Georges et Vièrotchka se sont aimés, puis se sont perdus de vue. Lorsqu'ils se retrouvent quelques années plus tard, à Saint-Pétersbourg, il est devenu un jeune officier de la Garde, cynique et un peu cruel ; elle est mariée avec le vieux Prince Ligovskoï. Bien sûr, leurs sentiments ne tardent pas à renaître...
Roman inachevé, La Princesse Ligovskoï nous offre une admirable peinture psychologique de deux jeunes mondains, ainsi qu'une brillante évocation du Saint-Pétersbourg de 1830.
A masterpiece of Russian prose, Lermontov's only novel was influential for many later 19th century authors, including Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, and Chekhov. Lermotov's hero, Pechorin, is a dangerous man, Byronic in his wasted gifts and his cynicism, and desperate for any kind of action that will stave off boredom. In five linked episodes, Lermontov builds up a portrait of a man caught in and expressing the sickness of his times.
In its adventurous happenings–its abductions, duels, and sexual intrigues–A Hero of Our Time looks backward to the tales of Sir Walter Scott and Lord Byron, so beloved by Russian society in the 1820s and ’30s. In the character of its protagonist, Pechorin–the archetypal Russian antihero–Lermontov’s novel looks forward to the subsequent glories of a Russian literature that it helped, in great measure, to make possible.
This edition includes a Translator’s Foreword by Vladimir Nabokov, who translated the novel in collaboration with his son, Dmitri Nabokov.
(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)
From the Hardcover edition.
After all that - how, you might wonder, could one not become a fatalist?'
Lermontov's hero, Pechorin, is a young army officer posted to the Caucasus, where his adventures - amorous and reckless - do nothing to alleviate his boredom and cynicism. World-weary and self-destructive, Pechorin is alienated from those around him yet he is full of passion and romantic ardour, sensitive as well as arrogant. His complex, contradictory character dominates A Hero of Our Time, the first great Russian novel, in which the intricate narrative unfolds episodically,
transporting the reader from the breathtaking terrain of the Caucasus to the genteel surroundings of spa resorts. Told in an engaging yet pointedly ironic style, the story expresses Lermontov's own estrangement from the stifling conventions of bourgeois society and the oppression of Russian autocracy, but it also
captures a longing for freedom through acts of love and bravery.
This new edition also includes Pushkin's Journey to Arzrum, in which Pushkin describes his own experiences of Russia's military campaigns in the Caucasus and which provides a fascinating counterpoint to Lermontov's novel.
ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
After all that - how, you might wonder, could one not become a fatalist?'
Lermontov's hero, Pechorin, is a young army officer posted to the Caucasus, where his adventures - amorous and reckless - do nothing to alleviate his boredom and cynicism. World-weary and self-destructive, Pechorin is alienated from those around him yet he is full of passion and romantic ardour, sensitive as well as arrogant. His complex, contradictory character dominates A Hero of Our Time, the first great Russian novel, in which the intricate narrative unfolds episodically,
transporting the reader from the breathtaking terrain of the Caucasus to the genteel surroundings of spa resorts. Told in an engaging yet pointedly ironic style, the story expresses Lermontov's own estrangement from the stifling conventions of bourgeois society and the oppression of Russian autocracy, but it also
captures a longing for freedom through acts of love and bravery.
This new edition also includes Pushkin's Journey to Arzrum, in which Pushkin describes his own experiences of Russia's military campaigns in the Caucasus and which provides a fascinating counterpoint to Lermontov's novel.
ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
Lermontov a créé Pétchorine, « Un Héros de Notre temps », pour qu'il soit le reflet des vices de toute une génération. Il vit à l'époque de Nicolas I et à l'image de la jeunesse noble ou bourgeoise de son pays, il a assimilé les cultures de l'Occident. Mais dans une Russie aussi fermée qu'elle l'était à cette époque, ces jeunes ne sont guère assimilables et ils n'auront qu'une seule obsession, comme Petchorine, : partir !
Ce livre est composé de deux parties. La première comprend deux textes intitulés « Bella » et « Maxime Maximytch ». La seconde est « Le Journal de Petchorine » qui compte trois textes : « Tamagne », « La Princesse Mary » et « Fataliste ».
Suivi du poème « Le démon » où l'histoire d'une jeune fille, Tamara, poursuivie par le démon...
Traduits du russe par A. de Villamarie.
"Un héros de notre temps" est le premier roman véritablement psychologique de la littérature russe. Sombre, romantique et désabusé, étrange et décousu, c'est un aperçu incisif de la sensibilité russe qui précède les grandes oeuvres de Tourgueniev ou Dostoïevski. Un héros de notre temps est constitué de cinq récits, qui ont pour principal protagoniste Petchorine, un jeune homme désabusé. Dans le premier texte, Béla, un vieil officier, Maximitch, conte les aventures de Petchorin qui enleva Béla, la fille d'un prince tartare. Dans le second texte, le narrateur et Maximitch croisent Petchorin en route vers la Perse. C'est l'occasion pour le narrateur de récupérer des extraits du journal tenu par Petchorin. Ayant appris la mort de Pétchorin, le narrateur publie ces extraits qui constituent les trois textes suivants: Taman, une histoire de contrebandiers, La Princesse Marie, dans laquelle le héros séduit deux femmes, ce qui le conduit à se battre en duel, et enfin Le Fataliste, où le héros s'interroge sur la force de la destinée. Ce roman, le seul que Lermontov a achevé, est considéré comme un des grands chefs d'oeuvre de la littérature russe, surtout grâce à la force de l'analyse psychologique de son héros, un véritable "enfant du siècle" russe, ainsi que pour sa description des paysages et peuplades des frontières de l'Empire russe au XIXe siècle. " Le héros de notre temps, chers messieurs, est en effet un portrait, mais pas celui d'un seul homme : c'est un portrait composé des vices de toute une génération, dans leur plein épanouissement. " Il se peut bien que ce roman coûta la vie à Lermontov, qui mourut peu de temps après dans un duel avec un ancien camarade qui avait été la cible d'une moquerie de trop de la part de l'auteur.
A typical Byronic-hero novel, Lermontov's protagonist bombards the reader with his bipolar behavior: both sensitive and cynical, his extreme arrogance borders on deep melancholy. An existential dreamer and contemplator of the futility of life, Pechorin's free will inevitably leads him to disaster. And hand in hand with the beautiful natural descriptions, "A Hero of Our Time" is a book that never stops providing, even when one has reached its end. It was highly praised by the other great names in Russian literature - Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Anton Chekhov.
Often labelled the most important Russian poet after Alexander Pushkin, Mikhail Lermontov was also a painter, often praised for his naturalist depictions of Caucasus. He died in a duel (just like Pushkin) at the early age of 26, but that did not thwart his poetic endeavours. Despite his naturalistic poetic grandeour, Lermontov's best-known novel "A Hero of Our Time" is one of the founding works of Russian prose. Among his poems, "Demon" and "The Death of the Poet" occupy a central place in his work. His interests also included folklore, history, and patriotism.
Mikhail Lermontov (1814-41) is best known in the West today as the author of the novel A Hero of Our Time. But at the time of his death, aged only 26, he was widely regarded as Russia's greatest living poet. He achieved almost instant fame in 1837 with On the Death of a Poet', his tribute to Pushkin - whose death in a duel foreshadowed Lermontov's own. Over the course of the next four years he went on to write many short poems, both lyric and satirical, and two long verse narratives. He was particularly known for his depictions of the Caucasus, where he was exiled for a time, taking part in battles such as the one described in his poem Valerik'. Lermontov traced his ancestry to Scotland, and this book offers a Scottish perspective on the Russian poet. Most of the translators are Scottish or have Scottish connections, and some of the poems are translated into Scots. As Peter France writes in his introduction, this bicentennial volume aims to bring Lermontov's poems to a new readership by enabling them to live again' in English and in Scots.
A brilliant new translation of a perennial favorite of Russian Literature
The first major Russian novel, A Hero of Our Time was both lauded and reviled upon publication. Its dissipated hero, twenty-five-year-old Pechorin, is a beautiful and magnetic but nihilistic young army officer, bored by life and indifferent to his many sexual conquests. Chronicling his unforgettable adventures in the Caucasus involving brigands, smugglers, soldiers, rivals, and lovers, this classic tale of alienation influenced Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, and Chekhov in Lermontov's own century, and finds its modern-day counterparts in Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange, the novels of Chuck Palahniuk, and the films and plays of Neil LaBute.
Un héros de notre temps est constitué de cinq récits. Dans le premier texte, Béla, un vieil officier, Maximitch, conte les aventures de Petchorin qui enleva Béla, la fille d'un prince tartare. Dans le second texte, le narrateur et Maximitch croisent Petchorin en route vers la Perse. C'est l'occasion pour le narrateur de récupérer des extraits du journal tenu par Petchorin. Ayant appris la mort de Pétchorin, le narrateur publie ces extraits qui constituent les trois textes suivants : Taman, une histoire de contrebandiers, La Princesse Marie, dans lequelle le héros séduit deux femmes, ce qui le conduit à se battre en duel, et enfin Le Fataliste, où le héros s'interroge sur la force de la destinée. Le Démon est l'histoire du démon qui, survolant le Caucase, s'éprend d'une jeune fille, Tamara, qui attend son fiancé. Celui-ci n'arrivera jamais. Tamara se réfugie ans un monastère, mais le démon la poursuit, et sa vision hante les pensées de la jeune fille.
