Photo: RSCL press office
The poetry novel based on Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin by French writer
Clementine Beauvais is published in Russian, Lenta.ru informs. This book has already become a bestseller in France and received several prestigious awards.
Author told that she started studying Russian at school and was interested in it despite the fact that there were no Russian emigrants in her family. She graduated from Cambridge University, received the PhD in human sciences and became a theorist of literature.
Photo: Scene from Onegin film
According to the writer, she gave Pushkin’s novel much thought. She also likes Eugene Onegin opera by Tchaikovsky and Onegin movie. “This story didn’t let me go. I wanted to work with it and immerse myself in its atmosphere,” Clementine Beauvais added.
Action takes place in France in 21st century. The main character’s name is Tatiana, but her last name is Reinal. She is getting her PhD in art history and goes to the USA for internship. The novel has a lot of modern features, but the plot of Onegin’s French version is similar; Olga is still distracted, Lensky is in love with her and dies young, Tatiana and Eugene are not meant to be a couple, but for different reason.
The writer compares Eugene Onegin to Shakespeare's plays and finds it strange, that Pushkin’s novel is not that well known worldwide. She also said that her Russian friends considered her idea as daring. However, at the same time she recalled, that the linkages between Russian and French culture are quite strong. Many of the readers of her book have decided to read Pushkin as well.
Russkiy Mir
