Line #31 Literature/AHeroOfOurTime


1	[[quoteright:294:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a_hero_of_our_age.jpg]]
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3	''A Hero of Our Time'' (Russian: "Герой нашего времени") is a classic UsefulNotes/{{Russia}}n novel by [[UsefulNotes/RussianReading Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov]], written and revised between 1839 and 1841. Its plot concerns one Grigory Pechorin -- a [[IdleRich Russian aristocrat]], a [[OfficerAndAGentleman military officer]], and a ByronicHero -- and follows his adventures during his [[TheExile involuntary stay]] in the Caucasus Region. The novel consists of five parts (plus a FramingDevice):
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5	* ''Bela''. TheWatson ([[DirectLineToTheAuthor implied to be Lermontov himself]]) meets an OldSoldier Maxim [[{{UsefulNotes/Patronymic}} Maximich]] while traveling across Caucasus, who tells him a story of how an old friend of his (Pechorin) once fell in love with and kidnapped a [[CircassianBeauty highlander princess]].
6	* ''Maxim Maximich''. TheWatson tells of a chance meeting between Maxim Maximich and Pechorin that he had accidentally witnessed. Afterwards, Maxim Maximich hands Pechorin's diaries over to him.
7	* ''Taman''. An excerpt from Pechorin's diary. Soon after his arrival to Caucasus, Pechorin gets involved with a local FemmeFatale and a smuggler gang.
8	* ''Princess Mary''. Pechorin is stationed in Pyatigorsk and has affairs with two women at once: an OldFlame of his and the title character. In the end, he kills a guy on a duel and is [[ReassignedToAntarctica reassigned to Maxim Maximich's outpost]].
9	* ''The Fatalist''. Pechorin is out drinking and gambling with fellow officers, and then one of them shoots himself in the head on a bet. He dies but not by the bullet.
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11	In 1840, Lermontov published a short essay ''A Caucasian'' (as in "someone from Caucasus", not "pale-faced"), which is more or less an OriginsEpisode for Maxim Maximich. Additionally, ''[=AHoOT=]'' can be seen as a sequel to his unfinished novel ''Princess Ligovskaya'' (1838), which also features a Grigory Pechorin (who may or [[InNameOnly may not]] be the same character) and is set in [[UsefulNotes/TheCityFormerlyKnownAs St. Petersburg]].
12	----
13	!!Tropes found in the novel include:
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15	* AnachronicOrder: Part one tells how TheNarrator came into possession of Pechorin's diaries, while part two consists of excerpts from it. The proper chronological order of the events is: ''Taman'', ''Princess Mary'', ''Bela'', ''The Fatalist'', ''Maxim Maximich'', and the FramingDevice-slash-foreword.
16	* AuthorAvatar: Some interpret Pechorin as this, although Lermontov vehemently denied it in the foreword, instead claiming Pechorin to be a CompositeCharacter of all "superfluous men"--a topic also addressed in ''Literature/EugeneOnegin'' and, later, ''Literature/{{Oblomov}}''.
17	* TheBerserker: Pechorin has traces of this, such as when he (according to Maxim Maximich) took on an equally angry bear with nothing but a hunting spear, or when he charged an armed drunk cossack and subdued him with bare hands.
18	* BusCrash: Pechorin is last seen in the narrative in ''Maxim Maximich'' while en route to Persia and the [[FramingDevice intro to his diary]] reveals that he died on the way back.
19	%% ZCE * ByronicHero: Pechorin is one of the most famous ones in Russian literature.
20	* ByronicHero: Pechorin is {{deconstructed}}.
21	* TheCasanova: Deconstructed. Pechorin is quite the ladies' man; however, he has a unique talent for wrecking the lives of the women he's involved with, and feeling little remorse for it.
22	* CharacterTitle:
23	** The novel title refers to Pechorin, whom the author considered a contemporary hero despite his major flaws.
24	** ''Bela'', ''Maxim Maximich'', and ''Princess Mary'' are all named after the characters upon whose lives Pechorin has a major impact.
25	** ''The Fatalist'' is not so clear cut: according to various interpretations, it can refer to Vulich, Pechorin, or Maxim Maximich (or all at once but in different senses).
26	* CircassianBeauty: Bela, a Circassian princess and the target of affections of both Pechorin and Kazbich. Their rivalry over her eventually costs Bela her life.
27	* CompositeCharacter: The author intended Pechorin to be a composite of all the creative spirits of his age.
28	* CustomUniform: Grushnitsky wears a Private's coat over his officer cadet uniform.
29	* TheDandy: Pechorin is always sharply dressed and groomed, which adds to his conflict with Grushnitsky, who appears to be unable to afford expensive clothes.
30	* DeconstructorFleet: In ''Bela'' and ''Taman'', Lermontov picks apart the "wacky Caucasus adventures" genre prominent during his time. The central character is a darker, more realistic take on the ByronicHero archetype, and Grushnitsky is an outright mockery of the concept. The novel as a whole is regarded as the author's farewell to Romanticism.
31	* DirectLineToTheAuthor: The nameless traveling officer who "inherits" Pechorin's diaries is never openly identified with Lermontov.
32	* DuelToTheDeath: Double-subverted with Pechorin vs. Grushnitsky: [[spoiler:Grushnitsky's friends persuade him to miss on purpose and try to load Pechorin's gun with a blank, but Pechorin uncovers their plan by chance and kills Grushnitsky]].
33	* FemmeFatale: The "Undine" from ''Taman'' is a beautiful peasant girl, who, upon learning of Pechorin's discovery of her paramour Yanko's smuggling operation, attempts to seduce him in order to lure him out to the sea and to drown him.
34	* {{Foil}}: Grushnitsky to Pechorin. Where Pechorin is [[IdleRich rich, idle]], and stylish, Grushnitsky is a desperate and pretentious social climber. On the other hand, both compete to be the most brooding ByronicHero in town, except that Grushnitsky only plays the part to attract the ladies, while Pechorin actually is one, with depressingly realistic consequences to anyone involved with him.
35	* GenreSavvy: One layer of deconstruction in this novel is that Pechorin seems to recognize his own ByronicHero tendencies (in ''The Fatalist'', he even subtly compares himself to Creator/LordByron's romanticized image) and acts in accordance with or against them, depending on his mood.
36	%% ZCE * IdleRich: More or less every aristocrat in the book.
37	* IntroOnlyPointOfView: The story begins with the narrator traveling over the Caucasus Mountains; then he meets Maxim Maximych, who narrates ''Bela'', thus shifting the focus to Pechorin.
38	* KilledOffscreen: By the time we start reading Pechorin's diaries, he's already dead.
39	* LifeWillKillYou: Vulich survives shooting himself in the head unscathed, then [[spoiler:is killed by a drunk Cossack returning home]].
40	* AMatchMadeInStockholm: Pechorin has Bela kidnapped for him and holds her captive until she falls in love with him. Then, he gets bored of her.
41	* ManipulativeBastard: Pechorin. In ''Bela'', he emotionally manipulates the title heroine to make her love him. In ''Princess Mary'', he gets Mary to fall in love with him ''just to create the smokescreen for his romance with Vera''.
42	* MeaningfulName: Pechorin is named after the Pechora River, just like Creator/AlexanderPushkin's ''Literature/EugeneOnegin'' was named after the Onega River.
43	* OfficerAndAGentleman: Pechorin is an ensign ([[UsefulNotes/CommonRanks praporschik]]) at the time of writing his diaries, although the main bulk of the narration concerns his exploits in the high society.
44	* OldFlame: Vera to Pechorin (and probably vice versa). It is never quite revealed what relationship they had before, or why the broke up, however.
45	* OldSoldier: Maxim Maximich has been serving on Caucasus his entire life, getting promoted to staff captain (an Imperial rank somewhere between army lieutenant and captain) in charge of an outpost by the time Pechorin meets him.
46	* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: The "Undine" from ''Taman''.
47	* TheOphelia[=/=]ManicPixieDreamGirl: The mysterious "Undine" from ''Taman'' appears to be a mixture of these two: she sings, talks to herself, [[CrypticConversation speaks in riddles]] and [[HurricaneOfAphorisms proverbs]], seems generally quirky, flirty and playful. However, like everything else in the novel, it's a deconstruction: once Pechorin tells her that he knows about her secret meeting with Yanko, [[LeaveNoWitnesses she cold-bloodedly attempts to murder him]].
48	* PeerPressureMakesYouEvil: Every time Grushnitsky has second thoughts about his dishonest duel with Pechorin, Grushnitsky's friends urge him to go through with it anyway, and he doesn't stop until it's too late.
49	* ThePlace: ''Taman'' is named after a small Russian town on the coast of the Black Sea.
50	* ReassignedToAntarctica: Pechorin is sent into the wilderness after his duel with Grushnitsky. It is implied that he was reassigned to Caucasus in the first place because of a similar incident in St. Petersburg earlier.
51	* RussianGuySuffersMost: Lermontov reflects on this trope (in the Nabokov translation):
52	--> ''I could not help being struck by the capacity of the Russian to adapt himself to the customs of that people among which he happens to be living. I do not know whether this trait of the mind deserves blame or praise, but it attests to his incredible flexibility and the presence of that lucid common sense that pardons evil wherever it recognizes its necessity or the impossibility of its abolishment.''
53	* RussianRoulette: Kinda. Vulich's gun is a one-shot pistol... with a chance of jamming.
54	* SarcasticTitle: Pechorin is one of the great [[VillainProtagonist villain-protagonists]] of literature and highlights what the author saw as the problems of Russian society at the time.
55	* SceneryPorn: Lermontov's descriptions of Caucasus mountains and the region's nature.
56	* ScrewDestiny / YouCannotFightFate: Both tropes are {{discussed}} and explored in ''The Fatalist''.
57	* TheSocialExpert: Pechorin feels right at home in the aristocratic society, with its intrigues and rumor-mongering, and is adept at emotional manipulation.
58	* VenturousSmuggler: Deconstructed, like so many other romanticist tropes: Danko from ''Taman'' is first presented as a larger than life figure that challenges the elements to visit a loved one across the sea, but once Pechorin realizes he and his girlfriend are just smugglers, he is majorly disappointed and stops caring about them.
59	* TheWatson: The unnamed traveling officer who falls into possession of Pechorin's diaries.

Context Literature / AHeroOfOurTime