A Hero of Our Time

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

A Hero of Our Time (Russian: "Герой нашего времени") is a classical Russian novel by Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov, written and revised between 1839 and 1841.

The plot concerns a certain Grigory Pechorin, a Russian aristocrat, a military officer, and a Byronic Hero, and follows his adventures during his stay (implied to be involuntary) in the Caucasus Region. The novel consists of five parts (plus Framing Device):

  • Bela. The Watson (implied to be Lermontov himself) meets an Old Soldier Maxim Maximich while traveling across Caucasus, who tells him a story how an old friend of his (Pechorin) once fell in love with and kidnapped a highlander princess (it didn't work out).
  • Maxim Maximich. The Watson tells of a chance meeting between Maxim Maximich and Pechorin that he accidentally witnessed. Afterwards, Maxim Maximich hands over Pechorin's diaries to him.
  • Taman. An excerpt from Pechorin's diary: soon after his arrival to Caucasus, he gets involved with a local Femme Fatale and a smuggler gang.
  • Princess Mary. Pechorin is stationed in Pyatigorsk and has an affair with two women: an old flame of his and the eponymous princess. In the end, he kills a guy on a duel and is reassigned to Maxim Maximich's outpost.
  • The Fatalist. Pechorin is out drinking and gambling with fellow officers, and then one of them shoots himself in the head on a bet. He dies but not by the bullet.

Lermontov also published a short essay The Caucasian (1840; as in "someone from Caucasus", not "pale-faced"), wherein he more or less describes Maxim Maximich's Backstory (without any names). Additionally, AHoOT can be seen as a sequel to his unfinished novel Princess Ligovskaya (1838), which also features Grigory Pechorin (who may or may not be the same character) and is set in St Petersburg.

Tropes used in A Hero of Our Time include:
  • Author Avatar: Some interpret Pechorin as this.
  • The Berserker: Pechorin has traces of this.
  • Bus Crash: Pechorin is last seen in the narrative in Maxim Maximich while en route to Persia and the intro to his diary reveals that he died on the way back.
  • Byronic Hero: Pechorin is one of the most famous ones in Russian literature. However, see Deconstructor Fleet below.
  • Character Title:
    • The novel title refers to Pechorin, whom the author considered a contemporary hero despite his major flaws.
    • Bela, Maxim Maximich, and Princess Mary are all named after the characters whose life Pechorin has a major impact upon.
    • The Fatalist is not so clear cut: according to various interpretations, it can refer to Vulich, Pechorin, or Maxim Maximich (or all at once but in different senses).
  • Composite Character: The author intended Pechorin to be a composite of all the creative spirits of his age.
  • Custom Uniform: Grushnitsky wears a Private's coat over his officer cadet uniform.
  • The Dandy: Pechorin.
  • Deconstructor Fleet: In Bela and Taman, Lermontov picks apart the "wacky Caucasus adventures" genre prominent during his time. The central character is a darker, more realistic take on the Byronic Hero archetype, and Grushnitsky is an outright mockery of the concept. The novel as a whole is regarded as the author's farewell to Romanticism.
  • Duel to the Death: Double-subverted with Pechorin vs. Grushnitsky: Grushnitsky's friends persuade him to miss on purpose and try to load Pechorin's gun with a blank, but Pechorin uncovers their plan by chance and kills Grushnitsky.
  • Femme Fatale: The "Undine".
  • Foil: Grushnitsky to Pechorin.
  • Genre Savvy: Pechorin seems to be completely aware of his Byronic Hero status.
  • Idle Rich: More or less every aristocrat in the book.
  • Intro-Only Point of View
  • Life Will Kill You: Vulich survives shooting himself in the head unscathed, then is killed by a drunk Cossack returning home.
  • Literary Agent Hypothesis: The nameless traveling officer who "inherits" Pechorin's diaries is never openly identified with Lermontov.
  • Meaningful Name: Pechorin is named after the Pechora River, just like Alexander Pushkin's Eugene Onegin was named after the Onega River.
  • An Officer and a Gentleman
  • Old Soldier: Maxim Maximich.
  • Patronymic: "Maximich" is actually a colloquial shortening of "Maximovich", "son of Maxim".
  • The Place: Taman is named after a small Russian town on the coast of the Black Sea.
  • Reassigned to Antarctica: Pechorin is sent into the wilderness after his duel with Grushnitsky. It is implied that he was reassigned to Caucasus in the first place because of a similar incident in St Petersburg earlier.
  • Russian Roulette: Kinda. Vulich's gun is a one-shot pistol... with a chance of jamming.
  • Scenery Porn: Lermontov's descriptions of Caucasus mountains and the nature.
  • Screw Destiny / You Cannot Fight Fate: Both tropes are Discussed and explored in The Fatalist.
  • The Watson: The unnamed traveling officer who falls into possession of Pechorin's diaries.
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