Eugene Onegin: A Novel in Verse: Commentary (Vol. 2) / Edition 2

by Aleksandr Pushkin, Vladimir Nabokov

Overview

Vladimir Nabokov's famous and brilliant commentary on Pushkin's Eugene Onegin

When Vladimir Nabokov first published his controversial translation of Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin in 1964, the great majority of the edition was taken up by Nabokov’s witty and exhaustive commentary. Presented here in its own volume, the commentary is a unique scholarly masterwork by one of the twentieth century’s greatest writers—a work that Nabokov biographer Brian Boyd calls “the most detailed commentary ever made on” Onegin and “indispensable to all serious students of Pushkin’s masterpiece.”

In his commentary, Nabokov seeks to illuminate every possible nuance of this nineteenth-century classic. He explains obscurities, traces literary influences, relates Onegin to Pushkin’s other work, and in a characteristically entertaining manner dwells on a host of interesting details relevant to the poem and the Russia it depicts. Nabokov also provides translations of lines and stanzas deleted by the censor or by Pushkin himself, variants from Pushkin’s notebooks, fragments of a continuation called “Onegin’s Journey,” the unfinished and unpublished “Chapter Ten,” other continuations, and an index.

A work of astonishing erudition and passion, Nabokov’s commentary is a landmark in the history of literary scholarship and in the understanding and appreciation of the greatest work of Russia’s national poet.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691019048
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	01/21/1991
Series:	Bollingen Series , #113
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	1056
Sales rank:	599,514
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) was a Russian-American writer whose novels in English include Lolita, Pale Fire, and Ada. He also wrote poetry, short stories, translations from Russian, and a memoir, Speak, Memory.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“A better commentary on a poem has never been written.”—John Bayley, The Observer

“The best [Onegin commentary] in any language.”—Clarence Brown, Partisan Review

Editorial Reviews

“A better commentary on a poem has never been written.”—John Bayley, The Observer


“The best [Onegin commentary] in any language.”—Clarence Brown, Partisan Review

From the Publisher

Nabokov's translation and commentary, taken together, can best be considered as a sui generis work of art—perhaps his ultimate masterpiece.

Slavic and East European Journal - J. Thomas Shaw

Nabokov's translation and commentary, taken together, can best be considered as a sui generis work of art—perhaps his ultimate masterpiece.
— J. Thomas Shaw

Slavic and East European Journal

For this reader the pure gold of Nabokov's Commentary consists in his many observations on the language of Pushkin and on poetic language in general. … Hidden refinements of Pushkin's art are revealed with enthusiasm. If one has the patience to absorb the contents of the stupendous Commentary, no matter how well he may know the poem, he will reread Eugene Onegin with a new wonder and surprise, and with a greatly increased appreciation of its manifold poetic beauties.
— The New York Times Book Review, 1964

Ernest J. Simmons