When the hero of our time was written. The history of the creation of the novel "A Hero of Our Time" by Lermontov

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✪ HERO of our time. Mikhail Lermontov

✪ Lermontov. The complexity of Pechorin in "A Hero of Our Time". Russian classics. Start

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Structure of the novel

The novel consists of several parts, chronological order which is violated. Such an arrangement serves special artistic tasks: in particular, at first Pechorin is shown through the eyes of Maxim Maksimych, and only then we see him from the inside, according to entries from the diary.

• Foreword
• PART ONE
  • I. Bela
  • II. Maksim Maksimych
• Pechorin's Journal
  • Foreword
  • I. Taman
• PART TWO ( End of Pechorin's journal)
  • II. Princess Mary
  • III. Fatalist

Chronological order of parts

1. Taman
2. Princess Mary
3. Fatalist
4. Maksim Maksimych
5. Preface to "Pechorin's Journal"

Five years pass between the events of Bela and Pechorin's meeting with Maxim Maksimych in front of the narrator in Maxim Maksimych.

Also, in some scientific publications, "Bela" and "Fatalist" change places.

Plot

"Bela"

It is a nested story: the narration is led by Maxim Maksimych, who tells his story to an unnamed officer who met him in the Caucasus. Pechorin, bored in the wilderness, begins his service by stealing someone else's horse (thanks to Azamat's help) and kidnapping Bela, the beloved daughter of the local prince (also with the help of Azamat in exchange for Kazbich's horse), which causes a corresponding reaction from the highlanders. But Pechorin does not care about this. The careless act of a young officer is followed by a collapse dramatic events: Azamat leaves the family forever, Bela dies at the hands of Kazbich, as well as her father.

"Maxim Maksimych"

This part is adjacent to "Bela", has no independent novelistic significance, but is entirely important for the composition of the novel. With Pechorin here the reader meets face to face for the only time. The meeting of old friends did not take place: it is rather a fleeting conversation with the desire of one of the interlocutors to finish it as soon as possible.

The narrative is built on the contrast of two opposite characters - Pechorin and Maxim Maksimych. The portrait is given through the eyes of the officer-narrator. In this chapter, an attempt is made to unravel the "inner" Pechorin through the external "talking" features.

"Taman"

The story does not tell about Pechorin's reflection, but shows him from an active, active side. Here Pechorin unexpectedly becomes a witness to gang activity. At first, he thinks that a man who sailed from the other side is risking his life for something really valuable, but in fact he is just a smuggler. Pechorin is very disappointed by this. But still, leaving, he does not regret that he visited this place.

The main meaning in final words hero: “And why did fate throw me into a peaceful circle honest smugglers ? Like a stone thrown into a smooth spring, I disturbed their calmness and, like a stone, I almost sank myself!”

"Princess Mary"

The story is written in the form of a diary. In terms of vital material, “Princess Mary” is closest to the so-called “secular story” of the 1830s, but Lermontov filled it with a different meaning.

The story begins with the arrival of Pechorin in Pyatigorsk to the healing waters, where he meets Princess Ligovskaya and her daughter, called Mary in the English manner. In addition, here he meets his ex love Faith and friend Grushnitsky. Junker Grushnitsky, a poseur and secret careerist, acts as a contrasting character to Pechorin.

During his stay in Kislovodsk and Pyatigorsk, Pechorin falls in love with Princess Mary and quarrels with Grushnitsky. He kills Grushnitsky in a duel and refuses Princess Mary. On suspicion of a duel, he is again exiled, this time to a fortress. There he meets Maxim Maksimych.

"Fatalist"

The case takes place in the Cossack village, where Pechorin arrives. He sits at a party, the company plays cards. They soon get fed up with this and start a conversation about predestination and fatalism, which some believe in, some do not. A dispute ensues between Vulich and Pechorin: Pechorin says that he sees obvious death on Vulich's face. As a result of the dispute, Vulich takes a gun and shoots himself, but a misfire occurs. Everyone goes home. Soon Pechorin learns about the death of Vulich: he was hacked to death with a sword by a drunken Cossack. Then Pechorin decides to try his luck and catch the Cossack. He breaks into his house, the Cossack shoots, but by. Pechorin grabs the Cossack, comes to Maxim Maksimych and tells him everything.

Main actors

Pechorin

Pechorin is a Petersburger. A military man, both in his rank and in his soul. He comes to Pyatigorsk from the capital. His departure to the Caucasus is connected with "some adventures." He ends up in the fortress where the action of "Bela" takes place after a duel with Grushnitsky, at the age of twenty three years. There he is in the rank of ensign. He was probably transferred from the guard to the army infantry or army dragoons.

The meeting with Maxim Maksimych takes place five years after the story with Bela, when Pechorin is already 28.

The surname Pechorin, derived from the name of the river Pechora, has a semantic affinity with Onegin's surname. Pechorin is a natural successor to Onegin, but Lermontov goes further: as r. Pechora north of the river. Onega, and the character of Pechorin is more individualistic than the character of Onegin.

The image of Pechorin

The image of Pechorin is one of the artistic discoveries of Lermontov. The Pechorin type is truly epochal, and above all because it received a concentrated expression of the features of the post-Decembrist era, when on the surface "only losses were visible, a cruel reaction", while inside "there was a great work... deaf and silent, but active and uninterrupted ... "(Herzen, VII, 209-211). Pechorin is an extraordinary and controversial personality. He can complain about the draft, and after a while, jump with a saber naked at the enemy. The image of Pechorin in the chapter “Maxim Maksimych”: “He was of medium height; his slender, thin frame and broad shoulders proved a strong constitution, capable of enduring all difficulties. nomadic life and climate change, not conquered by debauchery metropolitan life, nor spiritual storms ... ".

Publication

The novel appeared in print in parts from 1838. The first complete edition was published in

• "Bela" was written in the city. The first publication was in "Notes of the Fatherland", March, vol. 2, No. 3.
• The Fatalist was first published in Otechestvennye Zapiski in 1839, vol. 6, no. 11.
• "Taman" was first published in "Notes of the Fatherland" in 1840, vol. 8, no. 2.
• "Maxim Maksimych" first appeared in print in the 1st separate edition novel in
• "Princess Mary" first appeared in the 1st edition of the novel.
• The "Foreword" was written in St. Petersburg in the spring of 2011 and first appeared in the second edition of the novel.

Illustrations

The book has been illustrated many times. famous artists, including Mikhail Vrubel (1890-1891), Ilya Repin, Evgeny Lansere, Valentin Serov (1891), Leonid Feinberg, Mikhail Zichi (), Pyotr Boklevsky, Dementy Shmarinov (1941), Nikolai Dubovsky (1890) and Vladimir Bekhteev ( 1939).

Origins and predecessors

• Lermontov deliberately overcame the adventurous romantic tradition of novels on the Caucasian theme, set by Alexander Bestuzhev-Marlinsky.
• Alfred de Musset's novel Confessions of a Son of the Century was published in 1836 and also tells about the "illness", meaning "the vices of the generation".
• Rousseau tradition and the development of the motive of European love for the "savage". For example, Byron, as well as Pushkin's "Gypsies" and "Prisoner of the Caucasus".
• Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin", " Prisoner of the Caucasus», « Captain's daughter"and so on.

Related works by Lermontov

Geography of the novel

The action of the novel takes place in the Caucasus. The main place is Pyatigorsk. And also some heroes are in Kislovodsk.

Caucasian peoples in the novel

Lermontov, being an officer in the Russian army, leading fighting in the Caucasus, he was very familiar with both army life and the life and customs of the local population. When writing the novel, this knowledge was widely used by the writer, the picture of life in the Caucasus in the 1830s is reproduced in great detail, both by describing the traditions of the local population and the relationship between Russians and Caucasians. Already at the beginning of "Bela" Maxim Maksimych shows the characteristic look of a Russian officer on the local population, as on "Asian rogues who take money for vodka from those passing by." Kabardians and Chechens are defined by Maxim Maksimych as “robbers and naked, but desperate heads”, while they are opposed to Ossetians, whom the staff captain characterizes as “stupid people, incapable of any education, who don’t even see a decent dagger on anyone” .

In more detail in "Bel" Lermontov dwells on the life of the Circassians, in fact, almost the entire chapter is devoted to this.

Screen adaptations

Year	Production	Name	Producer	Pechorin	Note
	Goskinprom of Georgia	Princess Mary	Vladimir Barsky	Nikolay Prozorovsky
	Goskinprom of Georgia	Bela	Vladimir Barsky	Nikolay Prozorovsky	Black-and-white, silent costume drama based on the chapter of the same name from the novel
	Goskinprom of Georgia	Maksim Maksimych	Vladimir Barsky	Nikolay Prozorovsky	Black-and-white, silent costume drama based on the chapters "Maxim Maksimych", "Taman" and "Fatalist" from the novel

This work is a socio-psychological portrait of an entire era, represented by the protagonist, a tragic and outstanding personality. The events taking place in the novel affect the 30s of the XIX century. The history of the creation of the novel "A Hero of Our Time" by M.Yu. Lermontov is divided into several main periods, which can be clearly seen in the essays of famous literary critics.

I stage. Starting a novel

In 1836, Lermontov, inspired by Pushkin's novel "Eugene Onegin", decided to write a future work, where the life of his contemporary would be shown in full glory in the light of capital events. Main character by design should reflect in the soul the spirit of the contradictions of that time. He even tried to choose a surname for him consonant with Onegin, taking as a basis the names of two rivers, Onega and Pechora. And so it turned out Pechorin.

1837 was a landmark year in the life of Mikhail Yurievich. His friend Pushkin A.S. dies in a duel. Shocked by death, Lermontov wrote the poem "The Death of a Poet" for which he was subsequently exiled to exile in the Caucasus. He will take up the manuscript a little later.

II stage. The basis of the plot. Determination of the circle of other heroes of the novel

Traveling around the Caucasus, Lermontov finds himself in a whirlpool of adventure events. New people, emotions, impressions inspired him to take up writing the novel again. So, in addition to Pechorin, Princess Mary, Bela, smugglers, highlanders with their wild customs and traditions appeared, secular society that time.

Lermontov sought to make the characters of the novel as similar as possible to ordinary people with their inherent vices, desires, feelings. So that every reader can see himself in them. Try on the image you like and imagine yourself in its place. He succeeded.

III stage. final

The sequence of writing parts of the novel is still debated. It is known that the writer worked on it from 1838-1841. Presumably the first part was "Taman". After that, "Fatalist", "Bela", "Maxim Maksimych" arose. At first, a series of notes was planned, like travel notes. Then the author's intention changed. He decided to merge separate stories into one.

Bela was published first (1839). In the same year, The Fatalist was published. "Taman" was published in 1840. In this part of the novel, Lermontov described the events that happened to him personally. The last part of the novel was Maxim Maksimych. His finishing touch. Now the romance is a holistic work understandable and accessible to the reader.

Throughout the novel, the image of Pechorin is revealed gradually, exposing his true essence.

"A Hero of Our Time" by M. Yu. Lermontov is, in fact, a socio-psychological picture that reveals an entire era. All this the writer skillfully managed to combine and conclude in the person of one hero - Pechorin, an extraordinary and tragic personality.

The events that Lermontov describes took place in the 30s years XIX century. The history of writing this novel can be divided into three main periods, which are clearly distinguished by literary critics.

The first period: the definition of the idea of ​​the novel, its structure and ideas.

Lermontov in 1836, while still a young poet, sought to stand out among other great poets and decided to write a grandiose work that could include all aspects of the life of his contemporaries. In addition, Mikhail Yuryevich saw the main character of his novel as a young nobleman, sharply different from other people and suffering from spiritual contradictions. Inspiration young writer drew from the works of A. S. Pushkin, in particular, from his "Eugene Onegin".

In 1837, the irreparable happened: A. S. Pushkin, the idol of the writer, a genius, the one he was guided by, died. This was a big blow for Lermontov. He wrote a poem - a response to the death of Pushkin, and was sent into exile in the Caucasus, where he continued to work on the idea of ​​his great novel.

The second period was the creation of the plot and characters.

Lermontov began his journey through the Caucasus: he visited Taman, visited the settlements of the highlanders. This determined the plot of his work. The writer already clearly imagined the image of the future protagonist - this is a young officer serving the Motherland, but in fact he does not see his vocation in this, and therefore suffers from his internal contradictions frustrated in life. To reveal the image of Pechorin, M. Yu. Lermontov invented a meek Circassian beauty who fell in love with the hero with all her heart, and a proud princess who first tried to play with Pechorin's feelings, and then fell in love with him.

Also, the author was able to decide that the highlanders, with their strange but fair customs, would become the circle of the acting heroes of the novel; people involved in smuggling and every day risking their reputation and life; representatives high society. Lermontov wanted the reader to be able to find in his work a hero who is equal in spirit, close and familiar.

The third period is the writing of the text, its publishing house.

Literary critics believe that M. Yu. Lermontov created the text in the period from 1838-1841. Until now, the sequence of writing the chapters of the work by the author is not known.

The first published chapter was "From the notes of an officer in the Caucasus" in 1839, later the chapter was called "Bela". V. Belinsky, who was famous critic of that time, said that the chapter was written in a completely new genre.

A little later, the chapter "The Fatalist" was published. Her contemporaries greeted her with rave reviews. Now researchers of Lermontov's biography claim that the writer himself witnessed these events and only wrote his memoirs, turning them into a chapter of the novel.

History of writing, prototypes of heroes

Some interesting essays

• Essay composition Work of the soul Grade 7

  The work of the soul is an unusual concept in itself. How can the soul work? Although the poet said that the soul must work both day and night. (I don’t remember who exactly said, since we haven’t gone through this yet in the program.)

In 1836, Lermontov, following the example of Pushkin, who showed his contemporary - Eugene Onegin - against the backdrop of St. Petersburg life in the 1820s, decided to write a novel in which he would portray his contemporary - Guards officer Pechorin against the broad background of metropolitan life. But in 1837, for the poem "Death of a Poet", Lermontov was arrested and exiled to the Caucasus, and after the exile, he no longer wanted to return to his former plan. Lermontov visited Pyatigorsk and Kislovodsk, in the Cossack villages on the Terek, traveled along the line of hostilities; in the town of Taman, on the Black Sea coast, smugglers wanted to drown him, who suspected him of being a detective. From the Black Sea coast, Lermontov went to Georgia, and on the way back, in Stavropol, he met with the exiled Decembrists. Meeting new people, new experiences inspired him to create living images of his contemporaries. The novel was written by Lermontov from 1837 to 1840. The sequence of writing the stories has not been precisely established, but it is assumed that earlier than others (in the autumn of 1837

) written "Taman", then "Fatalist", "Bela", "Maxim Maksimych"; but it is possible that "Taman" was written last, and "Fatalist" - after "Maxim Maksimych". The first works were conceived as separate fragments from the officer's notes, but then they became a "long chain of stories" not united into a novel, but connected by common characters - Pechorin and Maxim Maksimych. Bela was the first to be published in Otechestvennye Zapiski (1839, No. 3) with the subtitle "From an Officer's Notes on the Caucasus" - this emphasized the connection of the novel with the romantic "Caucasian literature" popular in the 1830s. Nevertheless, the work was, contrary to the tradition of pictorial and rhetorical descriptions, stylistically oriented towards A. S. Pushkin's Journey to Arzrum.

This feature of "Bela" was noted by V. G. Belinsky: "The simplicity and artlessness of this story are inexpressible, and every word in it is so in its place, so rich in meaning. These are the stories about the Caucasus, about wild mountaineers and the attitude of our troops towards them we are ready to read because such stories introduce the subject rather than denigrate it.

Reading the wonderful story of Mr. Lermontov can also be useful to many as an antidote to reading Marlinsky. "The story" Fatalist "was published in" Notes of the Fatherland "(1839, No. 11). According to biographer Lermontov P.A.

Viskovatov (1842-1905), "The Fatalist" "is written off from the incident that took place in the village of Chervlena with A. A. Khastatov", Lermontov's uncle: "At least the episode where Pechorin rushes into the hut of a drunken, furious Cossack happened to Khastatov" . Historian and collector of Lermontov's manuscripts V.

X. Khokhryakov pointed to the story of Lermontov's friend S. A. Raevsky that the Fatalist depicted a real incident, the participants of which were Lermontov himself and his friend A. A. Stolypin (Mongo).

It was also suggested that Lermontov found the theme of the short story in Byron's memoirs, containing a story about an amazing incident that happened to the author's school friend: "... taking a gun and wondering if it was loaded, he put it to his forehead and pulled the trigger, leaving it to chance to decide whether the shot would come or not." November 1839

in the editorial note to the publication of "The Fatalist" it is said: "It is with special pleasure that we take the opportunity to announce that M. Yu. Lermontov will soon publish a collection of his stories, both printed and unprinted. This will be a new, wonderful gift to Russian literature." By the time of the publication of "Taman" ("Notes of the Fatherland", 1840, No. 2), work on the novel was completed. According to the memoirists, the plot of the story is based on real events, in which Lermontov himself was a participant during his stay in Taman in the autumn of 1837. Comrade Lermontov in the School of Junkers and later in the Life Guards of the Grodno Regiment M.

I. Zeidler, who visited Taman a year after him, in his notes on the Caucasus in the 1830s. described in detail the days spent in this "small, nondescript town", and could not help but note the similarity of his description with the "poetic story about Taman in" A Hero of Our Time ":" high rocky shore facing the sea with a cape. This hut consisted of two halves, in one of which I fit ... in all likelihood, I was destined to live in the same house where he lived; the same blind boy and the mysterious Tatar served as the plot for his story. I even remember that when I, on my return, told my comrades about my passion for my neighbor, Lermontov drew with a pen on a piece of paper the rocky coast and the house I was talking about.

The drawing has been preserved. April 1840. was published "The work of M. Yu.

Lermontov (as it was on the cover of the book) A Hero of Our Time ", consisting of a number of separate short stories, which opened with "Bela" and ended with "The Fatalist". The next, in 1841, the second edition of the novel took place, which included a preface, placed for technical reasons not at the beginning, but before the second part.The preface contains an answer to criticism of the novel by S.P.

Shevyrev, who saw in Pechorin a vicious phenomenon, not characteristic of Russian life, but brought from the West, and S. A. Burachkom, who in the Mayak magazine (1840, part IV, ch. IV) defined Pechorin as "an aesthetic and psychological absurdity ", slander "on a whole generation of people." The original title of the novel, known from the manuscript - "One of the Heroes of the Beginning of the Century" - is associated with the appearance of the novel in 1836.

novel by A. Musset (exact translation - "confession of one of the children of the century").

Many characters in the story "Princess Mary", according to memoirists, had their own prototypes. The universally recognized prototype of Grushnitsky was Nikolai Petrovich Kolyubakin (1811-1868).

Hot-tempered, foppish, a lover of pretentious phrases and an inveterate duelist. A wound in the leg during the expedition was the reason for a trip to the waters, where he met with Lermontov.

It is possible that Grushnitsky also reflected some features of N. S. Martynov (1815-1875), Lermontov’s opponent in the fatal duel that took place in July 1841.

In the past, his comrade at the School of Guards Ensigns and Cavalry Junkers. V. A. Lopukhina-Bakhmeteva obviously served as the prototype of Vera; the opinions of contemporaries regarding the prototype of Princess Mary differ: some called the name of N. S. Martynova, sister N.

S. Martynova, others - E. A. Klinberg, a Pyatigorsk acquaintance of Lermontov, later the wife of A.

P. Shan Giray, a friend and relative of the poet. Dr. Werner was written off from N.V. Mayer, a physician at the headquarters of the Caucasian troops in Stavropol, and Vulich, from horse guardsman I.V. Vuich.

The prototype of Pechorin, as E. G. Gershtein convincingly proved, to a large extent was the poet's friend in the "circle of 16" Count Andrei Pavlovich Shuvalov. He "bravely fought in the Caucasus, where he received ... a slight wound in the chest.

He was tall and thin; he had Beautiful face... poorly hiding the nervous movements inherent in his passionate nature... Women liked him very much due to the contrast between his appearance, which seemed gentle and fragile, his low pleasant voice, on the one hand, and the extraordinary strength that this fragile shell hid, on the other.