Introduction by Timothy Binyon Translated by Vladimir and Dmitri Nabokov

"From the Hardcover edition.

"The Masquerade," a treasured four-act play by Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov, is a classic work of Russian romanticism.

In 1830s St. Petersburg, aristocrat Arbenin and Nina, his wife, attend a masked ball. In a tragic case of mistaken identity, Arbenin convinces himself that his wife is romantically involved with Prince Zvezdich. Arbenin is tragically blinded by jealousy and pride, and then a disaster happens...

A celebration and examination of a classic work from the Golden Age of Russian culture, the first poetic translation by Russian American professor Alfred E. Karpovich brings "The Masquerade" to a new, English-speaking audience. A work of great importance, this drama examines the collision between true love and the societal prejudice of honor and dignity. In translation, it casts an inquisitive eye at the state of human dignity in the twenty-first century.

First published in 1919, this book presents the text of Lermontov's 1840 poem 'The Novice' in the original Russian. An editorial introduction and detailed textual notes in English are also included. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in Russian poetry and the works of Lermontov.

‘I’m still in love with her … I’d give my life for her. But she bores me’

Proud, wilful and intensely charismatic, Pechorin is bored by the stifling world that envelops him. With a predatory energy for any activity that will relieve his ennui, he embarks on a series of adventures, encountering smugglers, brigands, soldiers, lovers and rivals – and leaving a trail of broken hearts behind him. With its cynical, immoral hero, Lermontov’s novel outraged many critics when it was published in 1840. Yet it was also a literary landmark: an acutely observed psychological novel, narrated from a number of different perspectives, through which the true and complex nature of Pechorin slowly emerges. 

Paul Foote’s fine translation is accompanied by an introduction discussing the figure of Pechorin within the literary tradition of ‘superfluous men’, and the novel’s influence on Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky and Chekhov. The edition also includes a chronology, explanatory notes and a historical note on the Caucasus.

'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.

Mikhail Lermontov’s A Hero of Our Time was the first modern Russian novel. Published in 1840, it set a model of penetrating observation and psychological depth that would come to typify Russian literature. Its “hero,” Grigorii Pechorin, also establisheda character type that became known in Russian fiction as “the superfluous man”—widely familiar from Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground. At once driven by pride and wracked by selfdoubt, both shockingly self-revealing and blindly self-deceived,he flounders to affirm himself in a social world he despises yet yearns to dominate. Pechorin is a troubling and unforgettable character. And A Hero of Our Time, which has provoked much controversy, is a novel not only central to Russian literature butfundamental to the Western literary tradition of the antihero.

"The Masquerade," a treasured four-act play by Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov, is a classic work of Russian romanticism.

In 1830s St. Petersburg, aristocrat Arbenin and Nina, his wife, attend a masked ball. In a tragic case of mistaken identity, Arbenin convinces himself that his wife is romantically involved with Prince Zvezdich. Arbenin is tragically blinded by jealousy and pride, and then a disaster happens...

A celebration and examination of a classic work from the Golden Age of Russian culture, the first poetic translation by Russian American professor Alfred E. Karpovich brings "The Masquerade" to a new, English-speaking audience. A work of great importance, this drama examines the collision between true love and the societal prejudice of honor and dignity. In translation, it casts an inquisitive eye at the state of human dignity in the twenty-first century.

Lermontov's only full-scale novel, which prophetically describes the duel in which he later lost his own life. The hero of the novel, Pechorin is an intense individual, a military officer who kidnaps beautiful daughter of Circassian tribesman and who, according to Lermantov's own introduction, is a composite portrait, made up of all the vices which flourish, full grown, amongst the generation of the time. A timeless classic representing nihilistic aspect of Romanticism. On July 25, 1841, at Pyatigorsk, fellow soldier Nikolai Martynov, who had been the butt of Lermontov's jokes, challenged Lermontov to a duel. The duel took place two days later at the foot of Mashuk mountain. Lermontov deliberately chose the edge of a precipice for the duel, so that if either combatant was wounded, he would fall and his fate would be sealed. Lermontov was killed by Martynov's first shot. Much of his best verse was posthumously discovered in his pocket-book. This edition is a new revision aiming to bring English translation as close as possible to Lermontov's original vision. There has been some confusion in various English editions containing entries of Pechorin's diary, not present in Lermontov's original and various other alterations of Lermnontov's original structure of the novel. This edition has been compiled after close examination of Russian originals and follows originally intended structure. This edition is part of a new series of Romantic writing, aiming to give readers a complete experience of both classic and contemporary Romantics.

This is a dual-language book with the Russian text on the left side, and the English text on the right side of each spread. The texts are precisely synchronized. A great book for learning both languages while reading a Russian classic masterpiece. Translated by J. H. Wisdom & Marr Murray, verified and corrected by Alexander Vassiliev.

Set in the Caucasus, the scene of Russia's military campaigns in the 19th century, this is both an adventure story and a sardonic look at the heroic ideals of the author's contemporaries - which makes it all the more ironic that the main character, Pushkin, (like the author) was killed in a duel.

On his travels through the wild mountainous terrain of the Caucasus, the narrator of A Hero of Our Time chances upon the veteran soldier and storyteller Maxim Maximych, who relates to him the dubious exploits of his former comrade Pechorin. Engaging in various acts of duelling, contraband, abduction and seduction, Pechorin, an archetypal Byronic anti-hero, combines cynicism and arrogance with melancholy and sensitivity. Causing an uproar in Russia when it was first published in 1840, Lermontov's brilliant, seminal study of contemporary society and the nihilistic aspect of Romanticism - accompanied here by the unfinished novel Princess Ligovskaya - remains compelling to this day.