Eugene Onegin, Alexander Pushkin [best books to read for teens TXT] 📗

Pushkin’s day and rummage biographical dictionaries for the dates of their births and deaths. Yet the poet’s prime was but fifty years ago, and had he lived to a ripe old age he would have been amongst us still. He was four years younger than the late Mr. Thomas Carlyle. The decadence of Richardson’s popularity amongst his countrymen is a fact familiar to all. ↩

Referring to Richardson’s Clarissa Harlowe, La Nouvelle Heloise, and Madame de Stael’s Delphine. ↩

Melmoth, a romance by Maturin, and Jean Sbogar, by Ch. Nodier. The Vampire, a tale published in 1819, was erroneously attributed to Lord Byron. Salathiel; The Eternal Jew, a romance by Geo. Croly. ↩

A young married couple amongst Russian peasants reside in the house of the bridegroom’s father till the tiaglo, or family circle is broken up by his death. ↩

Marriages amongst Russian serfs used formerly to take place at ridiculously early ages. Haxthausen asserts that strong hearty peasant women were to be seen at work in the fields with their infant husbands in their arms. The inducement lay in the fact that the tiaglo (see note 41) received an additional lot of the communal land for every male added to its number, though this could have formed an inducement in the southern and fertile provinces of Russia only, as it is believed that agriculture in the north is so unremunerative that land has often to be forced upon the peasants, in order that the taxes, for which the whole Commune is responsible to Government, may be paid. The abuse of early marriages was regulated by Tsar Nicholas. ↩

Courtships were not unfrequently carried on in the larger villages, which alone could support such an individual, by means of a svakha, or matchmaker. In Russia unmarried girls wear their hair in a single long plait or tail, kossa; the married women, on the other hand, in two, which are twisted into the headgear. ↩

It is thus that I am compelled to render a female garment not known, so far as I am aware, to Western Europe. It is called by the natives doushegreika, that is to say, “warmer of the soul”⁠—in French, chaufferette de l’âme. It is a species of thick pelisse worn over the “sarafan,” or gown. ↩

A Russian annotator complains that the poet has mutilated Dante’s famous line. ↩

It is well known that until the reign of the late Tsar French was the language of the Russian court and of Russian fashionable society. It should be borne in mind that at the time this poem was written literary warfare more or less open was being waged between two hostile schools of Russian men of letters. These consisted of the “Arzamass,” or French school, to which Pushkin himself together with his uncle Vassili Pushkin the “Nestor of the Arzamass” belonged, and their opponents who devoted themselves to the cultivation of the vernacular. ↩

The Blago-Namièrenni, or Well-Wisher, was an inferior Russian newspaper of the day, much scoffed at by contemporaries. The editor once excused himself for some gross error by pleading that he had been “on the loose.” ↩

Hippolyte Bogdanovitch⁠—b. 1743, d. 1803⁠—though possessing considerable poetical talent was like many other Russian authors more remarkable for successful imitation than for original genius. His most remarkable production is Dóushenka, “The Darling,” a composition somewhat in the style of La Fontaine’s Psyche. Its merit consists in graceful phraseology, and a strong pervading sense of humour. ↩

Parny⁠—a French poet of the era of the first Napoleon, b. 1753, d. 1814. Introduced to the aged Voltaire during his last visit to Paris, the patriarch laid his hands upon the youth’s head and exclaimed: “Mon cher Tibulle.” He is chiefly known for his erotic poetry which attracted the affectionate regard of the youthful Pushkin when a student at the Lyceum. We regret to add that, having accepted a pension from Napoleon, Parny forthwith proceeded to damage his literary reputation by inditing an “epic” poem entitled “Goddam! Goddam! par un French⁠—Dog.” It is descriptive of the approaching conquest of Britain by Napoleon, and treats the embryo enterprise as if already conducted to a successful conclusion and become matter of history. A good account of the bard and his creations will be found in the Saturday Review of the 2nd August 1879. ↩

Evgeny Baratynski, a contemporary of Pushkin and a lyric poet of some originality and talent. The “Feasts” is a short brilliant poem in praise of conviviality. Pushkin is therein praised as the best of companions “beside the bottle.” ↩

The samovar, i.e. “self-boiler,” is merely an urn for hot water having a fire in the centre. We may observe a similar contrivance in our own old-fashioned tea-urns which are provided with a receptacle for a red-hot iron cylinder in centre. The teapot is usually placed on the top of the samovar. ↩

Mikhailovskoe, 1825. ↩

Count Tolstoy, a celebrated artist who subsequently became Vice-President of the Academy of Arts at St. Petersburg. Baratynski, see Note 50. ↩

Yazykoff, a poet contemporary with Pushkin. He was an author of promise⁠—unfulfilled. ↩

Stanza left unfinished by the author. ↩

The Abbe de Pradt: b. 1759, d. 1837. A political pamphleteer of the French Revolution: was at first an émigré, but made his peace with Napoleon and was appointed Archbishop of Malines. ↩

Mikhailovskoe, 1825⁠–⁠6. ↩

The kibitka, properly speaking, whether on wheels or runners,