A Hero of Our Time

“A Hero of Our Time” is the only completed novel by Mikhail Lermontov. It is a socio-psychological drama in which the plot takes a back seat, giving all attention to the main character—an unusual, often unpleasant, dubious, incomprehensible person, tangled in his own thoughts and feelings, and therefore entangling everyone else: Grigory Pechorin. Inspired by “Eugene Onegin,” Lermontov assembled “a portrait composed of the vices of our entire generation, in their full development.” A portrait meant to expose society’s flaws, but in the end told of the tragedy of a post-romantic hero: undoubtedly vicious, yet fascinatingly attractive—and above all, real.

In the era that had already almost said goodbye to romanticism, Lermontov writes a “history of the soul” of a romantic hero, selecting suitable extras for his actions and impressive scenery.

“‘If you admired fantasies far more horrible and ugly, why doesn’t this character—even as a fiction—find any mercy from you? Could it be because in him there is more truth than you would wish?’”