Born in Moscow in 1799,
ALEXANDER PUSHKIN was already a literary star by the time he graduated from the Imperial Lyceum in Tsarskoe Selo. Pushkin gradually turned to social reform and advocated literary radicalism, and he was eventually exiled to southern Russia. During this time, he wrote
Boris Godunov, but it was not published until years later. His novel in verse,
Eugene Onegin, was published serially from 1825 to 1832. He died in 1837 from wounds sustained in a duel.
JAMES E. FALEN is a professor of Russian at the University of Tennessee. He is the translator of acclaimed editions of Pushkin’s
Boris Godunov and Other Dramatic Works and
Eugene Onegin; his version of the latter iswidely considered to be the one most faithful to Pushkin’s spirit.