Aleksandr Pushkin continues to exert an enormous influence on Russian culture and literature more than a century and a half after his death. The impact he has made bears witness to the enormous scope of his talent as well as its continuing appeal to succeeding generations. His importance is not to literature alone. Almost every Russian composer of note and several European ones have some work based on one of Pushkin's writings. Even Pushkin's unfinished works (such as "Dubrovsky," which was made into a play; Motsart i Sal'eri, which was made into the motion picture Amadeus) have found expression in other forms. Long genres and short ones all illustrate his genius--lyrics of all kinds (odes, elegies, poetic epistles, epigrams, songs), narrative forms in verse and prose (novels, verse tales, short stories, dramas), and even his literary criticism and letters--have earned high praise. His writings and the mythology that...