A Hero of Our Time in Reading 1001

Aug 14, 2017 Biblio Curious rated it really liked it

Shelves: classics-russian-ukrainian

I finished this just last night. I let it cook while I dip into yet another twisted soul, Notes from Underground It's a dark novella month having just finished Nausea also this month!!! Dare I say there's a theme?

I must say, Lermantov is going to be the name of my next laptop!! I'll happily read any of his books in the future. I'm glad to have waited on this one and superfically read Childe Harold's Pilgramage. It helped to get an introduction to the "Byronic Hero"

The 'studly' hero, Pechorin def ...more

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Sep 16, 2021 Celia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2021-kindle-counted, 1001-challenge, 2021-read, ten-year-challenge, well-read-world-lit, reading-the-world-read, reading-the-wrld, kindle-list, translated

Written in a foreward, 2 short stories, another foreward, and 3 short stories taken from a journal.

The first short story is

Bela (really more a novella)

An unnamed narrator meets a man on a train who proceeds to tell him a story. Maxim Maximych (the man) describes the main character of his story Pechorin, as a man full of contradictions: "he'd spend the whole day out hunting in rain or cold" and "think nothing of it," yet "he'd sit in his room and at the least puff of wind reckon he'd caught a chi ...more

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Jan 22, 2020 Pamela rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: tonkin-best-100-translation, boxall-1001-read

Although published as a novel, this is really a number of short stories linked by the presence of Pechorin, the 'hero' of the title. Pechorin is more an anti-hero, selfish and arrogant, equally cruel to his male comrades and the women he seduces and abandons. The reader encounters him as a soldier in the Caucasus and a dandy in St Petersburg, as his various escapades are recounted by a nameless narrator and later by Pechorin himself.

The stories are beautifully written (and translated) in a clear ...more

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Oct 16, 2020 George P. rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books-read, author-not-us-canada-or-uk, 100-years-old-or-more

It has a strange structure, with one story leading into another rather awkwardly. However it has good characters, action, and mood. Probably one of the best novels of its era, so I am rating four stars.

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