Eugene Onegin
A Novel in Verse
Contributors
Translated by Douglas R Hofstadter
Buy from Other Retailers:
- On Sale
- Sep 11, 2000
- Page Count
- 224 pages
- Publisher
- Basic Books
- ISBN-13
- 9780465020942
“Hofstadter gives this translation a bubbling excitement very much in the fashion of the original.” –Wall Street Journal
Sparked by reading Jim Falen’s beautiful English version of Eugene Onegin (published in 1992), Douglas Hofstadter presents a more liberal, distinctly American, colloquial version of the Alexander Pushkin classic. Hofstadter’s version is entirely in so-called “Onegin stanzas” – a unique sonnet form devised by Pushkin with a very intricate rhythmic and rhyming pattern. There is also a preface in Onegin stanzas, in which Hofstadter talks about Pushkin, his novel in verse, its form and content, the challenges of translating it into English and his deep admiration for Falen’s version.
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“Hofstadter gives this translation a bubbling excitement very much in the fashion of the original.”Wall Street Journal
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“Akin to the spirit of Pushkin’s original in its playfulness… Hofstadter’s version certainly holds its own in the pleiade of English Onegin versifications… Reading Hofstadter’s translation is a rewarding experience… His genuine enthusiasm for Pushkin’s poetry is truly inspirational.”Comparative Literature Studies
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“Pushkin’s story of a rich, bored young man who rather offhandedly destroys his chance at love by killing a friend in a duel and alienating his would-be beloved is equally delightful in Hofstadter’s sparkling, breezy version that catches the novel’s combination of wry, Austenish provincial romance and Byronic irony, digressiveness, and satire.”Booklist
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“A masterly performance, and a thoroughly charming book.”Kirkus
