Our Notes & References

Great example, fresh and inscribed by the translator, of the first, landmark English edition of “the first great Russian novel and a major influence far beyond its age” (Terras).

While other works by Pushkin, Russia’s national poet, had been translated in English much earlier, his masterpiece Evgenii Onegin, first published in 1825_32, had to wait for Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Spalding to be introduced to an English-speaking audience.

Spalding (1840–1907) acquired Russian while serving at the British Embassy in Saint Petersburg during the 1870s. He retired from the military in 1881 and immediately published his translation, which remained the sole English translation for more than fifty years; the next translation did not appear until 1936.

Spalding’s rendition of the poem was considered faithful to the original Russian and was praised by Ivan Turgenev for its accuracy. “Perhaps because it was the first, Spalding’s translation is often regarded as a pioneering version, which we naturally expect to exhibit all the flaws of an initial attempt […] but the remarkable fact is that it has not more. Although he eschewed the regular pattern of the challenging double rhymes, Spalding otherwise accepted the demands of the intricate stanza form and sustained it reasonably well” (Simmons, p. 201). Spalding also included here a list of previous foreign translations of the poem, along with biographical notes that “indicate a fair understanding of the poem and its background, and succeeding translators have been indebted to his commentaries” (Simmons, p. 202).

Provenance

“With the translator’s compliments, 21 Nov 1883” (ink inscription to fly-leaf).

Bibliography

Simmons, Ernest J. “English Translations of Eugene Onegin.” The Slavonic and East European Review, vol. 17, no. 49, 1938, pp. 198–208; Terras, Victor. A History of Russian Literature. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1991.