A Hero of Our Time

First published in 1840, this Russian novel is five linked narratives about Pechorin, a young officer posted in the Caucasus. A traveling narrator hears from the veteran Maxim Maximych how Pechorin abducted the Circassian girl Bela; later he sees the two men meet again, coldly, and obtains Pechorin's journal. In Taman, Pechorin blunders into a nest of smugglers. At a spa he toys with Princess Mary and his friend Grushnitsky. In the last tale he bets on fate with a Serbian officer. The book is a portrait of a bored, calculating antihero, not a campaign history of the Caucasian wars.

Quarter-bound in red cloth with printed grey paper boards. Dark blue slipcase.