A Hero of Our Time (Penguin Classics)

by Mikhail Lermontov (Author), Mikhail Lermontov (Author), Paul Foote (Translator)

• New

  Paperback
  2001

  $15.66

  A masterpiece of Russian prose, Lermontov's only novel was influential for many later 19th century authors, including Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, and Chekhov. Lermotov's hero, Pechorin, is a dangerous man, Byronic in his wasted gifts and his cynicism, and desperate for any kind of action that will stave off boredom. In five linked episodes, Lermontov builds up a portrait of a man caught in and expressing the sickness of his times.

• Used

  Paperback
  1975

  $15.33

• New

  Hardcover
  1992

  $15.87

  Set in the Caucasus, the scene of Russia's military campaigns in the 19th century, this is both an adventure story and a sardonic look at the heroic ideals of the author's contemporaries - which makes it all the more ironic that the main character, Pushkin, (like the author) was killed in a duel.