugene to be happy, I'm just not convinced it could ever happen by being together. Especially given all of Pushkin's asides about love and marriage eventually turning into passionless routine.
I admire Tatiana's integrity so much and appreciate that she flouts the conventions given by male authors to women in classic literature (I'm thinking about Madame Bovarys and Bathsheba Everdeens, et al). We're human beings after all, not animals who chase after one whim or desire damn the consequences. What a thing it is to care for someone, to choose to be loyal, to be resilient, to be at peace. Where's your constancy, Eugene?
Because what a beautiful story. Heartbreaking and soaked in emotion. Not at all heavy and mired in philosophical musings like many Russian classics, but somehow more powerful for it.
I can't decide if I want to shake Eugene or give him a hug. He's charming in a way, because there's an honesty in his bad manners. He's also self aware to an extent. But how miserable is it to be chronically dissaffected and bored? I kept thinking, "Why are you so consigned to unhappiness? Why are you so determined to be jaded?" It struck me as deeply foolish and deeply sad.
You get the sense that he's robbing himself of a full life. And then as the story unfolds you see that this self-centeredness not only robs him, but other (good, decent, innocent) people as well. Why does it take tragedy and loss to shock you back to life?
I wasn't sure how I felt about Tatiana until the end. She was different. Bookish and honest. But I never felt like she was more than a will-o-wisp girl who had cast herself as the lead in a Romantic era novel. I was afraid she would wither away from heartbreak Ophelia style. But wow. That last speech rejecting Eugene...it was like bellows breathing fire into this girl and suddenly she wasn't even Pushkin's creation, she was a whole person.
Tolstoy wrote Anna Karenina inspired by what would have happened had Tatiana made a different choice. So all things considered, I think she did the right thing. I did want her and Eugene to be happy, I'm just not convinced it could ever happen by being together. Especially given all of Pushkin's asides about love and marriage eventually turning into passionless routine.
I admire Tatiana's integrity so much and appreciate that she flouts the conventions given by male authors to women in classic literature (I'm thinking about Madame Bovarys and Bathsheba Everdeens, et al). We're human beings after all, not animals who chase after one whim or desire damn the consequences. What a thing it is to care for someone, to choose to be loyal, to be resilient, to be at peace. Where's your constancy, Eugene?