Mikhail Lermontov

Lermontov, Mikhail Yurevich - mēkhəyēlˈ yoorˈyĭvĭch lyĕrˈməntŭf, 1814–41, Russian poet and novelist. Given an extensive private education by his wealthy grandmother, Lermontov began writing poetry when he was 14. He first attracted public attention in 1837 with the inflammatory poem "On the Death of the Poet," written to protest the death of Pushkin in a duel. He was temporarily banished to the Caucasus, where he had recuperated from illness as a child. The stirring landscape became a prevailing element in his work. Of his early work, which was greatly influenced by Byron, only the lyric "The Angel" (1830) is equal to his later work. His poetic reputation, second in Russia only to Pushkin's, rests upon the lyric and narrative works of his last five years. The Demon (1829–41, tr. 1930), his narrative poem about the love of a fallen angel for a mortal, was used by Anton Rubinstein as the basis of an opera. Mtsyri (1833; tr. The Circassian Boy, 1875) reflects Lermontov's antireligious feeling and idealization of primitive life. His heroic poems include "The Song of the Merchant Kalashnikov" (1837, tr. 1929). Lermontov's novel A Hero of Our Time (1840, tr. 1958) is partly autobiographical. It consists of five tales about Pechorin, a disenchanted and bored nobleman. The novel is considered a classic of Russian psychological realism. Lermontov, who had sought a position in fashionable society, became enormously critical of it. His caustic wit made him numerous enemies, and, like Pushkin, he was killed in a duel.

See biography by J. Lavrin (1959); study by J. Mersereau (1962).

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