Russian Winter #2 of 2 - A Hero of our Time by Mikhail Lermontov

By SwiftCell2965

This Sunday the 29th we’re supposed to talk about Houellebecq’s *Submission*. In the meantime, I’m wondering if anyone’s reading a Russian book right now—drop what you’re on, please. Also, we’re back with the Cossacks again for a third year, and this time it’s “in the present,” which is kinda funny/odd. The Lermontov bit is pretty intense: he was an officer in a Hussar regiment and wrote *A Hero of Our Time* back in 1839, not long after Pushkin died, and then not too long before Lermontov himself got killed in a duel. I’m not 100% sure how the whole duel situation “worked out” exactly, but the basic story is that Martynov challenged him and ended up shooting first, and Lermontov supposedly told people he’d shoot into the air. Then of course he got hit. Anyway, *A Hero of Our Time* is basically a five-part thing about Pechorin—fearless, kind of womanizing, and always moving like he’s bored of everything. The stories feel a bit like American Western vibes, but with way more melodrama and an ironic narrator looking sideways at everything. I did like some of the set-ups, especially *Bela* and *Princess Mary*. *Taman* is probably my favorite because it’s got that seaside atmosphere and it almost feels lighter than the rest, even though stuff is still going wrong. Pechorin just keeps doing whatever, and everyone around him is left wondering what he even thinks of them. He’s got that whole Byronic/creepy-cool vibe too, which is… a lot. I’ve read enough Lermontov to sort of get the tone, but I’d still love to know what other people think of him—like, do you like him, find him annoying, or somewhere in between?