A Hero of Our Time

A Hero of Our Time is a novel by Mikhail Lermontov published in 1840. It tells the story of a young officer, Pechorin, sent to the Caucasus after a duel. This is what the author himself wrote about his idea of Pechorin in the preface: "Pechorin, my dear readers, is in fact a portrait, but not of one man only: he is a composite portrait, made up of all the vices which flourish, full-grown, amongst the present generation. You will tell me, as you have told me before, that no man can be so wicked as this; and my reply will be: 'If you believe that such persons as the villains of tragedy and romance could exist in real life, why can you not believe in the reality of Pechorin? If you could admire far more terrifying and repulsive types, why aren't you more merciful to this character, even if it is fictitious? Isn't it because there's more truth in it than you might wish?'" This edition includes 22 illustrations by M. Lermontov, M. Vrubel, V. Serov, V. Polyakov and other artists of the late 19th and early 20th century.