Poems
A collection of Lermontov's lyric poems, from the early defiant lines to the clear, bitter maturity of his last years. Here are his verses on freedom and captivity, love and loneliness, the homeland and the open road, and the poet's quarrel with his own age. Short pieces that hold the whole of his restless voice.
The Song of the Merchant Kalashnikov · 1838
A narrative poem told in the voice of old folk singers, set in the Moscow of Ivan the Terrible. A young merchant stands up for his family's honour against a favourite of the tsar and must answer for it before the ruler himself. Lermontov writes the whole thing in the manner of a Russian folk epic.
A Hero of Our Time · 1840
A novel made of several stories that gradually piece together the portrait of Pechorin, a clever, cold and restless young officer serving in the Caucasus. Bored by everything that comes to him too easily, he plays with other people's feelings and with his own fate. A sharp, unsettling study of a whole generation seen through one man.
