A Hero Of Our Time
1839, Mikhail Lermontov
I’d recommend this to:
I was initially recommended this book by a friend who said it was his favorite. It’s a quick read and amazing — the archetype of a hero is twisted with the nihilistic values “of our time”, so that he, Pechorin, no longer has anything to fight for, take seriously, or believe in. His life is filled with traditional stories of adventure, battle, and romance, but he warps them with his cynicism, skepticism, and flippancy.
“I was amused to think that there were once wise men who imagined the stars took part in men’s petty squabbles over a patch of land or some imagined rights. … Yet what strength they derived from this certainty that the heavens with all their countless hosts looked down on them in silent, but never-failing sympathy. And we, their pitiful descendants, drift through the world without beliefs or pride, without pleasure or fear, except that instinctive dread that grips us when we think of our inevitable end… and as our ancestors plunged on from illusion to illusion, so we drift indifferently from doubt to doubt.”
He prefers to analyze life instead of living it, has grown used to everything, and rarely befriends people for purposes other than maniuplating and using them. As a result, he no longer finds anything novel or exciting, and happiness is fleeting in his otherwise unfulfilling life. His descriptions of Pechorin’s emotions was pretty relatable for anyone experiencing similar problems. I feel that the delivery of his personality was somewhat disorganized, though — I’m suprised he wasn’t a fatalist when his whole life was spent in the same struggle; he’d also alternate between blaming his personality on society and on his own overthinking, instead of clarifying it was both. I didn’t really mind, though.
Other than that, the prose is great, especially because the book’s characters are traveling through the Caucasus — there are lengthy descriptions of nature, the skies, the mountains, and so on. The adventures he went on were fun to read. The book was also pretty funny. Almost all of the characters are jerks, and sometimes in really petty ways, like this:
“I’m going for a stroll,” said Grushnitsky. “I just couldn’t sleep at the moment. I know — let’s go to the restaurant. There’ll be gambling, and tonight I must have strong sensations.”
“I hope you lose,” I said, and went home.
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