Eugene Onegin ( without commentary )

3I9

Fragments of OnegirCs Journey [PUSHRIN'S FOREWORD] The last [Eighth] Chapter of Eugene Onegin was published [1832] separately with the following foreword:

"The dropped stanzas gave rise more than once to reprehension and gibes (no doubt most just and witty). The author candidly confesses that he omitted from his novel a whole chapter in which Onegin's journey across Russia was described. It depended upon him to designate this omitted chapter by means of dots or a numeral; but to avoid ambiguity he decided it would be better to mark as number eight, instead of nine, the last chapter of Eugene Onegin, and to sacrifice one of its closing stanzas [Eight: XLVina]: 'Tis time: the pen for peace is asking-nine cantos I have written; my boat upon the joyful shore 4 by the ninth billow is brought out. Praise be to you,? nine Camenae, etc.

"P[avel] A[leksandrovich] Katenin (whom a fine poetic talent does not prevent from being also a subtle critic) observed to us that this exclusion, though perhaps advanta333 Eugene Onegin geous to readers, is, however, detrimental to the plan of the entire work since, through this, the transition from Tatiana the provincial miss to Tatiana the grande dame becomes too unexpected and unexplained: an observation revealing the experienced artist. The author himself felt the justice of this but decided to leave out the chapter for reasons important to him but not to the public. Some fragments [xvi-xix, 1-1 o] have been published [Jan. 1, 1830, Lit. Gaz.~\; we insert them here, subjoining to them several other stanzas." [For the expunged stanzas and lines that fill the gaps between these fragments, see my Comm. on the fragments ofOnegin's Journey, vol. 3, pp. 2jp-66. For the notes commenting on the following stanzas, see ibid., pp. 267-310.-V. N.]