Notes
Mikhail Lermontov's A Hero of Our Time demonstrates the peculiar fascination of the Byronic antihero. First published in 1840, the novel recounts a series of adventures of the military officer Pechorin during his travels in the Caucasus. He kidnaps the beautiful Bela, daughter of a Circassian tribesman, becomes involved with smugglers, and schemes to win the affection of a Muscovite princess while embarking on an affair with his former lover Vera. Ultimately his intrigues culminate in a duel with fellow officer.
Lermontov's novel resonates today in the way it foreshadows contemporary concerns. Russia's problems in central Asia were as intractable then as now. The fatalism displayed by the "superfluous man" heralded the nihilism of modern revolutionary terror. Especially stark is the depiction of the cold machinations that occur in the relationships between men and women, where the other always remains unfathomable.
