MIKHAIL LERMONTOV (1814-1841), soldier, socialite, and author, gained early fame as a lyric poet in the Byronic vein. He then wrote a few works of prose and drama. But he won historical renown as author of his only novel, A Hero of Our Time, published a year before he was killed in a duel.

ELIZABETH CHERESH ALLENis a professor of Russian and comparative literature at Bryn Mawr College and the author of, among other works, A Fallen Idol Is Still a God: Lermontov and the Quandaries of Cultural Transition.