His finest effort, "Evgeny Onyegin" (1822-1829), exhibits the poet in the process of development, from the Byronic stage to the vigorous independence of a purely national writer.

The hero, Evgeny Onyegin, begins as a society young man of the period; that is to say, he was inevitably a Byronic character.

His father's death calls him from the dissipations of the capital to the quiet life of a country estate.
He regards his neighbors as his inferiors, both in culture and social standing, and for a long time will have nothing to do with them.

At last, rather accidentally, he strikes up a friendship with Lensky, a congenial spirit, a young poet, who has had the advantage of foreign education, the son of one of the neighbors.

Olga Larin, the young daughter of another neighbor, has long been betrothed to Lensky, and the latter naturally introduces Onyegin to her family.