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->''"Tatiana fell in love Onegin. Tatiana comes Onegin and says 'Onegin, I love you!'. Onegin says 'No!'. Time passed. Tatiana grew up, became big, fat, beautiful. Onegin fell in love Tatiana. Onegin comes Tatiana, says 'Tatiana, I love you!' Tatiana says: 'Will you look at this guy!'"''
-->-- '''A none-too-educated man from a Soviet ethnic minority''', giving a surprisingly accurate summary to the novel.

''Eugene Onegin'' is a [[NarrativePoem novel in verse]] by Creator/AlexanderPushkin, generally regarded as the greatest work of Russian poetry. First published in serial form between 1825 and 1832, the first complete edition came out in 1833. The novel has been translated into many languages many times (and new modern translations are being made) and it belongs among the most classic books of Russian literature.

Pushkin's story is set in 1820s Russia, both in the city and the countryside, and it follows the fates of one Eugene Onegin, a Russian aristocrat and dandy who is [[RichBoredom bored with life]]. He became a literary (stereo)type called a superfluous man, and he has served as a model for many subsequent literary heroes of Russian literature. The novel also portrays a wide cast of other characters, usually ''very'' archetypically Russian.

The story is told by a narrator who is basically a fictionalized version of Pushkin's public persona. His tone is sophisticated and worldly, and he intimately addresses his readers who are treated with many adorable and snarky {{Shout Out}}s that expand nicely on its relatively simple plot and characters. The tone of the book manages to be engaging, thrilling, exciting, hilarious, sad, bittersweet and utterly tragic. The work is rightly praised for its narrative virtuosity and master poetic form.

Music/PyotrIlyichTchaikovsky adapted the novel as an opera. In 1958, the opera version was made into a film. [[FilmOfTheBook A film adaptation of the novel]] starring Creator/RalphFiennes and Creator/LivTyler was made in 1999.

An audiobook narrated by Creator/StephenFry is available [[http://fryreadsonegin.com/ as a free download]].

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!!''Eugene Onegin'' provides examples of the following tropes:
* AerithAndBob: For her time, Tatyana had a name uncommon for a noblewoman. Pushkin lampshades this at one point, calling himself self-willed for putting such a name into a novel. Meanwhile, the rest of the characters have fairly unremarkable first names.
-> “Tatyana was her name... I own it,\\
self-willed it may be just the same;\\
but it's the first time you'll have known it,\\
a novel graced with such a name.”\\

* AgeLift: In the novel, it's hinted very clearly that Tatiana's husband is in his thirties at most. The opera makes him elderly.
* AuthorAppeal: Pushkin is famous for having a foot fetish, and one digression in the work is devoted to praising [[LegFocus women's legs]].
* BreakingTheFourthWall: The narrator constantly addresses his readers as if he could talk with them.
* ByronicHero: Like many Romantic poets of his time, Pushkin was deeply influenced by Byron in his earlier works, and many of his lyrical and narrative poems contain Byronic imagery. Later, he playfully lampshaded, parodied and deconstructed the concept in ''Eugene Onegin'', and never looked back.
* CharacterTitle: Eugene Onegin is the book's main character.
* TheDandy: Onegin is explicitly described as this.
* DeadpanSnarker:
** The narrator. He has sneering comments about everybody and everything.
** Eugene Onegin. Could you expect anything else from a young intelligent aristocrat who is bored with life?
* DuelToTheDeath: Lensky and Onegin. It doesn't end well for [[spoiler: Lensky]] and his friend is extremely shattered, too.
* FeigningIntelligence: Early in the work, the narrator [[DamningWithFaintPraise sarcastically praises Oneigin's erudition]], describing how Onegin was (typically of Russian aristocrats of the time) fluent in French and learned enough Latin that he could impress people with tags and quotations, but was really largely ignorant of literature Latin and otherwise. PlayedWith, since Onegin is actually intelligent, and is good with economics. He just thought that literature is boring. However, it was a part of standard education during that historical period, so he had to fake it.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: Lensky and Onegin became friends out of ''boredom'' but they were very close.
* TheIngenue: Tatiana Larina is definitely this in the beginning in both the novel and the opera. She starts off as a naive romantic at heart who is deeply in love with Onegin. Several years later, when they meet again, Tatiana is now an elegant woman married to Prince Gremin, and while she still loves Onegin, she's more mature and she refuses to break off her marriage to be with Onegin.
* JealousRomanticWitness: Lensky's fiancee Olga cheerfully responds to Onegin's flirtations right in front of Lensky himself. It leads to Lensky challenging Onegin to a duel.
* LemonyNarrator: The narrator [[BreakingTheFourthWall directly addresses the reader]], expresses his opinion about the characters and the story, snarks, hangs lampshades, goes off on tangents, ets.
* LoveLetter: Tatiana's letter to Onegin, in which she boldly confesses her love, is one of the most famous love letters in literature.
* MeaningfulName: Onegin and Lensky have their last names derived from rivers Onega and Lena. It was a common practice among Russian nobility to have a name related to a landmark they own. Since no nobleman was rich enough to own a whole river, that was done in order to not offend someone accidentally.
* MrImagination:
** Lensky is a naive dreamer of a poet.
** Tatyana is Miss Imagination: Shy and quiet, a great reader and dreams about perfect love.
* MoodDissonance: The book is written in a light-hearted, witty style, with a lot of jokes, but the story itself is pretty depressing.
* NarrativePoem: A novel in verse.
* OppositesAttract: Onegin and Lensky are very different but they became friends quite quickly. The narrator states it was because they were bored and because there was not anybody else around.
* SeductionAsOneUpmanship: Onegin got angry at Lensky for the boring time spent at a party, and flirted with his beloved Olga all evening to annoy him. As a result, [[spoiler:Lensky challenged him to a DuelToTheDeath, where Onegin killed him - and regretted it all his life]].
* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: Lensky and Onegin. Lensky is a sensitive and rather ineffectual poet in contrast to Onegin's BookDumb womanizer and man-about-town.
* StealthParody: Eugene Onegin parodies the ByronicHero.
* StylisticSuck: Lenskiy's poem is a ClicheStorm.
* ShoutOut: The book is full of them. Pushkin liberally name drops both famous and obscure real-life persons who ran in the same social and literary circles he did. Additionally, every chapter starts with a carefully chosen motto from either Russian or western literature, and there are many others in the story. For example, the narrator mentions which books Tatyana read and enjoyed.
* ShoutOutToShakespeare: When Lensky returns home, he visits Larin's grave. He exclaims: [[Theatre/{{Hamlet}} "Poor Yorick!"]], and writes a poem about it.
* WrongGenreSavvy: Tatiana initially sees life as a romantic novel and Onegin as its hero.
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