This is a study of Mikhail Lermontov that attempts to integrate in-depth interpretations of his major texts. It considers his narrative poems, a play, and novel from the perspective of one of the central concerns of Romanticism in general and of Lermontov in particular: heroism and individualism.

This is the first study of the Russian writer Mikhail Lermontov (1814-41) that attempts integrate in-depth interpretations of all his major texts. Lermontov's Narratives of Heroism considers his narrative poems, The Song of the Merchant Kalashnikov (1837), The Demor (1839), and The Novice (1839); a play, The Masquerade (1835); and the novel A Hero of Our Time (1840) from the perspective of one of the central concerns of Romanticism in general and of Lermontov in particular: heroism and individualism.

A poet, playwright, and novelist whose Hero of Our Time lies at the foundation of the Russian psychological novel, Lermontov was also a profound and original thinker, deeply troubled by the historical predicament of his country. His explorations of the virtues and limitations of heroic, self-reliant conduct have subsequently become obscured or misread. This new book focuses upon the peculiar, disturbing, and arguably most central feature of Russian culture: its suspicion of and hostility toward individual achievement and self-assertion. The analysis and interpretation of Lermontov's texts enables Golstein to address broader cultural issues by exploring the reasons behind the persistent misreading of Lermontov's major works and by investigating the cultural attitudes that shaped Russia's reaction to the challenges of modernity.