Written in 1820, when Pushkin was very young, "Ruslan and Ludmila" was his first major work. Its appearance signalled the birth of a genius who was soon to make all of Russia resound with his name. "The sun of Russian poetry", as the poet came later to be called, was rising.
A graduate of the Tsarskoselsky Lyceum, Pushkin, like his fellow students, had a good knowledge of the literature of classicism with its poetic evocation of a past rich in heroic deeds. In "Ruslan and Ludmila", a poem written in a light and humorous vein and characterized by an easy grace and lucidity, Pushkin saw fit to present this heroic past in a facetious light and to parody the mumbo-jumbo of sorcery and mysticism.
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