A Hero of Our Time — Mikhail Lermontov | Reader’s Companion | Coleman’s Notes CN-061

Meet Grigory Pechorin — one of the most fascinating, intelligent and troubling figures in nineteenth-century literature.

Pechorin is a young Russian officer capable of extraordinary insight into himself and everyone around him. Yet his intelligence brings neither happiness nor purpose. Bored, restless and fascinated by psychological power, he repeatedly interferes in the lives of others — often with devastating consequences.

Set amid the spectacular landscape of the Russian Caucasus, Lermontov’s A Hero of Our Time combines Romantic adventure with remarkably modern psychological analysis.

Coleman’s Notes® CN-061 provides a detailed companion to the complete novel, guiding the reader through “Bela”, “Maksim Maksimych”, “Taman”, “Princess Mary” and “The Fatalist”, while explaining why Lermontov deliberately presents Pechorin’s life out of chronological order.

Explore Pechorin’s relationships with Bela, Maksim Maksimych, Princess Mary, Vera, Grushnitski and Vulich, together with the novel’s treatment of alienation, boredom, love, possession, friendship, honour, masculinity, fate, free will and self-knowledge.

The companion also examines Pechorin as an early example of the Russian “superfluous man”, his relationship to the European Byronic hero, Lermontov’s changing narrators, the role of the Caucasus, landscape and the sublime, Russian imperial perspectives, and the fascinating question at the centre of the novel:

What happens when a man understands himself extraordinarily well — but cannot use that understanding to change?

Also included are Eight Extended Close Readings, historical and literary context, a Translation & Edition Guide, critical debates and interpretations, comparative and independent-study ideas, 50 Reading and Discussion Questions, key episodes and concepts, and Quick Revision & Recall.

70 A5 pages

Digital Reader’s Companion — £7.95

Russian Literature Collection 2

A Hero of Our Time • Dead Souls • Eugene Onegin • The Bronze Horseman • The Master and Margarita • Doctor Zhivago

Individual price: £7.95 each

Six separately: £47.70

Collection price: £42.95

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READ • REFLECT • EXPLORE • UNDERSTAND