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#5 Platform - A Hero of Our Time
Aug. 10th, 2007 02:30 pmAs old Russian literature goes, this was quite painless.
Book #34: A Hero of Our Time
Author: Mikhail Lermontov
Provenance: Received as a present from Nina... for my graduation from university
I took rather a longer time reading this than I had expected to, given its slim size, but that shouldn't be read as a commentary on the book. This translation was actually quite good, as well, I thought; there was a flow to it that I often find lacking in translations, and it seems from the descriptions of the book that I've read that the translator got the feel of the different characters and the world down well.
The world in question in mid-19th century Georgia, specifically in the Caucasus, a place that Lermontov obviously loved geographically, but he was less fond of the people to be found there. Much of the book is a satirical look at the elites found in the area, along with the other military characters. I suppose that some of these people have it due to them, but probably the one doing the poking probably deserved some satire about himself, as well.
This book is one of those Romantic novels, and I have had very little time for such things, I have to say. The Romantics are probably down at the bottom of the list of literary movements I've read, and this book reminds me why. Sure, you can pierce people for their pretensions, but the people writing it are just as pretentious. It's just in a different way, but it's one that's just as annoying to me, generally.
Anyway, the plot is fairly good, with some good scheming by the main character, Pechorin, and the structure, with the five different stories not falling in chronological order, makes for an interesting time of putting things together and working out what the point of breaking it up that way was. Still, while I liked this well enough, I'm not going to run out and start recommending it to lots of people. Maybe I'm just too cynical to be a Romantic.
Next up: Inspector Imanishi Investigates. Since we're trying to eliminate the longest-standing books in the barrel just now.
Book #34: A Hero of Our Time
Author: Mikhail Lermontov
Provenance: Received as a present from Nina... for my graduation from university
I took rather a longer time reading this than I had expected to, given its slim size, but that shouldn't be read as a commentary on the book. This translation was actually quite good, as well, I thought; there was a flow to it that I often find lacking in translations, and it seems from the descriptions of the book that I've read that the translator got the feel of the different characters and the world down well.
The world in question in mid-19th century Georgia, specifically in the Caucasus, a place that Lermontov obviously loved geographically, but he was less fond of the people to be found there. Much of the book is a satirical look at the elites found in the area, along with the other military characters. I suppose that some of these people have it due to them, but probably the one doing the poking probably deserved some satire about himself, as well.
This book is one of those Romantic novels, and I have had very little time for such things, I have to say. The Romantics are probably down at the bottom of the list of literary movements I've read, and this book reminds me why. Sure, you can pierce people for their pretensions, but the people writing it are just as pretentious. It's just in a different way, but it's one that's just as annoying to me, generally.
Anyway, the plot is fairly good, with some good scheming by the main character, Pechorin, and the structure, with the five different stories not falling in chronological order, makes for an interesting time of putting things together and working out what the point of breaking it up that way was. Still, while I liked this well enough, I'm not going to run out and start recommending it to lots of people. Maybe I'm just too cynical to be a Romantic.
Next up: Inspector Imanishi Investigates. Since we're trying to eliminate the longest-standing books in the barrel just now.
