The Bronze Horseman — Alexander Pushkin | Reader’s Companion | Coleman’s Notes CN-064
What happens when the grand sweep of history destroys the life of one ordinary person?
That question lies at the heart of Alexander Pushkin’s extraordinary The Bronze Horseman.
Pushkin begins on the banks of the Neva with Peter the Great, imagining the magnificent new city that will become St Petersburg.
A century later, the perspective changes completely.
Evgeny is nobody important. He is a poor clerk who wants little more than to earn a living, marry his beloved Parasha and build a modest future.
When the catastrophic flood of 1824 overwhelms St Petersburg, that future disappears.
Evgeny survives. Parasha apparently does not.
His grief gradually separates him from ordinary life until he returns to the great equestrian monument to Peter and directs his anger towards the man whose decision created the city in this dangerously vulnerable location.
And then comes Pushkin’s unforgettable image: the Bronze Horseman pursuing Evgeny through the streets of Petersburg.
Supernatural event? Hallucination? Symbol of imperial power?
Pushkin deliberately leaves the possibilities open.
The Coleman’s Notes® Reader’s Companion takes you through the complete poem while examining its remarkable collision between empire and individual, monument and human body, city and nature, historical memory and forgotten suffering.
The guide includes detailed analysis of the Introduction and both Parts, character studies of Evgeny, Parasha and Peter, St Petersburg as a character, the major themes, Eight Extended Close Readings, symbols and motifs, historical and literary context, Pushkin and censorship, the Petersburg myth, a Translation & Edition Guide, critical interpretations, comparative reading suggestions, 30 Reading and Discussion Questions, Ten Key Moments, Twenty Key Concepts and Quick Revision & Recall.
For a poem of such modest length, The Bronze Horseman asks enormous questions about power, progress, responsibility, suffering and who gets remembered by history.
Digital Reader’s Companion — £7.95
Russian Literature Collection 2
A Hero of Our Time • Dead Souls • Eugene Onegin • The Bronze Horseman • The Master and Margarita • Doctor Zhivago
Individual price: £7.95 each
Six separately: £47.70
Collection price: £42.95
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