Onegin

About the Book

Perhaps it’s hard to believe, but so profoundly beloved in Russia is Alexander Pushkin’s novel-in-verse Eugene Onegin that many Russians memorize all 5000 of its rhyming lines. American educator Marilyn Stone has created a radically new version of Onegin, distilling it down to just a quarter of its length, yet virtuosically maintaining the original’s precise poetic form throughout. Her partner-in-rhyme, Korean artist Soonran Youn, has complemented each page of verse with an exquisite pen-and-ink drawing, perfectly matching the sparkling poetry. Onegin is a magic lantern offering fascinating images of nineteenthcentury Russia as the backdrop for young Eugene’s journey, which starts off with his lackluster life of luxury in Petersburg, then moves out to the countryside, following his larks and his loves as well as his trials,tribulations, and tragedies. We vicariously accompany Gene to brilliant balls and ballets, see him inheriting an old uncle’s country estate where “a brook like silver ribbon curls”, then overhear him befriending his romantic young poet-neighbor Vladimir Lensky, and eavesdrop on his sad rendez-vous with fragile young Tatyana in a moonlit arbor, where he breaks her heart. While spinning his tale, Pushkin himself steps in now and then, schmoozing directly with the reader — sometimes commenting on his characters and the story line they inhabit, sometimes offering sardonic or humorous views of Russia’s roads, feminine feet, and poetry’s fickle fads, sometimes making poignant or cynical observations on life. Faithfully echoing the original poetry, Marilyn Stone’s verse flows naturally and smoothly from one stanza to the next, while Soonran Yoon’s graceful illustrations make the tale even more vivid. Here, then, is an opportunity for Americans to pick up the magic lantern that is Onegin, thereby acquiring a unique view of old Russia, absorbing an enchanting poetic form devised by Pushkin, and coming to know the Russians’ all-time favorite work of literature.

About the Author

Marilyn Stone grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana, and in 1980 moved to Bloomington, where she ran a preschool called Sunshine Montessori in her house for several years, and completed a degree in education at Indiana University.  She was expecting to teach for many more years, but in 1996 a serious car accident put an end to that plan.  As is sometimes the case, however, misfortune created a new opportunity.  She had already done some writing, and her friend Douglas Hofstadter, an Indiana University professor, was a great admirer of it.  In fact, on his suggestion, in 2001, the two of them co-wrote a novel called Kate and Casey (which will soon be published).  Shortly thereafter, Hofstadter suggested that his friend might enjoy the challenge of composing a highly condensed version of Russian poet Alexander Pushkin’s novel-in-verse Eugene Onegin, of which he had recently published a full-length verse translation.   Marilyn Stone was quickly hooked on this quirky challenge, and over the course of three years, she devotedly studied and retyped six different English-language verse translations of Eugene Onegin, all dating from earlier decades.  Then, proceeding one stanza at a time, she was able to distill a concise shared essence from these six translations, thereby creating her miniature version.  Her resulting Onegin, exactly one quarter the original’s length, faithfully exploits the “Onegin stanza” — Pushkin’s specially devised  fourteen-line poetic medium — from start to finish.  

Facing each Onegin stanza in this volume is an illustration by Soonran Youn, who at the time was an IU graduate student in fine art from Korea.  She enthusiastically delved into the novel and created roughly 100 drawings complementing the text.  Soonran Youn’s imaginative pen-and-ink drawings are exquisite, featuring beautifully flowing lines and subtle hints of color.  And thus, Alexander Pushkin’s marvelous verses, Marilyn Stone’s bubbling miniaturizations, Soonran Youn’s refined artistic sensibility, and Douglas Hofstadter’s kind encouragement came together and resulted in this most unusual book.