Pushkin's Eugene Onegin
Chronology of Pushkin's Work on Eugene Onegin*

1823
9-28 May: Pushkin begins work on the novel
22 October: Canto I completed
3 November: II:1-17 completed
8 December: Canto II completed (but II:35, II:39 & II:40 written later)


1824
8 February: Canto III begun
June: III:1-31 (including Tat"iana’s letter) completed
5 September: date noted on III:32
2 October: Canto III completed
31 December: date noted on IV:23


1824-1825
Work on Canto IV
Description of Odessa in "Onegin’s Journey" written in 1825


1826
4 January: Canto V begun
6 January: Canto IV completed
Work on Canto VI (probably contemporaneous with work on Canto V)
10 August: date noted on draft of VI:45
22 November: Canto V completed

1827
18 March: Canto VII begun


1828
19 February: date noted on VII:12
5 April: date noted in MS of "Onegin’s Album"
4 November: Canto VII completed


1829
2 October: "Onegin’s Journey" (originally conceived as Canto VIII), stanzas 1-5,--- completed
24 December: Canto VIII (originally conceived as
Canto IX) started


1830
18 September: "Onegin’s Journey" completed
25 September: Canto VIII (originally conceived as Canto IX) completed
19 October: Pushkin burns drafts of Canto X


1831
5 October: "Onegin’s Letter to Tat'iana" written
*From Iu. M. Lotman, Roman A.S. Pushkina "Evgenii Onegin": kommentarii, Leningrad, 1980, pp. 17-23.

 
Internal Chronology of Eugene Onegin

1795: Onegin born (see VIII:12)


1803: Lenskii (see VI:10) & (prob.) Tat'iana born


1811-12: Onegin ends schooling & débuts (see IV:9)


c.1817-Spring 1820: Lenskii in Göttingen
Winter 1819-Spring 1820: Action of Canto I
Summer 1820: Action of Cantos II & III
Summer & Autumn 1820: Action of Canto IV
25 December 1820-5 January 1821: Christmas revels & fortune-telling in Canto V


2 January-12 January 1821: Action of Canto V
Night of 5-6 January 1821: Tat'iana’s dream
12 January 1821: Tat'iana’s name-day
13 January-Spring 1821: Action of Canto VI
14 January 1821: Duel with Lenskii
Spring 1821-February 1822: Action of Canto VII

February-March 1821: Onegin goes to St. Petersburg (VII:4-5)
Summer 1821: Ol'ga marries and departs (VII:8-12); Tat'iana in library of Onegin’s country house
3 June 1821: Onegin leaves St. Petersburg
Late January-February 1822: Tat'iana travels to Moscow with her mother
1822 (probably Autumn): Tat'iana marries (see VIII:18)


August-September 1823: Onegin in the Crimea
Autumn 1823: Onegin & Narrator meet in Odessa


August 1824: Onegin returns to St. Petersburg
Autumn 1824-Spring 1825: Action of Canto VIII


March 1825: End of novel (see VIII:39)

 

Pushkin's Working Titles (1830) for the Cantos of Eugene Onegin

Canto I "Chondria" (“Хандра”)
Canto II"The Poet" (“Поет”)
Canto III "The Landowner's Daughter" (“Барышня”)
Canto IV "The Country" (“Деревня”)
Canto V "The Name-Day Party" (“Именины”)
Canto VI "The Duel" (“Поединок”)
Canto VII "Moscow" (“Москва”)
[Canto VIII "Journey" (“Странствие”)] [excluded from novel’s final text]
Canto IX "High Society" (“Большой свет”) [retained and made Canto VIII in final text]


*From Iu. M. Lotman, Roman A.S. Pushkina "Evgenii Onegin": kommentarii, Leningrad, 1980, p. 16.

 

Breakdown of Lines Devoted to Particular Characters in Eugene Onegin**
Character No. of Lines % Total No. of Lines
Narrator/Pushkin 1142 34%
Tat'iana 1083 25%
Onegin 1024 24%
Lenskii 415 10%
Zaretskii 88 2%
Ol'ga 68 1.6%
Larina (Tat'iana's mother) 60 1.4%
The nanny (Tat'iana's nurse) 58 1.3%
Larin (Tat'iana's father) 29 0.7%
TOTAL 4267 100%
**From S. M. Sandomirskii, Taina "Onegina": Obrazy i idei romana A. S. Pushkina "Evgenii Onegin," Moscow, 1992, p. 11.