Eugene Oneguine [Onegin] A Romance of Russian Life in Verse

Excerpt

Eugene Oneguine, the chief poetical work of Russia’s greatest poet,
having been translated into all the principal languages of Europe
except our own, I hope that this version may prove an acceptable
contribution to literature.  Tastes are various in matters of poetry,
but the present work possesses a more solid claim to attention in
the series of faithful pictures it offers of Russian life and manners. 
If these be compared with Mr. Wallace’s book on Russia, it will be
seen that social life in that empire still preserves many of the
characteristics which distinguished it half a century ago—­the period
of the first publication of the latter cantos of this poem.