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Eugene Onegin

Eugene Onegin, A Novel in Verse (Евгений Онегин, роман в стихах, pre-reform Russian: Евгеній Онѣгинъ, романъ въ стихахъ, ) is a novel in verse written by Alexander Pushkin. Onegin is considered a classic of Russian literature, and its eponymous protagonist has served as the model for a number of Russian literary heroes (so-called superfluous men). It was published in serial form between 1825 and 1832. The first complete edition was published in 1833, and the currently accepted version is based on the 1837 publication.

Almost the entire work is made up of 389 fourteen-line stanzas (5,446 lines in all) of iambic tetrameter with the unusual rhyme scheme AbAbCCddEffEgg, where the uppercase letters represent feminine rhymes while the lowercase letters represent masculine rhymes.

The story is told by a narrator (a lightly fictionalized version of Pushkin's public image), whose tone is educated, worldly, and intimate. The narrator digresses at times, usually to expand on aspects of this social and intellectual world. This narrative style allows for a development of the characters and emphasizes the drama of the plot despite its relative simplicity. The book is admired for the artfulness of its verse narrative as well as for its exploration of life, death, love, ennui, convention, and passion.

Main characters

 * Eugene Onegin: A dandy from Saint Petersburg, about 26. An arrogant, selfish, and world-weary cynic.
 * Vladimir Lensky: A young poet, about 18. A very romantic and naïve dreamer.
 * Tatyana Larina: A shy and quiet, but passionate, landowner's daughter. Pushkin referred to her as aged 17 in a letter to Pyotr Vyazemsky.
 * Olga Larina: Tatyana's younger sister.

Plot
In the 1820s, Eugene Onegin is a bored St. Petersburg dandy, whose life consists of balls, concerts, parties, and nothing more. Upon the death of a wealthy uncle, he inherits a substantial fortune and a landed estate. When he moves to the country, he strikes up a friendship with his neighbor, a starry-eyed young poet named Vladimir Lensky. Lensky takes Onegin to dine with the family of his fiancée, the sociable but rather thoughtless Olga Larina. At this meeting, he also catches a glimpse of Olga's sister Tatyana. A quiet, precocious romantic, and the exact opposite of Olga, Tatyana becomes intensely drawn to Onegin. Soon after, she bares her soul to Onegin in a letter professing her love. Contrary to her expectations, Onegin does not write back. When they meet in person, he rejects her advances politely but dismissively and condescendingly. This famous speech is often referred to as Onegin's Sermon: he admits that the letter was touching, but says that he would quickly grow bored with marriage and can only offer Tatyana friendship; he coldly advises more emotional control in the future, lest another man take advantage of her innocence.

Later, Lensky mischievously invites Onegin to Tatyana's name day celebration, promising a small gathering with just Tatyana, Olga, and their parents. When Onegin arrives, he finds instead a boisterous country ball, a rural parody of and contrast to the society balls of St. Petersburg of which he has grown tired. Onegin is irritated with the guests who gossip about him and Tatyana, and with Lensky for persuading him to come. He decides to avenge himself by dancing and flirting with Olga. Olga is insensitive to her fiancé and apparently attracted to Onegin. Earnest and inexperienced, Lensky is wounded to the core and challenges Onegin to fight a duel; Onegin reluctantly accepts, feeling compelled by social convention. During the duel, Onegin unwillingly kills Lensky. Afterwards, he quits his country estate, traveling abroad to deaden his feelings of remorse.

Tatyana visits Onegin's mansion, where she looks through his books and his notes in the margins, and begins to question whether Onegin's character is merely a collage of different literary heroes, and if there is, in fact, no "real Onegin". Tatyana, still brokenhearted by the loss of Onegin, is persuaded by her parents to live with her aunt in Moscow to find a suitor.

Several years pass, and the scene shifts to St. Petersburg. Onegin has come to attend the most prominent balls and interact with the leaders of old Russian society. He sees the most beautiful woman, who captures the attention of all and is central to society's whirl, and he realizes that it is the same Tatyana whose love he had once spurned. Now she is married to an aged prince (a general). Upon seeing Tatyana again, he becomes obsessed with winning her affection, despite her being married. His attempts are rebuffed. He writes her several letters, but receives no reply. Eventually, Onegin manages to see Tatyana and offers her the opportunity to finally elope after they have become reacquainted. She recalls the days when they might have been happy, but concludes that that time has passed. Onegin repeats his love for her. Faltering for a moment, she admits that she still loves him, but she will not allow him to ruin her and declares her determination to remain faithful to her husband. She leaves him regretting his bitter destiny.

Composition and publication
As with many other 19th-century novels, Onegin was written and published serially, with parts of each chapter often appearing in magazines before the first printing of each chapter. Many changes, some small and some large, were made from the first appearance to the final edition during Pushkin's lifetime. The following dates mostly come from Nabokov's study of the photographs of Pushkin's drafts that were available at the time, as well as other people's work on the subject.

The first stanza of chapter 1 was started on May 9, 1823, and except for three stanzas (XXXIII, XVIII, and XIX), the chapter was finished on October 22. The remaining stanzas were completed and added to his notebook by the first week of October 1824. Chapter 1 was first published as a whole in a booklet on February 16, 1825, with a foreword which suggests that Pushkin had no clear plan on how (or even whether) he would continue the novel.

Chapter 2 was started on October 22, 1823 (the date when most of chapter 1 had been finished), and finished by December 8, except for stanzas XL and XXXV, which were added sometime over the next three months. The first separate edition of chapter 2 appeared on October 20, 1826.

Many events occurred which interrupted the writing of chapter 3. In January 1824, Pushkin stopped work on Onegin to work on The Gypsies. Except for XXV, stanzas I–XXXI were added on September 25, 1824. Nabokov guesses that Tatyana's Letter was written in Odessa between February 8 and May 31, 1824. Pushkin incurred the displeasure of the Tsarist regime in Odessa and was restricted to his family estate Mikhaylovskoye in Pskov for two years. He left Odessa on July 21, 1824, and arrived on August 9. Writing resumed on September 5, and chapter 3 was finished (apart from stanza XXXVI) on October 2. The first separate publication of chapter 3 was on October 10, 1827.

Chapter 4 was started in October 1824. By the end of the year, Pushkin had written 23 stanzas and had reached XXVII by January 5, 1825, at which point he started writing stanzas for Onegin's Journey and worked on other pieces of writing. He thought that it was finished on September 12, 1825, but later continued the process of rearranging, adding, and omitting stanzas until the first week of 1826. The first separate edition of chapter 4 appeared with chapter 5 in a publication produced between January 31 and February 2, 1828.

The writing of chapter 5 began on January 4, 1826, and 24 stanzas were complete before the start of his trip to petition the Tsar for his freedom. He left for this trip on September 4 and returned on November 2, 1826. He completed the rest of the chapter in the week November 15 to 22, 1826. The first separate edition of chapter 5 appeared with chapter 4 in a publication produced between January 31 and February 2, 1828.

When Nabokov carried out his study on the writing of Onegin, the manuscript of chapter 6 was lost, but it is known that Pushkin started chapter 6 before finishing chapter 5. Most of chapter 6 appears to have been written before the beginning of December 19, 1826, when Pushkin returned to Moscow after exile on his family estate. Many stanzas appeared to have been written between November 22 and 25, 1826. On March 23, 1828, the first separate edition of chapter 6 was published.

Pushkin started writing chapter 7 in March 1827, but aborted his original plan for the plot of the chapter and started on a different tack, completing the chapter on November 4, 1828. The first separate edition of chapter 7 was first printed on March 18, 1836.

Pushkin intended to write a chapter called "Onegin's Journey", which occurred between the events of chapters 7 and 8, and in fact was supposed to be the eighth chapter. Fragments of this incomplete chapter were published, in the same way that parts of each chapter had been published in magazines before each chapter was first published in a separate edition. When Pushkin completed chapter 8, he published it as the final chapter and included within its denouement the line nine cantos I have written, still intending to complete this missing chapter. When Pushkin finally decided to abandon this chapter, he removed parts of the ending to fit with the change.

Chapter 8 was begun before December 24, 1829, while Pushkin was in St. Petersburg. In August 1830, he went to Boldino (the Pushkin family estate) where, due to an epidemic of cholera, he was forced to stay for three months. During this time, he produced what Nabokov describes as an "incredible number of masterpieces" and finished copying out chapter 8 on September 25, 1830. During the summer of 1831, Pushkin revised and completed chapter 8 apart from "Onegin's Letter", which was completed on October 5, 1831. The first separate edition of chapter 8 appeared on January 10, 1832.

Pushkin wrote at least 18 stanzas of a never-completed tenth chapter. It contained many satires and even direct criticism on contemporary Russian rulers, including the Emperor himself. Afraid of being prosecuted for dissidence, Pushkin burnt most of the tenth chapter. Very little of it survived in Pushkin's notebooks.

The first complete edition of the book was published in 1833. Slight corrections were made by Pushkin for the 1837 edition. The standard accepted text is based on the 1837 edition with a few changes due to the Tsar's censorship restored.

The duel

In Pushkin's time, the early 19th century, duels were very strictly regulated. A second's primary duty was to prevent the duel from actually happening, and only when both combatants were unwilling to stand down were they to make sure that the duel proceeded according to formalised rules. A challenger's second should therefore always ask the challenged party if he wants to apologise for the actions that have led to the challenge. In Eugene Onegin, Lensky's second, Zaretsky, does not ask Onegin even once if he would like to apologise, and because Onegin is not allowed to apologise on his own initiative, the duel takes place, with fatal consequences. Zaretsky is described as "classical and pedantic in duels" (chapter 6, stanza XXVI), and this seems very out of character for a nobleman. In effect, he is enthusiastic at the prospect of a duel and callous about its deadly possibilities. Zaretsky's first chance to end the duel is when he delivers Lensky's written challenge to Onegin (chapter 6, stanza IX). Instead of asking Onegin if he would like to apologise, he apologises for having much to do at home and leaves as soon as Onegin (obligatorily) accepts the challenge.

On the day of the duel, Zaretsky gets several more chances to prevent the duel from happening. Because dueling was forbidden in the Russian Empire, duels were always held at dawn. Zaretsky urges Lensky to get ready shortly after 6 o'clock in the morning (chapter 6, stanza XXIII), while the sun only rises at 20 past 8, because he expects Onegin to be on time. However, Onegin oversleeps (chapter 6, stanza XXIV), and arrives on the scene more than an hour late. According to the dueling codex, if a duelist arrives more than 15 minutes late, he automatically forfeits the duel. Lensky and Zaretsky have been waiting all that time (chapter 6, stanza XXVI), even though it was Zaretsky's duty to proclaim Lensky as winner and take him home.

When Onegin finally arrives, Zaretsky is supposed to ask him a final time if he would like to apologise. Instead, Zaretsky is surprised by the apparent absence of Onegin's second. Onegin, against all rules, appoints his servant Guillot as his second (chapter 6, stanza XXVII), a blatant insult for the nobleman Zaretsky. Zaretsky angrily accepts Guillot as Onegin's second. By his actions, Zaretsky does not act as a nobleman should; in the end Onegin wins the duel.

Onegin himself, however, tried as he could to prevent the fatal outcome, and killed Lensky unwillingly and almost by accident. As the first shooter, he couldn't show that he was deliberately trying to miss the opponent, because this was considered as a serious insult and could create a formal reason to appoint another duel. Instead, he tried to minimize his chances of hitting Lensky by shooting without precise aiming, from the maximal possible distance, not even trying to come closer and get a clear shot.

Translations
Translators of Eugene Onegin have all had to adopt a trade-off between precision and preservation of poetic imperatives. This particular challenge and the importance of Eugene Onegin in Russian literature have resulted in an impressive number of competing translations.

Arndt and Nabokov
Walter W. Arndt's 1963 translation (ISBN 0-87501-106-3) was written keeping to the strict rhyme scheme of the Onegin stanza and won the Bollingen Prize for translation. It is still considered one of the best translations.

Vladimir Nabokov severely criticised Arndt's translation, as he had criticised many previous (and later) translations. Nabokov's main criticism of Arndt's and other translations is that they sacrificed literalness and exactness for the sake of preserving the melody and rhyme.

Accordingly, in 1964 he published his own translation, consisting of four volumes, which conformed scrupulously to the sense while completely eschewing melody and rhyme. The first volume contains an introduction by Nabokov and the text of the translation. The Introduction discusses the structure of the novel, the Onegin stanza in which it is written, and Pushkin's opinion of Onegin (using Pushkin's letters to his friends); it likewise gives a detailed account of both the time over which Pushkin wrote Onegin and of the various forms in which the various parts of it appeared in publication before Pushkin's death (after which there is a huge proliferation of the number of different editions). The second and third volumes consist of very detailed and rigorous notes to the text. The fourth volume contains a facsimile of the 1837 edition. The discussion of the Onegin stanza in the first volume contains the poem On Translating "Eugene Onegin", which first appeared in print in The New Yorker on January 8, 1955, and is written in two Onegin stanzas. Nabokov reproduces the poem both so that the reader of his translation would have some experience of this unique form, and also to act as a further defence of his decision to write his translation in prose.

Nabokov's previously close friend Edmund Wilson reviewed Nabokov's translation in the New York Review of Books, which sparked an exchange of letters and an enduring falling-out between them.

John Bayley has described Nabokov's commentary as '"by far the most erudite as well as the most fascinating commentary in English on Pushkin's poem", and "as scrupulously accurate, in terms of grammar, sense and phrasing, as it is idiosyncratic and Nabokovian in its vocabulary". It is generally agreed that Nabokov's translation is extremely accurate.

Other English translations
Henry Spalding published a translation in 1881. Ivan Turgenev called his translation astonishingly faithful, and the text remained the only complete translation for fifty years. Even later, the Russian critic Ernest Simmons praised Spalding for his translation and scholarly notes on Pushkin's novel in verse.

Babette Deutsch published a translation in 1935 that preserved the Onegin stanzas.

The Pushkin Press published a translation in 1937 (reprinted 1943) by the Oxford scholar Oliver Elton, with illustrations by M. V. Dobujinsky.

In 1977, Sir Charles Johnston published another translation trying to preserve the Onegin stanza, which is generally considered to surpass Arndt's. Johnston's translation is influenced by Nabokov. Vikram Seth's novel The Golden Gate was in turn inspired by this translation.

James E. Falen (the professor of Russian at the University of Tennessee) published a translation in 1995 which was also influenced by Nabokov's translation, but preserved the Onegin stanzas (ISBN 0809316307). This translation is considered to be the most faithful to Pushkin's spirit according to Russian critics and translators.

Douglas Hofstadter published a translation in 1999, again preserving the Onegin stanzas, after having summarised the controversy (and severely criticised Nabokov's attitude towards verse translation) in his book Le Ton beau de Marot. Hofstadter's translation employs a unique lexicon of both high and low register words, as well as unexpected and almost reaching rhymes that give the work a comedic flair.

Tom Beck published a translation in 2004 that also preserved the Onegin stanzas. (ISBN 1-903517-28-1)

Wordsworths Classics in 2005 published an English prose translation by Roger Clarke, which sought to retain the lyricism of Pushkin's Russian.

In September 2008, Stanley Mitchell, emeritus professor of aesthetics at the University of Derby, published, through Penguin Books, a complete translation, again preserving the Onegin stanzas in English. (ISBN 978-0-140-44810-8)

In 2022, Robert E. Tanner published a translation that preserved the Onegin stanzas and incorporated background and historical information in the interstices provided by the translation from Russian to English. (ISBN 978-0-9990737-5-9)

There are a number of lesser known English translations, at least 45 through 2016.

French
There are at least eight published French translations of Eugene Onegin. The most recent appeared in 2005: the translator, André Markovicz, respects Pushkin's original stanzas. Other translations include those of Paul Béesau (1868), Gaston Pérot (1902, in verse), Nata Minor (who received the Prix Nelly Sachs, given to the best translation into French of poetry), Roger Legras, Maurice Colin, Michel Bayat, and Jean-Louis Backès (who does not preserve the stanzas). As a 20-year-old, former French President Jacques Chirac also wrote a translation, which was never published.

German
There are at least a dozen published translations of Onegin in German.
 * Carl Friedrich von der Borg, Eugenius Onegin, of which the first part was published in "Der Refraktor. Ein Centralblatt Deutschen Lebens in Russland", Dorpat, 1836, in five series, starting with the 14th issue on August 1, 1836, and ending with the 18th issue on August 29, 1836.
 * R. Lippert, Verlag von Wilhelm Engelmann, Leipzig 1840
 * Friedrich von Bodenstedt, Verlag der Deckerschen Geheimen Ober-Hofbuchdruckerei, Berlin 1854
 * Adolf Seubert, Reclam, Leipzig 1872/73
 * Dr. Blumenthal, Moscow 1878
 * Dr. Alexis Lupus, nur das 1. Kapitel, Leipzig and St. Petersburg 1899
 * Theodor Commichau, Verlag G. Müller, Munich and Leipzig 1916
 * Theodor Commichau and Arthur Luther, 1923
 * Theodor Commichau, Arthur Luther and Maximilian Schick, SWA-Verlag, Leipzig and Berlin 1947
 * Elfriede Eckardt-Skalberg, Verlag Bühler, Baden-Baden 1947
 * Johannes von Guenther, Reclam, Leipzig 1949
 * Theodor Commichau and Konrad Schmidt, Weimar 1958
 * Theodor Commichau and Martin Remané, Reclam, Leipzig 1965
 * Manfred von der Ropp and Felix Zielinski, Winkler, Munich 1972
 * Kay Borowsky, Reclam, Stuttgart 1972 (translation of prose)
 * Rolf-Dietrich Keil, Wilhelm Schmitz Verlag, Gießen 1980
 * Ulrich Busch, Manesse Verlag, Zurich 1981
 * Sabine Baumann, unter Mitarbeit von Christiane Körner, Stroemfeld, Frankfurt am Main 2009
 * Viktor Eduard Prieb, Goldene Rakete, Berlin 2018.

Italian
There are several Italian translations of Onegin. One of the earliest was published by G. Cassone in 1906. Ettore Lo Gatto translated the novel twice, in 1922 in prose and in 1950 in hendecasyllables. More recent translations are those by Giovanni Giudici (a first version in 1975, a second one in 1990, in lines of unequal length) and by Pia Pera (1996).

Hebrew

 * Avraham Shlonsky, 1937
 * Avraham Levinson, 1937

Esperanto

 * An edition translated by Nikolao Nekrasov, published by Sennacieca Asocio Tutmonda in 1931.

Spanish

 * Eugene Onegin was given a direct Spanish translation preserving the original Russian poetic form with notes and illustrations by Alberto Musso Nicholas, published by Mendoza, Argentina, Zeta Publishers in April 2005.
 * Mijail Chílikov does a metrical verse translation, without rhymes (Madrid, Cátedra, 2005)
 * Other Spanish translations are in prose: Alexis Marcoff's Eugenio Onieguin (Barcelona, Ediciones del Zodíaco, 1942), by Irene Tchernova (Madrid, Aguilar, 1945), by Teresa Suero, probably from English (Barcelona, Bruguera, 1969).

Catalan

 * Arnau Barios translated the work preserving Pushkin's original stanzas and rhymes, and it was published by Club Editor in 2019.
 * Xavier Roca-Ferrer translated the novel in Catalan prose, published in Barcelona, Columna, 2001.

Japanese
There are 6 or more Japanese translations of Eugene Onegin. The first two versions were published in 1921, but the most popular version was a prose translation by Kentaro Ikeda in 1964. The latest translation was one by Masao Ozawa, published in 1996, in which Ozawa attempted to translate Onegin into the form of Japanese poetry.

Chinese
Since the first Chinese version translated by Su Fu in 1942 and the first translation from original Russian version in 1944 by Lu Yin, there have been more than 10 versions translated into Chinese. In the 21st century there are still new Chinese versions being published.

Arabic
"Eugene Onegin" was translated from Russian into Arabic by the historian and researcher Abdel Hadi Al-Dheisat (عبد الهادي الدهيسات) in 2003, and the Arabic translation is in verse and took over 4 years to be completed.

Opera
The 1879 opera Eugene Onegin, by Tchaikovsky, based on the story, is perhaps the version that most people are familiar with. There are many recordings of the score, and it is one of the most commonly performed operas in the world.

Ballet
John Cranko choreographed a three-act ballet using Tchaikovsky's music in an arrangement by Kurt-Heinz Stolze. However, Stolze did not use any music from Tchaikovsky's opera of the same name. Instead, he orchestrated some little-known piano works by Tchaikovsky such as The Seasons, along with themes from the opera Cherevichki and the latter part of the symphonic fantasia Francesca da Rimini.

Choreographer Boris Eifman staged a modern rendition of Eugene Onegin as a ballet taking place in modern Moscow. The ballet was performed by Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg, with music by Alexander Sitkovetsky and with excerpts from Tchaikovsky's opera Eugene Onegin.

Most recently Lera Auerbach created a ballet score titled Tatiana, with a libretto written by John Neumeier for his choreographic interpretation and staging of Alexander Pushkin's Eugene Onegin, for a co-production by the Hamburg State Opera and the Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre in Moscow.

Incidental music
A staged version was adapted by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky and slated for production in the Soviet Union in 1936, directed by Alexander Tairov and with incidental music by Sergei Prokofiev, as part of the centennial celebration of Pushkin's death. However, due to threats of Stalinist repercussions for artistic liberties taken during the production and artistic differences between Tairov and Krzhizhanovsky, rehearsals were abandoned and the production was never put on.

Play
Christopher Webber's play Tatyana was written for Nottingham Playhouse in 1989. It successfully combines spoken dialogue and narration from the novel, with music arranged from Tchaikovsky's operatic score, and incorporates some striking theatrical sequences inspired by Tatyana's dreams in the original. The title role was played by Josie Lawrence, and the director was Pip Broughton.

In 2016, the legendary Vakhtangov State Academic Theatre of Russia put on a production of Onegin starring Sergei Makovetsky, described as "exuberant, indelible, and arrestingly beautiful" by the New York Times.

Musical
Opening in 2016 for its world premiere, the Arts Club Theatre Company in Vancouver, Canada, staged a musical version called Onegin by Amiel Gladstone and Veda Hille. Rather than being based solely on Pushkin's verse narrative, the musical takes equal inspiration from Tchaikovsky's opera, subtly incorporating musical motifs from the opera and even using its structure as a template. In fact, it was Gladstone's time as assistant director for Vancouver Opera’s last production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin that opened his eyes to the story’s potential for musical adaptation.

However, the overall musical style of Gladstone and Hille’s Onegin is distinctly non-operatic, being instead "an indie-rock musical with a modern flair" that carries over into the costumes and the interactive staging, as well as the ironic and self-referential humour and the titular character's "bored hipster persona".

After opening to general acclaim in 2016, Onegin took home a historic 10 Jessie Awards, winning all but one award in its category, including the awards for outstanding production, direction (Gladstone), original composition (Gladstone and Hille), lead actor (Alessandro Juliani as Onegin), lead actress (Meg Roe as Tatyana), and supporting actor (Josh Epstein as Lensky).

Since then, throughout new productions and casting changes, Onegin has garnered generally favourable reviews; for example, Louis B. Hobson of The Calgary Herald writes, "Onegin is not just good, but totally enthralling and deserves all the hype and all the awards it received in Vancouver back in 2016 when it premiered and again in 2017 during its return visit". Nevertheless, others have criticized the show for artificiality of characterization and "inconsistent dramaturgy", claiming that Onegin fails to "come to life".

Furthermore, several critics have pointed out similarities to the smash hit Hamilton and especially to Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, a sung-through musical likewise inspired by a classic of Russian literature (in this case, a sliver of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace), usually to Onegin’s disadvantage.

Film

 * In 1911, the first screen version of the novel was filmed: the Russian silent film Yevgeni Onegin ("Eugene Onegin"), directed by Vasily Goncharov and starring Arseniy Bibikov, Petr Birjukov, and Pyotr Chardynin.
 * In 1919, a silent film Eugen Onegin, based on the novel, was produced in Germany. The film was directed by Alfred Halm, and starred Frederic Zelnik as Onegin.
 * In 1958, Lenfilm produced a TV film Eugene Onegin, which was not in fact a screen version of the novel, but a screen version of the opera Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky. The film was directed by Roman Tikhomirov and starred Vadim Medvedev as Onegin, Ariadna Shengelaya as Tatyana, and Igor Ozerov as Lensky. The principal solo parts were performed by notable opera singers of the Bolshoi Theatre. The film was well received by critics and viewers.
 * In 1972, Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF) produced a music film Eugen Onegin.
 * In 1988, Decca/Channel 4 produced a film adaptation of Tchaikovsky's opera, directed by Petr Weigl. Sir Georg Solti acted as the conductor, while the cast featured Michal Dočolomanský as Onegin and Magdaléna Vášáryová as Tatyana. One major difference from the novel is the duel: Onegin is presented as deliberately shooting to kill Lensky and is unrepentant at the end.
 * In 1994, the TV film Yevgeny Onyegin was produced, directed by Humphrey Burton and starring Wojtek Drabowicz as Onyegin.
 * The 1999 film, Onegin, is an English adaptation of Pushkin's work, directed by Martha Fiennes, and starring Ralph Fiennes as Onegin, Liv Tyler as Tatyana, and Toby Stephens as Lensky. The film compresses the events of the novel somewhat: for example, the name day celebrations take place on the same day as Onegin's speech to Tatyana. The 1999 film, much like the 1988 film, also gives the impression that during the duel sequence Onegin deliberately shoots to kill.

Radio
In 2017, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a five-part adaptation by Duncan Macmillan, directed by Abigail le Fleming, as part of their 15-Minute Drama series, with Geoffrey Streatfeild as Pushkin, David Dawson as Onegin, Zoë Tapper as Natalya, Alix Wilton Regan as Tatyana, Joshua McGuire as Lensky, and Sean Murray as Zaretsky.

Audiobook
In 2012, Stephen Fry recorded an audiobook of the novel in the translation by James E. Falen.

title: Eugene Onegin


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Charterhouse School

Charterhouse is a public school (English boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in Godalming, Surrey, England. Originally founded by Thomas Sutton in 1611 on the site of the old Carthusian monastery in Charterhouse Square, Smithfield, London, it educates over 800 pupils, aged 13 to 18 years. Charterhouse is one of the original nine English public schools reported upon by the Clarendon Commission in 1864 leading to its regulation by the Public Schools Act 1868.

Charterhouse charges full boarders up to £47,535 per annum (2023/2024) and is among the most expensive Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC) schools in the UK. It educated the British Prime Minister Lord Liverpool and has many notable alumni.

History
In May 1611, the London Charterhouse came into the hands of Thomas Sutton (1532–1611) of Knaith, Lincolnshire. He acquired a fortune by the discovery of coal on two estates which he had leased near Newcastle upon Tyne, and afterwards, removing to London, he carried on a commercial career. In 1611, the year of his death, he endowed a hospital on the site of the Charterhouse, calling it the hospital of King James, and in his will he bequeathed moneys to maintain a chapel, hospital (almshouse) and school. He died on 12 December, and subsequently the will was hotly contested but upheld in court, and the foundation was finally constituted to afford a home for eighty male pensioners (gentlemen by descent and in poverty, soldiers that have borne arms by sea or land, merchants decayed by piracy or shipwreck, or servants in household to the King or Queen), and to educate forty boys.

Charterhouse established a reputation for excellence in hospital care and treatment, thanks in part to Henry Levett, an Oxford graduate who joined the school as a physician in 1712. Levett was widely esteemed for his medical writings, including an early tract on the treatment of smallpox. Levett was buried in Charterhouse Chapel and his widow married Andrew Tooke, the headmaster of Charterhouse.

The school was moved to its present site in 1872 by the then headmaster, William Haig Brown – a decision influenced by the findings of the Clarendon Commission of 1864.

The school bought a 68 acre site atop a hill just outside Godalming. In addition to the main school buildings (designed by architect Philip Charles Hardwick), they constructed three boarding houses, known as Saunderites (once the headmaster's house, pronounced "sarnderites" rather than "sornderites"), Verites and Gownboys (for scholars, who were entitled to wear gowns). The school was built by Lucas Brothers, who also built the Royal Albert Hall and Covent Garden.

As pupil numbers grew, other houses were built alongside the approach road, now known as Charterhouse Hill. Each was titled with an adaptation of the name of their first housemaster, such as Weekites, Daviesites and Girdlestoneites. The last of these is still referred to as Duckites, reflecting the unusual gait of its original housemaster, even though he retired well over 100 years ago. There are now the original four 'old' houses plus ten 'new' houses (currently three girls' houses), making fourteen boarding houses in total. These fourteen Houses have preserved a unique identity (each with its own tie and colours) and pupils compete against each other in both sports and the arts. Two new boarding houses were opened upon their completion ahead of the start of the 2021–22 academic year. This was done by former pupil and sitting MP Jeremy Hunt. This made the total number of houses reach fifteen.

The school continued to expand over the 20th century. Further land was bought to the north and west, increasing the grounds to over 200 acres, and a new school chapel was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (perhaps best known for designing the red telephone box) and consecrated in 1927 to commemorate almost 700 pupils who died in the First World War, making it the largest war memorial in England. Around 350 names have been subsequently added to commemorate those who died in the Second World War and other more recent conflicts.

An addition to the campus was seven new Houses, built in the 1970s, replacing late Victorian boarding houses which were demolished in 1977. Other newer buildings include the Art Studio, the John Derry Technology Centre, the Ben Travers Theatre, the Ralph Vaughan Williams Music Centre, the Halford Hewitt Golf Course, the Queen's Sports Centre, the Sir Greville Spratt athletics track and Chetwynd, a hall of residence for girls. In 2003, the School renovated its onsite Library. 2006 saw the opening of The Beveridge Centre for the Social Sciences. In 2007, a £3m Modern Languages building was completed.

The school has a top 60 placing in the A level league tables, and in 2011 over 80% of pupils are awarded an A* or A grade at GCSE. In 2009, the school announced its decision to switch from A Levels to the International Baccalaureate and Cambridge Pre-U. In 2012 Charterhouse had its best set of Cambridge Pre-U results with 96% of examinations taken awarded Distinction or Merit grades. Seventy-eight pupils achieved Distinctions (or their A level equivalent) in all subjects taken and twenty-one achieved the equivalent of A level A* grades in all their subjects. Twenty pupils were offered places at Oxford or Cambridge.

In 2007, Roy Hattersley, former Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and minister, reported on a visit to Charterhouse in the Guardian newspaper. After describing his impression that "[The chapel]'s geometric spires and minarets proclaim complete confidence that Charterhouse educates men who are destined to rule the universe", he said: "Academically and pastorally, it is near to beyond criticism. And after only a brief glimpse of the school, I have no doubt that I would have been ecstatically happy there. But its existence allows the rich and the powerful to ignore the world beyond its boundaries." He therefore concluded that his aspiration to abolish private education in the 1970s was "totally justified".

The 2009 Ofsted Social Care Inspection Report noted that 'The provision for "Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do" is rated as outstanding.' and 'This is a good school, in which boarders' welfare is promoted by a strong approach to countering bullying and child protection. Boarding staff have good relationships with the boarders, and boarders can list a range of people who they can talk to if they are worried or have concerns.'

The 2011 Independent Schools Inspectorate Report noted that 'The quality of pupils' achievements is excellent. Pupils are extremely well educated. They attain extremely high standards in external examinations and make exceptional progress in their learning because of their positive attitudes to study, dedicated and often inspiring teaching, and an academically challenging curriculum that is adapted to suit all needs. The curriculum is enriched by an outstanding range of activities'.

The 2017 ISI Educational Quality Inspection Report noted that ‘Pupils' academic and other achievements are high and often exceptional. Pupils' successes in external competitions, in academic distinctions and in sport, music and the creative and aesthetic arts are exceptional. Pupils' social development is outstanding. Pupils are polite, courteous and respectful of one another and of the adults who care for them. Relationships between pupils and staff are excellent. Pupils mature into independent and self-motivated pupils over the course of their time at school and are extremely well prepared, not only for the next stage of their lives, but also to contribute to society at large.’

Charterhouse originally accepted boys only. The school began accepting girls in sixth form in 1971. In 2017 the school announced that it was moving to full co-education from the age of 13, and welcomed the first girls into Year 9 in September 2021. Since September 2023 there have been girls in every year group.

Houses
There are four old boarding houses and eleven new houses in the White Book (a directory of names) order. In Charterhouse vocabulary an old house is one which was founded before the school’s move to Godalming in 1872, as opposed to the new houses which were created later and are situated away from the main school. They are all distinguished by the colour of the pupils' ties, umbrellas and football team's stripes.

In Autumn 2010, a new house was opened for sixth-form pupils, called Fletcherites, named after Frank Fletcher, a former headmaster. The house moved into the old Great Comp building, now renovated. Verites, Saunderites and Gownboys predate the move to Godalming in 1872 and are known as the "old" houses. Saunderites is named after its first Housemaster Dr. Saunders (Headmaster 1832–53) and it was the Headmaster's house, in that the headmaster would run not only run the school but also one of the houses. Gownboys was named not after their original housemaster, but because it was the scholars' house, although scholars were distributed across all the houses after the transfer to Godalming. As was tradition, scholars wore gowns with their uniform and were treated as superior to other boys. There is no longer such a tradition and the scholars are now distributed throughout the various houses, on a random but numerically equal basis. There are still scholars in Gownboys, but in no greater proportion than any other house.

All new Houses apart from Bodeites are named after their founders (although Robinites was originally Robinsonites). Bodeites was originally Buissonites, named after the Head of Languages at the time. He ran off with the matron, and so the house was renamed Bodeites after the replacement, Mr Bode.

To keep up with the increasing number of female applicants to the school, Charterhouse began transitioning former boys' houses Weekites and Girdlestoneites into girl only houses. Weekites became coeducational at the start of OQ 2022 with 36 girls joining in Year 9, Year 10 and Lower Sixth. Girdlestoneites also became coed in OQ of 2023. In 2024 it was announced that Lockites would become an all girls house by 2028.

Uniform

 * Under School

The Under School consists of the first three years of attendance at Charterhouse, being the Fourth Form, the Removes and the Fifth Form (GCSE year). Pupils in Under School wear a weekday uniform consisting of a white or blue shirt, house tie, grey trousers, optional blue or black jumper or sweater-vest, dark grey jacket and black leather shoes. A waistcoat is optional. Variations include various society and school honours' ties.

Transition from the Under School to the Upper School occurs upon successful completion of the GCSE exams.

The Specialists (Lower and Upper Sixth Forms) constitute the last two years of attendance at Charterhouse, and form the Upper School. Having completed the GCSE exams successfully, 'First & Second Year Specialists' (as they are colloquially referred) spend two years studying for their A-Level or Pre-U examinations, usually in three subjects, although some students will read for four, or their IB exams. The grey jacket is replaced by a grey blazer with pink squares and shirts may be pink or of striped patterns.
 * Specialists ('The Upper School')

Whether in Under or Upper School, any pupil who has been awarded his House or School 'Colours' for sport or culture, may wear his 'Colours' tie in place of his house tie. School monitors may also wear their monitor tie instead of a house tie, if they so choose. For further on this, please see below, under "School Honours".

During Cricket Quarter, the school uniform can vary slightly from that of the two preceding terms. Boys may wear cravats in house colours instead of ties and are permitted to wear straw boaters similar to the 'Harrow Hat' found at Harrow School, but these are almost never worn by the majority of pupils. Boys in the Under School may also wear navy blazers similar to those worn by the Specialists. As well as these variations, boys may roll up their sleeves in hashes unless asked not to by a beak. Members of the 1st XI Cricket Team have their own variation on summer dress which is described later in the article.
 * Summer dresses

School Honours is the Colours system rewarding pupils in various fields with variations on school dress. They are as follows:
 * School Honours

House colours – House colours are a variation on the house tie. Colours awarded for house sport prowess have thicker stripes in the House colour, whereas those awarded for cultural prowess have thin doubled striped.

School colours – School colours are awarded for services to School sport, culture and other areas deemed worthy. They all have a similar design of a solid colour and are covered in the crest of Thomas Sutton, the school's founder. However, they come in varying colours: The Head of School – The Heads of School (head boy and deputy, as well as the head girl and deputy head girl) is permitted to wear a Pink tie adorned with Sutton Crests. 1st XI Major Sports – Members of the 1st Team in major school sports (football, hockey and cricket) are permitted to wear maroon ties. Minor Sports – Holders of colours in Minor Sports are permitted to wear a silver ties. Academic/Scholars – Holders of Academic or Scholars colours are permitted to wear a green tie. Culture – Those deemed worthy enough in cultural fields are permitted to wear a purple tie. Service – Brown ties are awarded for commendable service to the school community. Most frequently they are awarded by the CCF.

1st XI Cricket – Members of the 1st XI Cricket team are permitted to wear pink blazers with Sutton's Crest on the front pocket to Hashes on match days (usually Saturdays).

Greyhounds – Every year a few Carthusians are given Greyhound awards for outstanding service to the school. Those awarded the prize are permitted to wear a navy blue tie with rampant gold greyhounds, the greyhound being a notable feature of the coat of arms of Thomas Sutton.

Academic – Pupils who have gained distinctive academic achievements are awarded the Academic Tie and may be referred to as Scholars of the school. They are permitted to wear a green tie adorned with the Sutton Crest.

Culture – Pupils who have contributed to the school distinctively in terms of culture (music, drama etc.) are awarded the Culture Tie, which has a deep purple colour with the Sutton Crest.

Origins of football
Association Football is the main Winter sport at the school. During the 1840s at both Charterhouse and Westminster School pupils' surroundings meant they were confined to playing their football in the cloisters, making the rough and tumble of the handling game that was developing at other schools such as Rugby impossible, and necessitating a new code of rules. Dingley Dell, the most active non-school team in the London area in the five years before the Football Association was established in 1863, played Charterhouse eight times between February 1860 and February 1863. During the formulation of the rules of the Association Football in the 1860s representatives of Charterhouse and Westminster School pushed for a passing game, in particular rules that allowed forward passing ("passing on"). Other schools (in particular Eton College, Shrewsbury School and Harrow) favoured a dribbling game with a tight off-side rule. It is claimed that Stoke Ramblers was formed in 1863 when former pupils of Charterhouse School formed a football club while apprentices at the North Staffordshire Railway works in Stoke-on-Trent. By 1867 the Football Association had chosen in favour of the Charterhouse and Westminster game and adopted a "loose" off-side rule that permitted forward passing. The modern forward-passing game was a direct consequence of Charterhouse and Westminster football.

Cricket ground
The first recorded match on the school cricket ground came in 1859, when the school played Marlborough College. From its inception, the school has used the ground to take on a number of colleges in England. The cricket ground has held a single List-A match, which was played between Surrey and Warwickshire in the 1972 John Player League. Starting in 2006, the ground has held a number of Surrey Second XI fixtures in the Second XI Championship and Second XI Trophy.

Herbarium
The School's Herbarium carries the Index Herbariorum designation GOD and is maintained as The Charterhouse School Herbarium in the University and Jepson Herbaria, University of California, Berkeley.

The scope of the collections is mainly the British Isles, although some plants are from Europe, South Africa and eastern North America. The principal collectors were James Edward Moxon, Rev. George Brown Moxon, Rev. Tullie Cornthwaite, Rev. Samuel Titmas (first curator of Charterhouse Museum), Frederick Yorke Brocas, Andrew Bloxam, William Gardiner, James Buckman and John Drew Salmon. The collections are currently being digitised and being released by the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland, on the herbaria@home website.

Carthusian language
Known as Lingua Carthusiana, the terminology of this language or idiolect has evolved over the centuries of Charterhouse's existence and is used within the Charterhouse community on a daily basis.

Fees
In any given year, there is some contention about which is the most expensive public school in England, depending on whether one compares day fees or boarding fees. In 2019, Charterhouse was reported to be among the most expensive schools for boarding pupils. Charging up to £11,415 per term in 2014/15, Charterhouse is the 7th most expensive HMC boarding school in the UK. For the 2022/23 academic year, day boarding fees are £36,540 and boarding is £44,220.

School fees cartel (2005)
In November 2005, the school was one of fifty of the country's leading independent schools which were found guilty of running an illegal price-fixing cartel, exposed by The Times newspaper, although the schools made clear that they had not realised that the change to the law (which had happened only a few months earlier) about the sharing of information had subsequently made it an offence. Each school was required to pay a nominal penalty of £10,000 and all agreed to make ex-gratia payments totalling three million pounds into a trust designed to benefit pupils who attended the schools during the period in respect of which fee information was shared. Mrs Jean Scott, the head of the Independent Schools Council, said that independent schools had always been exempt from anti-cartel rules applied to business, were following a long-established procedure in sharing the information with each other, and that they were unaware of the change to the law (on which they had not been consulted). She wrote to John Vickers, the director-general of the Office of Fair Trading saying: "They are not a group of businessmen meeting behind closed doors to fix the price of their products to the disadvantage of the consumer. They are schools that have quite openly continued to follow a long-established practice because they were unaware that the law had changed."

Gary Lineker accusations (2010)
In August 2010, former English footballer Gary Lineker publicly accused Charterhouse of failing his son, George, in his bid for a place at university. Lineker claimed that the school had used him as a 'guinea pig' by ditching A-Levels for the new Cambridge Pre-U. The school reacted by saying it was proud of its students' results. John Witheridge, then headmaster, defended the choice of the Pre-U as being more academically rigorous and educationally valid than the current A-Level standard in an article in The Spectator in August 2010.

Historic sexual abuse
In March 2012, it was reported that a 16-year-old had filmed fellow pupils while they showered, and stored the images on his laptop. The boy was taken into custody by Surrey Police for questioning. A police inquiry was subsequently established.

In April 2013, a physics teacher, Dean Johnson, resigned after allegations of an 'inappropriate relationship' with a former teenage girl pupil led to a police investigation. A police investigation followed, and resulted in a conviction after trial by a jury for the teacher who was found to be in possession of extreme pornography, which depicted a woman being hanged, in 2015; he was given an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for two years. A professional misconduct panel later found:

As a result, in 2017, Johnson was made the subject of a prohibition order, prohibiting him from teaching in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children's home in England; the order was made with no provision for him to apply for any future restoration of his eligibility to teach.
 * that he had sex with her in the classroom at the school;
 * that he had communicated his fantasies to the girl over Facebook;
 * that he had asked what her underwear size was before buying stockings and presenting them to her gift-wrapped;
 * that the relationship became sexual weeks after the girl turned 18.

In 2018, Cathy Newman, who attended the school on a scholarship said that she was humiliated and sexually harassed while a pupil at the school. Other ex-pupils told The Times about experiences including a humiliating initiation ceremony at the school and flashing and groping incidents. Rebecca Willis, commenting on similar themes around the time reiterated these themes, but also commented on racism which resulted in Asian children leaving. The school has subsequently contacted former pupils to ask them to share concerns.

Film location
The school is occasionally used as a film location. It was used as a filming location for Jules Shear's music video for his 1983 single Whispering Your Name, in which Shear visits the school as a guest music teacher and a group of British schoolchildren mime to the chorus. The song would eventually be a hit for Allison Moyet 11 years later. It was used to represent the Palace of Westminster in the 2018 BBC drama Bodyguard and in seasons 4 and 5 of Netflix's The Crown where the Memorial Chapel and South African Cloisters are made to represent the House of Commons as well as the film Peterloo which used the chapel as the House of Lords. In addition, a location outside Brooke Hall was used in the filming of The Crown season 5. It has previously been used in The Boys are Back, Jupiter Ascending, St Trinians 2, The Mystery of Edwin Drood (an adaptation of a Charles Dickens novel), Foyle's War, An Ideal Husband, and Vampire Academy.

Headmasters
• 1614–1624: Nicholas Grey

• 1624–1628: Robert Grey

• 1626–1628: William Middleton

• 1628–1643: Robert Brooke

• 1643–1651: Samuel Wilson

• 1651–1654: Thomas Bunkley

• 1654–1662: Norris Wood

• 1662–1679: Thomas Watson

• 1679–1728: Thomas Walker

• 1728–1731: Andrew Tooke

• 1731–1748: James Hotchkis

• 1748–1769: Eberard Lewis Crusius

• 1769–1791: Samuel Berdmore

• 1791–1811: Matthew Raine

• 1811–1832: John Russell

• 1832–1853: Augustus Page Saunders

• 1853–1858: Edward Elder

• 1858–1863: Richard Elwyn

• 1863–1897: William Haig Brown

• 1897–1911: Gerald Henry Rendall

• 1911–1935: Frank Fletcher

• 1935–1947: Sir Robert Birley

• 1947–1952: George Turner

• 1952–1964: Brian W. M. Young

• 1965–1973: Oliver van Oss

• 1973–1981: Brian Rees

• 1982–1993: Peter Attenborough

• 1993–1995: Peter Hobson

• 1995–1996: Clive Carter

• 1996–2013: John Witheridge

• 2014–2017: Richard Pleming

• 2017–2018: Andrew Turner

• 2018–present: Alex Peterken

Old Carthusians
Former pupils are referred to as Old Carthusians, and current pupils as Carthusians.

Victoria Cross holders
Three Old Carthusians have won the Victoria Cross:
 * Victoria Cross
 * Hunza-Nagar Expedition, India
 * Lieutenant Guy Hudleston Boisragon (at Charterhouse from Oration Quarter (OQ) (Autumn Term) 1878 to OQ 1880). He later achieved the rank of brigadier. (1864–1931)
 * Mohmand Campaign, Bilot, India
 * Lieutenant James Morris Colquhoun Colvin (at Charterhouse from Cricket Quarter (CQ) (Summer Term) 1884 to CQ 1888). He later achieved the rank of colonel. (1870–1945)
 * First World War
 * Lieutenant Eric Archibald McNair (at Charterhouse from CQ 1907 to CQ 1913 – was Head of the School). He later achieved the rank of captain. (1894–1918)

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title: Charterhouse School