Lermontov's 'A Hero of Our Time': A Critical Companion by Lewis s> Bagby (review)

Abstract

306 SEER, 8i, 2, 2003 The small universe of texts presented by Peters is, however, a forceful compilation. Even though Peters's commentary includes texts whose interpretation is still disputed (Sologub's Melkiibes,Zamiatin's My for example), the author successfullydemonstratestheir significancein the development of the genre. In this, the interplay of 'tendency and alienation' in the evolution of the Russian satiricalnovel is key. This volume should belong in every library of Slavonic studies. Its incorporation of international specialized literature and its consideration of the history of the genre also makes it relevant to a larger group of readers interestedin comparativeliterarystudiesand theoriesof satire. University ofMiinster HOLGER GEMBA trans. JUERGEN KURZ Bagby, Lewis (ed.). Lermontov's A Hero of Our Time'.A CriticalCompanion. Northwestern/AATSEEL Critical Companions to Russian Literature. Northwestern University Press,Evanston,IL, 2002. Xi + 206 pp. Notes. Bibliography. 1I4.50 (paperback). A HERO OF OUR TIME remains perennially of interest because it is exciting and offersthe opportunity of re-interpretationfrom many differentpoints of view. Its own narrative points of view, inverted chronology, exoticism and subjectivism,not to mention the racinessof the telling and the vengeful nature of so much of the action, add up eventuallyto the fullestportrayalof character in Russian literatureof the firsthalf of the nineteenth century. Despite this, it is one of those worksthat, for all its immaturityand haphazard construction, can never be said to respond to a formula. The articles in this interesting CriticalCompanion are witness to a remarkable diversity of approach and appraisalevident both in the I840s and at the presenttime. It opens with an acknowledgementby Lewis Bagby that the initiativefor it restswith Susan Harrisof NorthwesternUniversity Press.He has faced up to the editorial challenge involved with an excellent briefbiographyof Lermontov accompanied by an examination of the work itself (one should call it a 'novel' but even its genre is questionable).An unduly complex analysisof 'the unusual temporal shapes of the text' (p. I9), as they are called, tends to obfuscate ratherthan illuminate, but otherwisethe Introduction deals lucidly with the main issues in the work and concludes with a valuable short section on the criticalliterature. A translationof Belinskii'sreview (chiefly the final part) and a translation by the editor of sectionsof Eikhenbaum'sclassicinterpretationofA HeroofOur Timeare followed by two major critical articles, both by women. Susan Layton'son 'Ironiesof Ethnic Identity'providesan extremelyeruditereading of Lermontov'sattitudeto the Chechens and concludes by suggestingthat he used his portrayal of Kazbich 'as a polemical disrupterof the ideology of a "European" mission to "civilize" Caucasian mountaineers' (p. 8o). Such an interpretation seems both just and in character so far as Lermontov was concerned, butJane Costlow's article 'Compassion and the Hero: Women in A Heroof OurTime'may raise male hackles in its feminist or woman reader's REVIEWS 307 approach to the study of Pechorin and to 'questions of meaning and masculinitythat are at the novel's heart' (p. 87). How is a woman to read the novel? In keeping with her catechetic manner,Jane Costlow's questions tend to be more interestingthan her answers.Her approach,though, is stimulating even if herjudgements seem snatched, as if Pechorin were too hot to touch. Her eloquent examination of his feminine side and the place of women, especiallyVera, in hislife, isvaluable and enlightening, though the conclusion that what he least wants is compassion and that his 'devastating portrait' indicts 'akindof hypertrophiedmasculinitythatis alive and well in ourworld, as well' can only leave one wondering why this 'monstrousbug' (p. I 02) ever arousedany interestat all. In fact, the witness to the interestshown in Pechorinat his firstappearance and lateris obviousfroman astutecollationof criticalarticlesby Kotliarevskii, Vladimir Fisheret al., including the grumpyand somewhat comic reaction of Nicholas I to a first reading (from Emma Gershtein's study). The Companion concludes with a section entitled 'Primary Sources' which offers a useful reminder of the varied responses that early reviewers made to Pechorin, Shevyrev'sintelligentreadingbeing matchedby Burachok'shostilityand high praisefrom such unlikelysourcesas FaddeiBulgarinand Brant. London RICHARD FREEBORN Helfant, Ian M. TheHighStakesofIdentity:Gambling in theLifeandLiterature of JNineteenth-Centuy Russia. Studies in Russian Literature and Theory. Northwestern University Press, Evanston, IL, 2002. XXV + 2I I pp. Appendix. Notes. Bibliography.Index. $79.95. IAN M. HELFANT'S monograph on gambling in nineteenth-century...