A_hero_of_our_time

Summary This book centers on the literary type of the “superfluous man” and a Byronic hero. In some ways this character anticipates modern antiheroes like Patrick Bateman or Walter White, at least in broad outline. It is widely treated as the first major Russian psychological novel in prose. The book opens from the perspective of a writer traveling through the Caucasus. The writer befriends Maksim Maksimych, a veteran staff captain, who regales him with stories—chief among them the tale of Bela, in which Pechorin figures. After further travel they meet Pechorin himself. The reunion is stiff: Pechorin is polite but distant and soon leaves for Persia. He had long ago left his notebooks with Maksim; when Maksim reminds him, Pechorin says he may do what he likes with them. The offended Maksim is about to destroy the papers when the narrator takes them instead. Much of what follows comes from those diary extracts (Taman, Princess Mary, The Fatalist), in Pechorin’s own voice. ...