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When Vladimir Nabokov first published his controversial translation of Pushkin鈥檚 Eugene Onegin in 1964, the great majority of the edition was taken up by Nabokov鈥檚 witty and exhaustive commentary. Presented here in its own volume, the commentary is a unique scholarly masterwork by one of the twentieth century鈥檚 greatest writers鈥攁 work that Nabokov biographer Brian Boyd calls 鈥渢he most detailed commentary ever made on鈥� Onegin and 鈥渋ndispensable to all serious students of Pushkin鈥檚 masterpiece.鈥�

In his commentary, Nabokov seeks to illuminate every possible nuance of this nineteenth-century classic. He explains obscurities, traces literary influences, relates Onegin to Pushkin鈥檚 other work, and in a characteristically entertaining manner dwells on a host of interesting details relevant to the poem and the Russia it depicts. Nabokov also provides translations of lines and stanzas deleted by the censor or by Pushkin himself, variants from Pushkin鈥檚 notebooks, fragments of a continuation called 鈥淥negin鈥檚 Journey,鈥� the unfinished and unpublished 鈥淐hapter Ten,鈥� other continuations, and an index.

A work of astonishing erudition and passion, Nabokov鈥檚 commentary is a landmark in the history of literary scholarship and in the understanding and appreciation of the greatest work of Russia鈥檚 national poet.