realized that this was the form I was looking for to tell my tales of California. The little short stories I had in my mind subsided and this more organically oriented novel came into being. I loved the form, the ability that Pushkin had to run through a wide range of emotions, from absolute flippancy to real sorrow and passages that would make you think, during and after reading it." In addition, portions of the novel make reference to (the now defunct) Printers Inc. Bookstore and Cafe in neighboring Palo Alto, California (sonnets 8.13 to 8.16). Themes At intervals, various characters discuss arguments either against or in favor of homosexuality, Christianity, civil disobedience, feminism, and tolerance; whereas the narrative, by example of danger or anti-intellectualism, implies warning against alcoholism or carelessness, and elsewhere criticizes news-media and art-criticism for unjust treatment of their subjects. References External links Powell's review The Literary Encyclopedia (in progress) An online copy of Charles Johnston's translation of Onegin Information on the opera Verse novels 1986 British novels Sonnet studies Novels by Vikram Seth Indian English-language novels British LGBT novels Sahitya Akademi Award-winning works Random House books Novels set in San Francisco 20th-century Indian novels 1986 novels 1986 debut novels