I'll always have a soft spot for the writers who welcome their readers in both work and play. While Pushkin is a very different sort from de Assis, author of personal favorite [b:The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas|87262|The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas|Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347602854s/87262.jpg|605176], the two of them converse, pique, mock, desist, recollect, wander, and believe, like siblings who remain friends despite the best efforts of society, or artists who accept audiences despite the most strident disapproval of academia. While EO did not prove a favorite, the author's context is far more interesting to me than de Assis has so far proven. Biographical drama, instigation of canons, dramatic histories, conspiratorial subversion via verse, exile, Russia, and a certain grandfather. Another characteristic the two casually brilliant and brilliantly casual authors have is that neither of the two, despite what assumption may proclaim, are white. A coincidence? A trend? A piece of evidence of how much has been lost through centuries of ideological denial and towers of pasty onanism? The world may never know.

So, Eugene Onegin's this classic rich boy who has a talent for wandering into good fortunes such as deliverance from bankruptcy, best of best friends, his perfect type of women who throws herself at his feet, and doesn't appreciate any of it. Luckily, Pushkin's far more interested in using this woebegone hero of his as a vector for panoramic views of Russia in its daily life of the working class, social intrigue of the upper class, and all the artistic endeavors and landscape spectaculars that fall in between. As made explicit above, Pushkin is a constantly overt and ever engaging presence, musing on the happier times of youth, commenting on the vogue (he loves this word) of his time and the foibles of his critics, having sympathy for his main character but not enough to excuse Onegin's assholery in his relationships. Apparently the opera by Tchaikovsky of this is super great, so I'll be keeping that in mind for my next theatrical engagement.

For all that, what grabbed my attention the most was the bits and pieces Pushkin excised, erased, and encoded in reaction to the political censors of his day. Banishment, Decembrists, royal overthrows and national conflicts on both battlefield and writing desk galore. Good stuff. Methinks some sort of nonfictional Pushkin pursuit is in order, along with the more fictional and authorial [b:The Blackamoor of Peter the Great|9062906|The Blackamoor of Peter the Great|Alexander Pushkin|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-a91bf249278a81aabab721ef782c4a74.png|2142697].