A Hero of Our Time

1

(accent on first syllable) was a great poet and not a bad landscape painter either. He was exiled to the front line of the colonial war that the Russians carried on against the Caucasian tribesmen in the first part of the 19th century – twice. He had visited the area as a boy a couple of times. After attending Moscow University and graduating from military school he became friends with some of those who played a part in the failed Decembrist uprising. He greatly admired the Russian poet Aleksandr Pushkin and was upset by his death in a duel in January 1837, so he wrote a eulogy – that caused his first political exile. There he fought bravely, studied and translated some Caucasian literature, and met some revolutionary exiles. As well as doing some painting he picked up the ideas for this book and some great poems. After his return to Moscow, he again got into trouble and was exiled to the Caucasus a second time. He was killed in a duel, much like the one in this book, at the age of 26. Nabokov translates a wonderful recursive poem he wrote just before that duel. The reported reaction by Czar Nicholas I was "a dog's death for a dog."

2

Lermontov's title in manuscript was One of the Heroes of the Beginning of the Century, although the book as printed is supposed to take place starting in the fall of 1837. In English, the novel has been variously entitled A Hero of our Own Time, The Hero of Our Days, A Hero of Our Times, and The Heart of a Russian. We employ the most common and traditional title.

3

Written 1837 to 1839, the book was first printed April 1840, after three of the chapters had been published as stories in a magazine. The preface was added for the second edition, 1841 – it was at that time printed at the beginning of volume (part) 2. (Some translations put the preface at the end of the book.) This book comes at the end of the Romantic period and many critics feel it makes a transition to Realism. Some point out its striking modern aspects of existential irony and innovative narrative discourse.

4

We also referred to but did not literally copy from the interpretation in the 1958 translation by Vladimir and Dmitri Nabokov, Doubleday Anchor Books. (We draw attention especially to the authoritative introduction and notes of this book, even though they did not have access to the early editions – and the Edward Gorey cover hits the nail on the head for modern readers.) Referred to hereafter as "Nabokov."

5

how to interpret the irony in this book is the subject of a raft of books and articles listed in the Everyman edition, ranging from early Russian critics to Soviet Marxist-Leninist to Formalist to modernist and post-modernist and psychoanalytic. But why not just read the book here and decide for yourself?

6

slang American term for rural, provincial, i.e., not St. Petersburg or Moscow.

7

actually, the Romantic excesses were incurred by the generation that was just ending, with the Byronic hero as the exemplar, while Lermontov's contemporaries such as those portrayed by Turgenev and Dostoeyevsky went on to new vices and virtues. However, the personality of this type of hero or criminal has fascinated a lot of writers and even readers of detective or spy novels in many cultures.

8

the name is derived from that of a Siberian river, as is Onegin by Pushkin. Of course, there are endless speculations about the character of Pechorin. What do you think? Have you known anyone like him?

9

the division into parts this way makes no sense (Nabokov called it "purely fortuitous") and seems to have been an invention of the clumsy editor of the second edition. Russian literature did not yet have a tradition of the prose novel, while European printers at the time usually divided novels into separate volumes for convenience and sales. If one wanted to read the book in chronological order of the fictional events, it would be this way: Taman, Princess Mary, Bela (The Fatalist comes in the middle of this), Maksim Maksimich, and the Preface. However, the order Lermontov uses does spiral in on Pechorin's character effectively. By the way, there are references in the book to "a long chain of tales" and teases about "a fat notebook" of remaining material, but, sorry, this is all we've got.

10

The Georgian (and Ossetian) north-south military highways built by the Russians over the middle part of the Caucasus Mountains are still the main routes. The track from Tibilisi (Tiflis) to Vladikavkaz follows the Aragva River, over the 8,000-ft. Pass of the Cross, the Koyshaur Canyon, and down through Kazbek and Lars along the Terek River, which flows to the Caspian Sea. The road is more than 120 miles long. The area is called "Asiatic" by European Russians.

11

now called T'bilisi, capital of the now independent nation of Georgia. Georgia has had a long relationship with Russia, notably between the Treaty of Georgievsk, 1783, and 1878, when the Russians drove to the Black Sea in a war against the Turks. In 1837 Georgia was peacefully run by the Russians. However, the mountain people to the north were involved in bitter resistance to the Russian takeover of their territory, and political rebels were sent to this front by the Czar's government just as they were to Siberia.

12

telezhka, crude springless horse-drawn carriage.

13

people (Cherkes) in the northwest Caucasus Mountains (Abkhazia, Kabardia) fought the Russians from 1815 to about 1839, when they were mostly subdued. In 1864 the entire nation of about 400,000 people emigrated to Ottoman territory rather than live under the Russians. They have an ancient origin evidently absorbing Greek, Roman and possibly Crusader elements, and because they were tall, handsome, and intelligent were favored slaves, mercenaries, and managers.

14

epaulets or epaulettes, fancy shoulder boards with fringes hanging from the ends showing an officer's rank. Although mostly generals or admirals wear them now for fancy dress, even lowly officers wore them then regularly.

15

The Chechens, and the Lezgians of Dagestan (the eastern part of the mountains), are Muslims, but speak Indo-European languages. Like many Native American Indians and third-world people in other countries, they bravely resisted the white man's colonization and pacification attempts, with a dirty guerrilla war that lasted years. The Dagestan guerrillas were conquered in 1857-9, when many of them went south to Armenia. The Chechens, many in North Ossetia in the mid part of the Caucasus, were also defeated. In 1920 they formed a province (oblast) under the Russians, united with the Inguish, but were exiled to Central Asia by Stalin after they were charged with collaboration with the Germans during World War II (in 1957 Khrushchev allowed them to return). December 11, 1994, Chechnia was again invaded by Russian troops, who destroyed the capital but failed to completely subdue the mountain guerrillas. We have seen little on the Internet about Ossetia, but here is a record of a visit by Fitzroy Maclean, we don't know when. And this Australian web page contains a full list of links to other resources about the Caucasus region.

16

older translations use "swarthy" – Nabokov comments that Lermontov uses both cliched and strange words for colors.

17

Russian army headquarters in North Caucasus, 160 miles northwest of Vladikavkaz.

18

i.e., not European Russians, who were those to the north but closer to the West. The term used by Maksim Maksimivich – though, is not one of much respect, more like the derogatory slang used by an American soldier, either for enemy or ally or just foreign civilian – just refers usually to the "foreign" Muslims in general.

19

(1772-1861), greatly respected leader of Russian counter-guerrilla operations, especially in Chechnia and Dagestan, 1818-1827.

20

here, the row of front-line forts in the counter-guerrilla war.

21

the officers' ranks in this book are significant – it seems that Pechorin was demoted after the duel and before the Bela episode, although he still outranked a cadet as an ensign. A second lieutenant or shtabs-kapitan was below captain but above ensign.

22

Parker's word is "ruffians", Nabokov's is "cut-throats." It indicates the resentment of the regular army officer against the unconventional but effective tactics of the mountain guerrillas, a word we sometimes use for Parker's abreks .

23

also spelled Tartars, descendents of invaders from Central Asia, but essentially at this point any Muslims who speak Turkish languages. Remember the Circassians don't speak a Turkic dialect, but a rare Indo-European one.

24

Kammeny Brod, probably fictional.

25

or boza, a new wine or other fermented drink made with hemp seed, not related to the slang word "booze", which is from Middle English for cup.

26

sounds like an interesting story, but we aren't told that story here.

27

mirnoy knyaz' – he didn't take sides between the Russians and the guerrillas.

28

the age is of interest since he insults the young cadet, who was about 21, a few years before, in "Princess Mary," and because a psychoanalytic interpretation of Pechorin's personality indicates narcissism and inordinate concern about his appearance and being an adult, or at least so say some experts.

29

short for Maksim Maksimovich, and pronounced like "Mack-SEE-much" according to Nabokov. We have changed the name throughout from Parker's "Maksimych."

30

"white army caps": an ordinary informal, fatigue uniform cap that would, however, be worn by an officer demoted in rank, such as a political exile or one who had killed another in a duel. (Cornwell notes the undertext of political exile in this locale through the book.) Regular Army epaulets indicate a lesser grade than a royal Guards officer from the capital. A cadet might wear an army overcoat to pretend he had been in a duel and so reduced in rank.

31

"Bad" according to the text, although it is not certain how skilled Lermontov (or Maksim Maksimich, or the unnamed narrator, either, for that matter) was with the maze of Caucasian languages. Can we trust any of the narrators here?

32

ritual blood-brother in this culture, sworn buddy, from the word for "guest" in Turkic dialect; it doesn't seem that it means much in this story.

33

in this case, all Muslims.

34

Muslim religious leader.

35

formal dance.

36

strummed Russian string instrument.

37

although in Latin languages it might connote "beautiful," in Turkic it means "grief." However, the Circassian language is not Turkic but Ibero-Caucasian, an Indo-European branch.

38

pronounced with the accent on the second syllable.

39

actually, barani meaning rams.

40

beshmet or bashmet, a silk or cotton shirt or smock belted at the waist and usually fancily embroidered; the jacket over it was usually worn open to expose it.

41

planning what? The plot is thin here.

42

southern Russian tribesmen, Christians, who served as skilled cavalrymen and sort of military police force.

43

word used is actually "Giaour," Turkish for non-Muslim, like the Yiddish "goy."

44

Nabokov believes it means "Black Eye" in Turkic, but again, the Circassians here didn't speak a Turkic language. The love affair between Russian men and their horses is described in many books.

45

famous sword-maker made very sharp blades layered and tempered like Toledo steel. Pistols and muskets of the time had only a short range and were inaccurate from a moving horse. Swords and knives were important emblems for men.

46

probably invented by Lermontov, and his lie about its being in prose first is just piling fiction upon preposterous fiction. Lermontov wrote surpassingly good verse still memorized by Russians, but pretty much unknown in English.

Author's note: I apologize to my readers for having put Kazbich's song, which of course was told in prose, into verse; but habit is second nature.

47

Nabokov lists a whole page of these stock phrases Lermontov uses to indicate emotion in various Romantic ways.

48

mountain mammal like an antelope or goat.

49

bride-money, dowry. Many tribes regulate marriages by requiring the husband to pay for the wife before marriage – if she returns to her family he doesn't always get his money back; alternatively, her family gives money which is often retained by her no matter what happens.

50

the narrator (can you figure out which one here?) has already forgotten that this courser never needed to be tethered.

51

Nabokov states something apparently is wrong with the text here.

52

"I once witnessed...," etc.: Nabokov emphasizes the role of eavesdropping in the novel as a literary device to advance the plot, since the exchange of letters as in the Romantic epistolary novel had been worn out by this time. Psychoanalytic critics point out the social isolation involved in this behavior. It also brings in the element of chance vs. fate that runs through the text. Furthermore, it fits right in with the strange texture of the text where fictional characters seem to invent and imitate one another and listen in to what each other says – amazing when you think of it – what is really the truth in this novel?

53

i.e., Muslims on the south side of the mountains.

54

the Russian word is the same for heaven, sky, or firmament.

55

Gamba, French diplomat to Georgia, travel writer (1826), misinterpreted Mount Krestovaya (Mount of the Cross, from Russian "krest" or cross) as "Mount Saint Christopher."

56

prosaic central Russian provincial cities.

57

the whistling highway robber of Russian folklore who could frighten by imitating wild animals.

58

(1672-1725) occupied Derbent in 1702 and Baku in 1723 and traveled through East Caucasus but there is no record he went as far as this part of the mountains.

59

polyana, which really means clearing.

60

so much for the blood-brother.

61

did Kazbich want to carry her off?: The previous motivation seems to have been forgotten – why didn't he take off after his beloved courser instead of the girl?

62

we couldn't bring ourselves to use the word "poultice" here.

63

or Shapsugi, a tribe of the Circassians in the northwest Caucasus.

64

now Krasnodar, North Caucasus, spa town perhaps 60 miles northwest of Vladikavkaz.

65

the dry steppes, or rolling upland prairie hills north of the Caucasus, were crossed by (Bactrian) camel caravans.

66

comic character from 1785 and later operas.

67

Nabokov uses the term "bags" here because the local people were known to collect honey in goatskins.

68

or coy woman: from his short novel, La femme de trente ans (1834)

69

all-too-revealing Romantic so-called autobiography of 1782. See on-line version.

70

nechisto, just unclean, but there are overtones of haunted or evil, perhaps influenced by Undina.

71

Black Sea port near Caucasus, south of Taman.

72

"On that day shall the mute sing out and the blind shall see:" Isaiah 35:5-6, 29:18.

73

Nabokov insists the word used means "boulders" and goes into a long explanation of why it should be translated "billows".

74

as the name indicates, this is what is left of an ancient Greek colony on the Black Sea.

75

actually, "undine," as in Zhukovsky's poem Undina and an 1811 French romance.

76

changed here from "gloaming".

77

not to be confused with the political movement a little later, this was a foolish group of dandies in Paris who ineffectually looked down on the solid middle class and posed such ridiculous propositions as this one.

78

pseudo-science such as phrenology and diagnosis by facial features was common at the time. It would not be surprising to see Roman features in people living in Black Sea towns.

79

heroine from Goethe's Wilhelm Meister.

80

spa town on river about 60 miles west of Yekateringrad and north of the Caucasus and its highest peak, Mt. Elbrus. Lermontov was killed in a duel here. A spa is a place with mineral water springs thought to have healing properties and thus frequented by wounded soldiers or other sick or old people. It was a good place to mix and form new social relationships and so a suitable place for a novel. Finally, this type of society gathering was usual in the society novels that Lermontov effectively puts paid to in this segment (the Encyclopædia Brittanica article on Lermontov seems to miss the point of its irony entirely).

81

"the last cloud...": from Pushkin's The Storm Cloud, 1835.

82

swelling of the glands.

83

we couldn't bear to use the term "lorgnette," a sort of magnifying spectacle often with a little handle, used to see at a distance, as at the opera or to make an impression on someone.

84

Nabokov notes the tendency as here to veer into the past tense as if someone – maybe Pechorin? – is trying out this character for a role in a play or a book.

85

French for love-letters.

86

cut very short.

87

"My friend, I hate men in order not to despise them – otherwise life would be too disgusting a farce."

88

"My friend, I despise women in order not to love them – otherwise life would be too ridiculous a melodrama."

89

handsome young man loved by Aphrodite in Greek legend.

90

a stock allusion to an old report that the Roman fortune-tellers who worked by examining animals' guts used to laugh in secret reference to their play-acting of predictions whenever two of them met.

91

this whole speech is one of the most revealing of Pechorin's character, according to psychoanalytic critics, who point out the obvious determination by Pechorin to hide as much of his true character as possible at the same time he claims that all is known.

92

the word is missing in Parker's text but we agree with Nabokov in replacing it here.

93

cherkeska, i.e., from the Cherkes.

94

balki, Turkic, like the Spanish barranco.

95

another reference to Chatsky, see below.

96

"My God, a Circassian (bandit)." "Fear not, ma'am, I am no more dangerous than your companion" (cavalier, gallant knight, meaning Grushnitsky). More polite French phrases follow in this story, such as "That's impossible," "Permit me," and so forth. Upper class Russians spoke French in formal society.

97

another spa to the west some ten miles.

98

since the Jews were not accepted in Russian society they had to work in such jobs as tailors.

99

a magazine meant to be taken seriously, edited by Osip Senkovsky, who, by the way, first reviewed this book rather favorably, but, after Lermontov's death, retracted his judgment and called it infantile.

100

economically too small a feudal estate with that many serfs or as they were called "souls".

101

famous Caucasian mineral water. In the Kabardian language, nart-sane means drink of the Narts, mythical giants or heroes.

102

actually, the imported American black locust tree, which has beautiful white flowers this time of year.

103

loosely from Chatsky, or Woe from Wit (1824, 1833), a comedy by Griboyedov that was banned by the censors for political reasons. This work seems to have begun the theme of the Russian "superfluous man" that is continued here and later by many others, including Turgenev and Dostoeyevsky.

104

from Eugene Onegin, appeared in 1828.

105

1581 Italian poem read in French versions in Russia. See online version.

106

the Russians had read a French version of The Vampire: A Tale, by John Polidori (1819).

107

read in French translation (though Lermontov knew some English).

108

whose fate the Roman augurs, or fortune-tellers, had fully predicted, as in "the ides of March".

109

the comedy (play) is over.

110

card game like bridge.

111

gambling card games.

112

chirir', Caucasian new wine.

113

we've added "big book" here – it's our predestined fate, the mythical story that the author God has already assigned every detail to our mortal lives, and supposedly written it in a book available for consultation in heaven. Note the parallel to a similar expression at the start of this novel.

114

Another online edition of this work can be found at the University of Virginia Library Electronic Text Center. That English translation, entitled "The Heart of a Russian," by J. H. Wisdom Marr Murray, N.Y.: Knopf, 1916, has a different order to the chapters and has heavy Victorian prose and sketchy footnotes. However, the edition, by Judy Boss, Carolyn Fay, and David Seaman, does have page numbers and a few color illustrations. We did not refer to it when doing this edition. A text-only version of that translation was released in Project Gutenberg in May, 1997.

For further references, please see the books by Cornwell and Nabokov previously cited, as they contain notes, a map, chronologies, excerpts from critical material, and everything you need.