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A review by wwatts1734
A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov
4.0
Among the greats of Russian writers of the Romantic school, Lermontov was a literary disciple of the great Russian poet Pushkin, and was an influence on the great Russian writers Dostoyevski and Chekov. It was a shame that Lermontov died as a result of a duel at the age of 25. There is no telling how Russian literature would have been different otherwise.
A Hero of Our Time is his magnum opus, and in fact one of his few non-poetic works. It is actually a collection of short stories about the hero Pechorin, a junior officer in the Czar's army stationed in the Caucasus. Pechorin, like Lermontov himself, was killed in a duel. His insights on love and life are priceless, as Lermontov draws a vivid picture of life in the semi-Slavic/semi-Middle Eastern territories of the Caucasus in the early 19th Century. Pechorin himself is an archetype of the non-traditional soldier, the sophisticated society man in uniform who does not fit the image of the disciplined military officer. In the end, Lermontov's merger of exotic locale's of the Caucasus with the interesting intellectual trends of Russian society makes for excellent reading.
The book itself is short, the stories are interesting and the characters are likeable. For the 21st Century American, Lermontov's allusions to the institutions of Czarist society and morals are obscured. However, this work is still an excellent read for modern readers.
A Hero of Our Time is his magnum opus, and in fact one of his few non-poetic works. It is actually a collection of short stories about the hero Pechorin, a junior officer in the Czar's army stationed in the Caucasus. Pechorin, like Lermontov himself, was killed in a duel. His insights on love and life are priceless, as Lermontov draws a vivid picture of life in the semi-Slavic/semi-Middle Eastern territories of the Caucasus in the early 19th Century. Pechorin himself is an archetype of the non-traditional soldier, the sophisticated society man in uniform who does not fit the image of the disciplined military officer. In the end, Lermontov's merger of exotic locale's of the Caucasus with the interesting intellectual trends of Russian society makes for excellent reading.
The book itself is short, the stories are interesting and the characters are likeable. For the 21st Century American, Lermontov's allusions to the institutions of Czarist society and morals are obscured. However, this work is still an excellent read for modern readers.