Eugene Onegin is the first Russian novel in verse. A new model of literature as an easy conversation about everything. Gallery of eternal Russian characters. A revolutionary love story for its era, which became the archetype of romantic relationships for many generations to come. Encyclopedia of Russian life. Our everything. "Belkin's Tales" is Pushkin's debut in prose. Artless stories about the game of chance, where the author hides behind literary masks. Contemporaries of “Belkin’s Tale” did not appreciate it; descendants saw in it the beginning of great Russian prose. “The Queen of Spades” is Pushkin’s masterfully constructed story: Gothic horror, the incarnation of Napoleon and a parable about how greed and monomania enslave a person. About the “Main Books of Russian” series Literature" - a joint series of the publishing house "Alpina. Prose" and the Internet project "Shelf". The works that appear in it are selected by modern writers, critics, literary scholars, and teachers. This is both an attempt to determine what the Russian literary canon looks like today, and a new look at famous works: each book is accompanied by a detailed article by the authors of “The Shelf.”