A Hero of Our Time

The novel consists of several parts, and the chronological order is disrupted. This arrangement serves special artistic purposes: in particular, first we see Pechorin through the eyes of Maxim Maximych, and only then do we see him from the inside, through diary entries.

“Bela”
Represents an embedded story: the narration is led by Maxim Maximych, who tells his story to an unnamed officer he met in the Caucasus. Bored in the mountain wilderness, Pechorin begins his service with the theft of someone else’s horse and the kidnapping of the beloved daughter of a local prince, which provokes a corresponding reaction among the mountaineers. But Pechorin doesn’t care about it. After the careless act of a young officer, a collapse of dramatic events follows: Azamat forever leaves his family; Bela dies at the hands of Kazbich.

“Maxim Maximych”
This part attaches to “Bela”; it has no independent novella significance, but for the composition of the whole novel it is crucial. Here, the reader meets Pechorin face to face only once. The meeting of old acquaintances doesn’t happen—it’s more like a brief exchange with the desire of one of the interlocutors to end it as quickly as possible. The narration is built on the contrast between two opposite characters—Pechorin and Maxim Maximych. The portrait is given through the eyes of the officer-narrator. In this chapter, there’s an attempt to decipher “the inner” Pechorin through external “speaking” features.

“Taman”
The story is not about Pechorin’s reflection, but shows him from an active, energetic side. Here, unexpectedly for himself, Pechorin becomes a witness to criminal activity. At first he thinks that the person who has arrived from the other shore risks his life for something truly valuable, but in reality it’s only a smuggler. Pechorin is very disappointed by this. Yet when he leaves, he doesn’t regret having been in that place. The main meaning lies in Pechorin’s final words: “And why did fate cast me into the peaceful circle of honest smugglers? Like a stone thrown into a smooth spring, I disturbed their calm, and like a stone I almost went under myself!”

“Princess Mary”
The story is written in the form of a diary. In terms of life material, “Princess Mary” is closest to the so-called “society tale” of the 1830s, but Lermontov filled it with a different meaning.
The story begins with Pechorin’s arrival in Pyatigorsk for mineral waters, where he meets Princess Ligovskaya and her daughter, called Mary in the English manner. In addition, he meets his former love Vera and his acquaintance Grushnitsky. Junker Grushnitsky—a poseur and a secret careerist—serves as a contrasting character to Pechorin.
During his stay in Kislovodsk and Pyatigorsk, Pechorin wins over Princess Mary and quarrels with Grushnitsky. He kills Grushnitsky in a duel and rejects Princess Mary. Suspected of the duel, he is exiled again—this time to a fortress. There he meets Maxim Maximych.

“A Fatalist”
The events take place in a Cossack stanitsa where Pechorin arrives. He’s a guest in someone’s house, and the company plays cards. Soon they get bored, and a conversation begins about predestination and fatalism, which some believe and some don’t. A dispute breaks out between Vulich and Pechorin: Pechorin says he sees an obvious death on Vulich’s face. As a result, during the dispute Vulich takes a pistol and shoots himself, but there’s a misfire. Everyone goes home. Soon Pechorin learns that Vulich is dead—he was hacked down with a saber by a drunken Cossack. Then Pechorin decides to test his fate and catch the Cossack. He rushes into his house; the Cossack shoots, but misses. Pechorin seizes the Cossack, arrives at Maxim Maximych, and tells him everything.