Eugene Onegin. The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin. The Queen of Spades

“Eugene Onegin” is the first Russian novel in verse. A new model of literature as a light conversation about everything. A gallery of eternal Russian characters. A revolutionary love story for its era, which has become an archetype of romantic relationships for many generations to come. An encyclopedia of Russian life. Our everything.

“The Tales of Belkin” is Pushkin's debut in prose. Unadorned tales about chance, where the author hides behind literary masks. Contemporaries did not appreciate “The Tales of Belkin”, but descendants saw in them the beginning of great Russian prose.

“The Queen of Spades” is a virtuously constructed tale by Pushkin: gothic horror, the incarnation of Napoleon, and a parable about how greed and monomania enslave a person.

About the series

“The Main Books of Russian Literature” is a joint series by the publishing house “Alpina. Proza” and the online project “Polka”. The works published in it are selected by contemporary writers, critics, literary scholars, and teachers. It is both an attempt to define what the Russian literary canon looks like today and a new perspective on well-known works: each book is accompanied by a detailed article from the authors of “Polka”.