Mikhail Lermontov
A Hero of Our Time — Russia's Byron
Pushkin's heir, dead in a duel at 26. A Hero of Our Time — the first Russian psychological novel, its bored, destructive protagonist Pechorin the archetype of the 'superfluous man' — pointed the way to Dostoevsky. His poetry burns with a Byronic intensity that masks a formal perfection rivaling Pushkin's own.
Key works
- A Hero of Our Time1840— The first Russian psychological novel
- The Demon1842— A fallen angel loves a mortal — Romantic verse narrative