ABOUT A.S. PUSHKIN'S NOVEL "EUGENE ONEGIN".

TARGET:

- to acquaint students with the conflicting reviews of Pushkin's contemporaries and critics of the nineteenth century about the novel "Eugene Onegin" and its characters; - improve the skills of analyzing a literary-critical article, the ability to compare different points of view and develop your own point of view on a work of art in accordance with the author's position and historical era; - to develop students' ideas about the historical conditionality of the literary process.

Criticism is a special literary genre dedicated to the analysis of literary, artistic, scientific, and other works.

Criticism - the definition of attitude to the subject (sympathetic or negative), the constant correlation of the work with life, the expansion, deepening of our understanding of the work by the power of the talent of the critic.

VISSARION GRIGORYEVICH BELINSKY

Russian thinker, writer, literary critic, publicist.

Speaking about the novel by A. S. Pushkin "Eugene Onegin" as a whole, Belinsky notes its historicism in the reproduced picture of Russian society. The critic considers "Eugene Onegin" a historical poem, although there is not a single historical person among its heroes.

“Pushkin took this life as it is, without diverting from it only its poetic moments; took it with all the coldness, with all its prose and vulgarity ... - notes Belinsky. - "Onegin" is a poetically true picture of Russian society in a certain era. "Onegin" can be called an encyclopedia of Russian life and an eminently folk work.

According to Belinsky, in the person of Onegin, Lensky and Tatyana Pushkin portrayed Russian society.

"Works of Alexander Pushkin" 1845

EVGENY ABRAMOVICH BARATYNSKY

Poet, representative of the Pushkin galaxy.

We have released two more Onegin songs. Everyone talks about them in his own way: some praise, others scold and everyone reads ... Most do not understand him. They are looking for a romantic plot, they are looking for the ordinary and, of course, they do not find it. The high poetic simplicity of your creation seems to them the poverty of fiction, they do not notice that old and new Russia, life in all its changes, is passing before their eyes.

From a letter from Baratynsky to Pushkin.

DMITRY IVANOVICH PISAREV

Russian publicist and literary critic, revolutionary, democrat.

« frivolous beauty singer"

and its place is not on the desk

modern worker, but in a dusty

antique dealer's office.

Article "Pushkin and Belinsky" (1865)

FEDOR MIKHAILOVICH DOSTOEVSKY

One of the most significant and famous Russian writers and thinkers in the world.

In Onegin, in this immortal and inaccessible poem of his, Pushkin was a great folk writer, as no one had ever been before him.

In Pushkin, there is precisely something that is really related to the people, reaching in it almost to some kind of simple-hearted tenderness.

It can be positively said; there would be no Pushkin, there would be no talents that followed him.

From the speech of F.M. Dostoevsky at the opening of the monument to Pushkin (1880) G.)

Pushkin's novel "Eugene Onegin" is one of the most amazing works in Russian and world literature. For more than a century and a half, a huge amount of literature of a critical and scientific nature has accumulated, and to this day the novel is surrounded by very contradictory assessments of critics and literary scholars. Pushkin looks at the world and at himself from above spiritual ideal of man. In his creation of the picture of the world, Pushkin is a humanist. So, as rightly noted by V.S. Nepomniachtchi in his book Pushkin. The Russian picture of the world”, “the question of the phenomenon of Pushkin fits into the larger context of the spiritual destinies of mankind and the role of Russia in them. There are words about Pushkin as a Russian man "in two hundred years" not a divination, but a call transmitted to us through Gogol and requiring reflection now, when it is vital"

Kedrov K. "Eugene Onegin" in the system of images of world literature / In the world of Pushkin. M., 1974, p. 120

The work of the poet, from the moment of its publication to the present, is subjected to serious study and comprehension not only by readers, but also by professional critics.

Since the publication of the novel was carried out as the poet wrote the next chapter, the first reviews of critics periodically changed depending on the assessment of the work as a whole.

The main qualitative complex analysis of the work is carried out by the domestic critic Belinsky V.G., who in his treatise gives detailed characteristics of the novel, calling it an encyclopedia of Russian life and evaluating the main characters as people placed by life in certain conditions. The critic highly appreciates the work depicting the Russian society of the modern period, considering the human revival of the protagonist in the person of Onegin as possible, and also highlighting the image of the main character Tatyana, emphasizing the integrity, unity of her life, deep, loving nature. The reviewer brings to the consciousness of readers the poet's achievement of freedom-loving artistic forms, moving away from romantic creativity to a realistic presentation.

Reviews about the novel are also given by many contemporaries of the poet, such as Herzen A.I., Baratynsky E.A., Dobrolyubov N.A., Dostoevsky F.M., emphasizing the revolutionary mood of the work, revealing the concept of a superfluous person in society. However, from the point of view of Dostoevsky F.M. the image of Onegin looks like a tragic hero who feels like an outcast in the existing life.

A positive characterization of the novel is expressed by Goncharov I.A., paying special attention to the description by the poet of two types of representatives of Russian women, sisters Tatyana and Olga, revealing their opposite girlish natures in the form of a passive expression of reality and, on the other hand, the ability to originality and reasonable self-awareness.

From the point of view of the poets belonging to the Decembrist movement, in the person of Bestuzhev A.A., Ryleev K.F., who pay tribute to the great poetic talent of the author, they planned to see in the image of the main character an exceptional person, different from the crowd, and not a cold dandy.

Reviewer Kireevsky I.V. systematically considers the development of Pushkin's creativity and singles out the novel as the beginning of the newest stage of Russian poetry, distinguished by picturesqueness, carelessness, special thoughtfulness, poetic simplicity and expressiveness, however, the critic does not realize the main meaning of the work, as well as the nature of the main characters.

A negative attitude towards the work is expressed by Pisarev D.I., who enters into a critical dispute with Belinsky V.G., who is a supporter of pure art and an adherent of nihilist views, who considers Onegin a worthless person, incapable of movement and development, and equates the image of Tatiana to that spoiled by romantic books essence. Having ridiculed the heroes of the work, the critic tries to prove the discrepancy visible only to him between the presentation of the sublime content of the novel in a reduced form. However, the literary critic is forced to recognize the great style of Pushkin's forms of Russian versification.

Among the indignant critics who scold the poet for numerous digressions, for the incompletely revealed character of Onegin, as well as for his careless attitude to the Russian language, Bulgarin F.V., who adheres to conservative literary views and is a representative of the ruling power, is especially distinguished. The critic does not accept a work written in the style of realism, demanding from literature an exalted character and charm, not wanting to plunge into the details of describing the life of an ordinary people.

In the Soviet period, literary critics also closely study the work, giving an artistic assessment of the poetic idea and the means of its expression. Among the critical works, the works of A.G. Zeitlin and G.A. Gukovsky deserve special attention. and Lotman Yu.M., who studied the novel as a new literary genre and deciphered for modern readers the meanings of obscure expressions and phrases, as well as the author's hidden hint. From the point of view of Yu.M. Lotman, the novel is a complex and paradoxical creation in the form of an organic world, while light verse and familiar content demonstrate the creation of a new genre that differs from prose novels and romantic poems. The reviewer points to the use by the poet of a huge number of unknown words, quotations, phraseological units

Particularly noteworthy is the article by N.A. Polevoy, who evaluates the novel as a living, simple Pushkin’s creation, distinguished by the signs of a joke poem, while being a true national work, in which the features inherent in the Russian people are clearly traced. But at the same time, the critic negatively accepts the first chapters of the novel, pointing out the details in the descriptions and focusing on the lack of an important idea and meaning.

Many reviewers distinguish the work as a folk creation, but some of them find signs of an unsuccessful imitation of Byron in the content of the novel, not recognizing the original author's reading, which portrayed the protagonist not as an ideal, but as a living human image.

According to Baratynsky E.A., each reader understands the novel from his own point of view and, despite different reviews, the work has a huge number of people who want to read it.

Multifaceted criticism considers the presence of unresolved contradictions in it as a distinctive feature of the novel, as well as numerous dark places that give the work an unfinished philosophy.

Despite numerous critical articles containing both flattering, positive reviews and negative criticism, all literary critics unanimously evaluate the poet's work as a work of historical and national value for Russian poetry, expressing truly Russian features of the folk character.

Option 2

Pushkin worked on the novel "Eugene Onegin" for eight whole years. In letters to Vyazemsky, Alexander Sergeevich with a share of irony reports that writing an ordinary novel in prose and writing a novel in verse is a diabolical difference. This novel was written in a difficult time for Pushkin - this work symbolizes a kind of transition from romanticism in the work of the great writer to realism.

"Eugene Onegin" was a very readable work at the time. Reviews about him were very peculiar - the novel was scolded and praised, a flurry of criticism fell upon the work, but all of Pushkin's contemporaries read them. The society discussed the literary heroes from "Eugene Onegin" and argued over the interpretation of the images of the characters.

The protagonist himself seemed to readers in different ways. Some people did not see anything outstanding in the image of Eugene Onegin. For example, Bulgarin said that he met people like Onegin in St. Petersburg "in batches." Not each of the critics could fully imbue the spirit of the novel of that time and appreciate the literary find of A. S. Pushkin, as well as delve into the peculiarities of writing this literary work. Pushkin wrote this work with deliberate carelessness, which caused not admiration, but censure of some critics. Some of the critics and writers, for example, Polevoy and Mitskevich, immediately convicted Pushkin of "Byronism" and attributed the novel to a "literary capriccio" - a playful poem. Belinsky, on the other hand, considered the novel a modern tragedy and called it a sad work.

The meaning of the novel "Eugene Onegin" was revealed to the reader gradually. Each new generation, unlike Pushkin's contemporaries, saw in the image of the protagonist more and more facets of his character. For the history of literary types and for the history of world literature, the novel "Eugene Onegin" is of tremendous importance. It opens the veil for our contemporaries and they can at least partially understand the worldview of the greatest poet, having studied in detail the characteristics of the heroes of the novel and analyzing their actions. In the novel "Eugene Onegin" one can see a reflection of the life of a separate era - R.V. Ivanov-Rozumnik writes in his article in 1909.

I. V. Kireevsky characterized the protagonist of the work of the same name as "an ordinary and completely insignificant creature." However, Tatyana's character was praised by Kireevsky and named the best creation of the poet.

Pushkin, when writing the novel "Eugene Onegin", used a literary device that was not very clear to his contemporaries. The descriptions and dialogues of the critics of that time were considered too simple and “folk”, almost bordering on primitive turns. The deliberate lightness and carelessness of presentation in the novel and the poet's mixing of literary words with folk caused righteous anger among his contemporaries. However, all contemporaries read "Eugene Onegin" and the heroes of this work did not leave anyone indifferent contemplators of all the passions described in the novel.

This fact proves the skill of the great writer to evoke the reader's ability to empathize with the heroes of his novel. The images of Onegin and Tatiana did not leave without a gamut of emotions both Pushkin's contemporaries and readers of different eras, including today.

Some interesting essays

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  In our time, when industry is developing at a tremendous speed, nature protection is an integral part of life. Cities are growing, and with them the number of factories, various equipment and a lot of things that pollute the environment are increasing.

• Composition based on the painting of the Pacific Stork Grade 9 description

  Ivan Antonovich Tikhy, a unique Russian artist who painted the painting "Storks", she still surprises all art critics with her grandeur and naturalness

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  Becoming a high school swimmer requires hard training. You should definitely not skip training, do this sport as often as possible. It is worth setting a goal for yourself, what you want, and go towards this goal.

• Famusov and Molchalin in the comedy Woe from Wit Griboyedov essay

  Griboedov's work Woe from Wit is filled with various vivid images, metaphors, characters, and other things that make the work more interesting for the reader.

• Romashov in the story Kuprin's duel image and characterization essay

  Yuri Alekseevich Romashov is the protagonist of the famous story of the Russian writer and translator Alexei Ivanovich Kuprin "Duel".

General remarks

"Eugene Onegin" is considered the first realistic novel in Russian literature. The principle of historicism is traced in the novel: the reflection of the era in its tendencies and patterns, and typical characters are depicted in typical circumstances (the features that bring him closer to the environment are emphasized in the image of Onegin, all Larins are also typical characters). The novel has a number of original features, and first of all, an original genre self-determination - "a novel in verse". Eugene Onegin was conceived as a satire on romantic works. The novel combines two components: the first is Byron's traditions (Pushkin himself admitted that he conceived something "like Byron's Don Juan"), this can be seen in the form of the work, for example, in composition. The second is innovation. The innovation lies in the fact that Pushkin wrote a national, original novel about Russia and for Russia. If the spirit of Byron's works is extremely subjective, then in Pushkin the emphasis is shifted to an objective depiction of the surrounding reality. There is not one individualist hero in the novel, but two main characters. The image of the author in Pushkin is independent and does not merge with the image of the protagonist. Although the author is close to Onegin in spirit, in many ways his view is the view of an outside observer, wise by life experience.

Plot Features

The plot is built on the principle of a mirror composition: Tatyana meets Onegin, falls in love with him, writes a letter, Onegin meets her and "reads morals"; then the same thing happens to Onegin: he meets Tatiana, falls in love with her, writes a letter, Tatiana refuses him.

Belinsky on Pushkin's novel (articles 8 and 9)

About the novel in general

1. Historicism

“First of all, in Onegin we see a poetically reproduced picture of Russian society, taken at one of the most interesting moments of its development. From this point of view, "Eugene Onegin" is a historical poem in the full sense of the word, although there is not a single historical person among its heroes.

2. Nationality

“Few will agree with you, and for many it will seem strange if you say that the first truly national Russian poem in verse was and is Pushkin’s “Eugene Onegin” and that there are more nationalities in it than in any other folk Russian composition. .. If not everyone recognizes it as national, this is because we have long had a strange opinion that a Russian in a tailcoat or a Russian in a corset is no longer Russian and that the Russian spirit makes itself felt only where there is a zipun, bast shoes, and a sivuha and sauerkraut.

“The reason for this difficulty lies in the fact that we always take the form for the essence, and the fashionable suit for Europeanism; in other words; in the fact that the people are confused with the common people and they think that whoever does not belong to the common people, that is, who drinks champagne, and not foam, and walks in a tailcoat, and not in a gloomy caftan, should be portrayed either as a Frenchman or as a Spaniard like an Englishman."

“The secret of the nationality of every people lies not in its clothes and cuisine, but in its, so to speak, manner of understanding things.”

“Every nation has two philosophies: one is scientific, bookish, solemn and festive, the other is daily, domestic, everyday ... And it was the deep knowledge of this everyday philosophy that made Onegin and Woe from Wit original works and purely Russian,

“True nationality (says Gogol) does not consist in the description of a sundress, but in the very spirit of the people; a poet can even be national when he describes a completely foreign world, but looks at it through the eyes of his national element, through the eyes of the whole people, when he feels and speaks in such a way that it seems to his compatriots that they themselves feel and say it.

“The deviations made by the poet from the story, his appeal to himself are full of extraordinary grace, sincerity, feeling, intelligence, sharpness; the personality of the poet in them is so loving, so humane. In his poem, he was able to touch on so many things, to hint about so many things, that he belongs exclusively to the world of Russian nature, to the world of Russian society! "Onegin" can be called an encyclopedia of Russian life and an eminently folk work.

3. Realism

“He (Pushkin) took this life as it is, without diverting from it only its poetic moments; took it with all the coldness, with all its prose and vulgarity. "Onegin" is a poetically true picture of Russian society in a certain era.

“In the person of Onegin, Lensky and Tatyana, Pushkin depicted Russian society in one of the phases of its formation, its development, and with what truth, with what fidelity, how fully and artistically he portrayed it!”

4. Significance for the subsequent literary process

“Together with Griboedov’s contemporary work of genius, Woe from Wit, Pushkin’s verse novel laid a solid foundation for new Russian poetry, new Russian literature. Prior to these two works ... Russian poets were not yet able to be poets, singing objects alien to Russian reality, and almost did not know how to be poets, taking up the image of the world of Russian life.

“Together with Pushkin's Onegin ... Woe from Wit ... laid the foundation for subsequent literature, was the school from which Lermontov and Gogol came out. Without Onegin, A Hero of Our Time would have been impossible, just as without Onegin and Woe from Wit, Gogol would not have felt ready to portray Russian reality.

Scientific research of the novel "Eugene Onegin"

Roman A.S. Pushkin "Eugene Onegin" is one of the most inexhaustible and profound works of Russian literature, which is confirmed by a huge amount of research by modern literary critics on the form, genre of the novel in verse, the essence of the idea and its embodiment, the ideological, aesthetic, moral and philosophical problems of the novel. These studies were initiated by the critical works of the 19th and 20th centuries. “The author of the first philosophical review of our literature” I.V. Kireevsky was one of the first to give a serious critical assessment of Pushkin's work, despite the fact that, in his opinion, "it is difficult ... to find a general expression for the nature of his poetry, which took on so many different forms." However, the critic spoke quite unambiguously about the novel in verse "Eugene Onegin": "Its distinctive features are: picturesqueness, some kind of carelessness, some kind of special thoughtfulness, and, finally, something inexpressible, understandable only to the Russian heart." The critic also spoke about the poet's desire for originality, which, according to him, is found in the work. In conclusion, speaking of “the strong influence that the poet has on his compatriots”, Kireevsky noted in this regard “another important quality in the nature of his poetry is correspondence with his time” .

The question of the national and world significance of Pushkin was first raised by V.G. Belinsky. "Pushkin was the perfect expression of his time ... the world of his day, but the Russian world, but Russian humanity." In the article "Literary Dreams", the critic revealed the main issue of literary life - the problem of nationality in literature. Nationality, which consists in freedom from alien influences and "in the fidelity of the image of the pictures of Russian life", acts, as Belinsky rightly points out, as the criterion of Pushkin's national significance. In the fundamental work of Belinsky - a cycle of 11 articles under the general title "Works of Alexander Pushkin" (1843-1846) - there is a well-known formula about "Eugene Onegin" as "an encyclopedia of Russian life and a highly folk work."

Critic A.V. Druzhinin in his article “A.S. Pushkin and the last edition of his works” (1855) approached Pushkin’s work “from the standpoint of the “absolute” principles of art, its “eternal” principles, and naturally, the supra-historical meaning of Pushkin’s creativity, which is already far beyond of his time". “Onegin,” the critic wrote, “on the whole seems to be one of the most entertaining novels ever thought of by the most highly gifted writers.” Druzhinin noted such features of the novel as "slimness", "masterful combination of the story with lyricism", "surprise denouement" and "influence on the reader's curiosity". A. Grigoriev, the author of the famous formula “Pushkin is our everything,” believed that “the best that was said about Pushkin” in contemporary criticism “was reflected in Druzhinin’s articles.” He himself rightly spoke of the poet as "the only complete sketch of our people's personality", "a nugget". Pushkin, in his opinion, is “our original type, which has already measured itself with other European types, passed in consciousness those phases of development that they went through, but fraternized with them in consciousness.” The nature of the Russian genius, according to A. Grigoriev, responded to everything "to the best of the Russian soul." This statement anticipated the words of F.M. Dostoevsky about Pushkin's "worldwide responsiveness": "He shares this ... the main ability of our nationality with our people, and that, most importantly, he is a people's poet" .

Criticism of Russian symbolism saw in Pushkin a prophet, a spiritual standard and a moral guide for the artist. “Pushkin ... with a sensitive ear foresaw the future trembling of our modern soul,” wrote V. Bryusov about the genius-prophet and, on the basis of this, put forward the main requirement for the modern poet: offering a “sacred sacrifice” “not only with poems, but every hour of his life, every feeling ... " "Creativity consists not only in rattling with an absent-minded hand on the lyre, but also in the painful work of translating images into words," critics of the early 20th century F. Sologub and Ivanov-Razumnik rightly wrote about the enormous work done by Pushkin during the creation novel in verse "Eugene Onegin".

The history of commenting on the novel "Eugene Onegin" is interesting. After all, as soon as Pushkin's novel stepped over its time and became the property of a new readership, much in it required additional explanation. In the 20th century, the first post-revolutionary editions of Pushkin's works generally refused to comment on Eugene Onegin. Separate editions of "Eugene Onegin" appeared, provided with brief comments by G.O. Vinokur and B.O. Tomashevsky and designed mainly for a wide range of readers. We note the essential importance of brief footnotes and explanatory articles to the school edition of "Eugene Onegin", carried out by S.M. Bondy. These comments also had an impact on the scientific understanding of "Eugene Onegin". In 1932, a new commentary was created by N.L. Brodsky. On the goals and objectives of his book "Eugene Onegin". Roman A.S. Pushkin" Brodsky wrote in the preface to the third edition, stating that the task arose to describe the time that determined the fate and psychology of the main characters of the novel, to reveal the circle of ideas of the author himself in a constantly changing reality. Book N.L. Brodsky was addressed, in particular, to the language teacher, whose level of knowledge about "Eugene Onegin" depends on the presentation of his students. In this sense, the significance of Brodsky's work is very great. However, recognizing Pushkin's novel as the pinnacle of literature of the 19th century, Brodsky considers it primarily as a work that has gone forever into the past and belongs to him.

In 1978, "Eugene Onegin" came out with comments by A.E. Tarkhov. The goal set by the author is to analyze the creative history of the novel in unity with the evolution of the hero. Despite the fact that the author pays attention mainly to general textual comments, rather than particulars, his work provides readers of Pushkin's novel with detailed and based on the previous scientific tradition material for understanding "Eugene Onegin".
One of the most significant events in the modern interpretation of "Eugene Onegin" was the publication in 1980 of Yu.M. Lotman, addressed, like the work of N. L. Brodsky, to the teacher's audience. In the book "Eugene Onegin". Commentary” includes “Essay on the noble life of the Onegin era” - a valuable tool for studying not only “Eugene Onegin”, but in general all Russian literature of Pushkin's time. The construction of the book is designed, as the researcher himself notes, for parallel reading with Pushkin's text. Yu.M. Lotman is a deep textological work. The commentary gives two types of explanations: textual, intertextual and conceptual (the author gives historical-literary, stylistic, philosophical interpretations). The task set by the researcher - "to bring the reader closer to the semantic life of the text" - is solved in this book at the highest level.

Foreign authors have repeatedly turned to commenting on "Eugene Onegin". Among the most famous can be called an extensive commentary by V.V. Nabokov, characterized by detailed explanations of numerous details of the text of Pushkin's novel. Here, an important place is occupied by lengthy excursions into the history of literature and culture, versification, as well as the translator's notes and comparisons with previous attempts to translate "Eugene Onegin" into English. The writer explains the realities that are incomprehensible primarily to a foreign-language reader. There are also some costs in his work: excessively detailed arguments, sometimes too sharp polemics with predecessors. Nevertheless, this commentary is a significant achievement of Western Pushkin studies - primarily in terms of the thoroughness and scope of commenting on the text of the novel by A.
In 1999, the Moscow publishing house "Russian Way" published "Onegin Encyclopedia" in 2 volumes, in the creation of which such researchers as N.I. Mikhailova, V.A. Koshelev, N.M. Fedorova, V.A. Viktorovich and others. The encyclopedia differs from previously created commentaries on Eugene Onegin by a special principle of organization: it combines articles of different genres (small studies, literary essays, brief explanations of the text of the novel). The encyclopedia is supplied with rich illustrative material. A big plus of the publication is its addressing both to specialists and to a wide range of readers. We can say that the compilers of the encyclopedia approached a new comprehension of the novel due to the wide coverage of the material.

A productive stage in the study of Pushkin's work and in particular the novel "Eugene Onegin" was the fundamental research of S.G. Bocharova ("Poetics of Pushkin", "Form of Plan"), who pays attention to the stylistic world of the novel, its language, speaks of the author's poetic evolution. N.N. Skatov (the author of the large-scale work "Pushkin. Russian genius", numerous essays on the life and work of the poet) explores the poetics of Pushkin's works, speaks about the enduring significance of the poet's work as the highest, ideal exponent of Russian national identity. I. Surat made her contribution to Pushkin studies by raising the large-scale problem of “art and religion” and expressing the idea that Pushkin embodied poetry itself in its ontological essence (“Pushkin as a religious problem”). The opinion about Pushkin as an ontological, ethical and aesthetic phenomenon is also expressed by such modern literary critics as V.S. Nepomniachtchi, Yu.N. Chumakov, S.S. Averintsev, V.K. Kantor and many others. They develop questions about the significance of the novel "Eugene Onegin" as a unique phenomenon in world art, about its influence on Russian literature of the 19th century and subsequent eras. The attention of researchers is focused on the disclosure of the ontological phenomenology of Pushkin's novel in the context of world literature.
At present, the problem of the real place of genius in national history, its role in the spiritual self-awareness of the people, in the destinies of the nation, that is, becomes relevant in a new way. its exceptional mission, a special historical task. Following the religious and philosophical criticism of the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. (D.S. Merezhkovsky, N.A. Berdyaev, S.L. Frank), who asserted the idea that “in the Holy Spirit ... that combination of grace and freedom takes place, which we see in Pushkin’s work”, Pushkin’s phenomenon as a philosophical and methodological category is considered in his works by V.S. Nepomniachtchi. According to the literary critic, "in order for Pushkin's genius to appear before us in all its brightness and fullness of life, it is necessary to consider it ... in an ontological context as a phenomenon of being."

So, each era "highlighted" in the novel the levels closest to it, which was reflected in the stages of scientific study. Modern researcher Yu.N. Chumakov rightly believes that now is the time to read the novel "against the background of universality." The universal content of "Eugene Onegin" reveals itself in the picture of the world, presented as a system of values, as a constantly evolving, "eternally moving" set of ideas about reality.

Criticism of the novel "Eugene Onegin"

On the presence of "contradictions" and "dark" places in the novel by A.S. Pushkin "Eugene Onegin" written a lot. Some researchers believe that so much time has passed since the creation of the work that its meaning is unlikely to ever be unraveled (in particular, Yu.M. Lotman); others try to give "incompleteness" some philosophical meaning. However, the “unsolved” nature of the novel has a simple explanation: it was simply read inattentively.

Feedback from Pushkin's contemporary Belinsky

Speaking about the novel as a whole, Belinsky notes its historicism in the reproduced picture of Russian society. "Eugene Onegin", the critic believes, is a historical poem, although there is not a single historical person among its heroes.

Further, Belinsky calls the nationality of the novel. In the novel "Eugene Onegin" there are more nationalities than in any other folk Russian composition. If not everyone recognizes it as national, it is because we have long had a strange opinion that a Russian in a tailcoat or a Russian in a corset is no longer Russian and that the Russian spirit makes itself felt only where there is a zipun, bast shoes, sivuha and sour cabbage. “The secret of the nationality of every nation lies not in its clothes and cuisine, but in its, so to speak, manner of understanding things.”

According to Belinsky, the digressions made by the poet from the story, turning it to himself, are full of sincerity, feeling, intelligence, wit; the personality of the poet in them is loving and humane. “Onegin can be called an encyclopedia of Russian life and an eminently folk work,” the critic says. The critic points to the realism of Eugene Onegin.

In the person of Onegin, Lensky and Tatyana, according to the critic, Pushkin portrayed Russian society in one of the phases of its formation, its development.

The critic speaks of the enormous significance of the novel for the subsequent literary process. Together with Griboyedov's contemporary genius creation Woe from Wit, Pushkin's verse novel laid a solid foundation for new Russian poetry, new Russian literature.

Belinsky gave a description of the images of the novel. Describing Onegin in this way, he notes: “Most of the public completely denied Onegin’s soul and heart, saw in him a cold, dry and selfish person by nature. It is impossible to understand a person more erroneously and crookedly! .. Secular life did not kill Onegin's feelings, but only cooled him to fruitless passions and petty entertainments ... Onegin did not like to blur in dreams, he felt more than he spoke, and did not open himself to everyone. An embittered mind is also a sign of a higher nature, therefore only by people, but also by oneself.

In Lensky, according to Belinsky, Pushkin portrayed a character completely opposite to Onegin's character, a completely abstract character, completely alien to reality. It was, according to the critic, a completely new phenomenon.

Lensky was a romantic both by nature and by the spirit of the time. But at the same time, "he was ignorant at heart," always talking about life, never knowing it. “Reality had no influence on him: his and his sorrows were the creation of his fantasy,” writes Belinsky.

“Pushkin’s great feat was that he was the first in his novel to poetically reproduce the Russian society of that time and, in the person of Onegin and Lensky, showed its main, that is, the male side; but the feat of our poet is almost higher in that he was the first to poetically reproduce, in the person of Tatyana, a Russian woman.

Tatyana, according to Belinsky, is an exceptional being, a deep, loving, passionate nature. Love for her could be either the greatest bliss or the greatest misfortune of life, without any conciliatory middle ground.