If you have read Vladimir Peniakoff's memoir, then you will undoubtedly have an appetite for "With Popski's Private Army" by Ben Owen. It is the essential complement to Peniakoff's book, relating the perspective of his men. Ben Owen's book is a more intimate account of life - and death - in the ranks of the British Army's smallest independent unit, and leaves one missing the company of the men he so fondly recalls. The author gives a vivid portrayel of the warmth of comraderie set against the attrition and suffering of conflict,and breaths life into the discreet cameos of Peniakoff's book. Along with humour and pathos this book is richly adorned with accounts of breath-taking daring, skill and guile. This is a superb account of a vanishing breed, and I urge you to acquaint yourself with these remarkable men. Copies of this book are available from the author.

The World of Art (Mir Iskusstva) is the stuff of legends. The World of Art refers to both an artistic journal and an art movement that held sway in Russia at almost the same time. The movement was a break from the traditions of the fabulous "Wandering Artists (Peredvizniki). That group of artists was absolutely the most dominant in Russian art for more than thirty years. In order to understand the impact of the artistic movement "World of Art" we must go back some thirty years before to divulge some information about the existing order that was the Wandering Artistic Group.

The Wanderers were the first Russian artists to move out from under the umbrella of the Russian Imperial Academy of Arts so that they could paint what they saw as opposed to classical art that forced them to paint subject matters in the style of ancient Greek and Roman art. These painters became a part of the movement by the Russian intelligentsia that wanted to expose the injustices of the prevailing social order. They insisted on painting Russian life as it was. They became marvelous plein air painters depicting for the first time Russian nature in all of aspects. They took portraiture art to new heights and incorporated drawings as a pure art form for the first time in Russian art history. Before this drawings were used only as preparation for the main painting which was to follow.

The Wanderers boasted some of the most famous artists in all of Russian art history. Names such as Repin, Savitski, Savrasov, Surikov, Levitan, Makovsky, Yaroshenko, Shishken, Kunji, Ghe, and Kramskoi among many others. They painted the paintings that most Russian art critics would consider to be the very best of what Russian oil painting has to offer. For over thirty years and numerous exhibitions the work of these artists were all that mattered to the people of Russia. After some years of open conflict with the government and the Imperial Academy, it was the government that submitted to the artists. You must understand this before you can realize how important the World of Art was. It was incredibly important, if only for the reason that it supplemented the Peredvizniki. In reality it was far more that. Whereas names such as the art critic Stasov, and the great collect Tretyakov are indelibly linked to the Wanderers, equally important names such as Sergei Diaghilev and Leon Bakst are just as cemented to the movement known as the World of Art.

The World of Art appealed to a new and younger group of artists. They wanted even more freedom of expression and to paint something new and fresh. The icons of their movement were Serov, Kustodiev, Vrubel, Benois, Somov, Ryabushkin, Korovin, and Petrov Vodkin, and again many others. The World of Art brought a new focus on art that ranged from the sublime to the fantastic. In addition the World of Art incorporated the Russes Ballet and a new emphasis on Russian theater art. The world of art went to Paris and London and demonstrated to Europe that Russian artists ranked among the best in the world. It is safe to speculate that the reign of dominance of the members of the World of Art would have had a grater life span if it had not been for the Russian revolution and the subsequent turn to social painting that followed.

This book is rich in its art and its information. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in either art or Russia. The plates of the paintings are spectacular and should make anyone hungry for a trip to Russia and the Russian State Museum of Art.

The Defense by Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov is absolutely superb. It is all at once humorous, morosely serious, and fascinating. Of course, any book about an insane grandmaster has to be good. As a matter of fact, this book was so good that it was made into a movie, which was equally impressive. The best line out of the book, which I often shout out loud in public, is, "Your son is a cheat, just as you're a cheat. I'm surrounded by cheats!" My recommendation: read the book. It's a fantastic emotional roller coaster ride that leaves you out of breath! Oh, yes, and DON'T read the last line until you get there! It leaves your mouth agape and makes you go want to cry in your room for a few weeks.

Oh, there is no fanatic like a convert. And Nabokov's writing in the English language bestows his found tongue with rapture. This is Nabokov's finest (I suppose in this 21st century, I just don't find Lolita shocking! shocking! the way its rookie readers must have) and one of the top ten novels of the 20th century.

Surprisingly, you'll find that this book composed of a 999-line poem and the commentary written on that poem by a colleague, has a plot. It is ingenious, twisted, brilliant. One of the most finely crafted works of art ever. I've picked up the word "replete" in relation to art from Steven Pinker, and this work is repleteful. The words, the language, the structure, the social criticism, and most of all, the beauty, as I contemplate and re-contemplate this work, grow ever more replete.

I love this poem. "I was the shadow of the waxwing slain/ In the false azure of the windowpane" and its delicate rhymes and trips and footfalls are savored with every single re-reading. He brings an outsiders perspective to the language with rhymes we don't "see" but hear: "Come and be worshipped, come and be caressed / My dark Vanessa, crimson-barred, my blest" and it sometimes feels like he's introducing you to a new English language.

So who wouldn't like this book, I suppose, should be a question the reviewer should try to answer. Well, I just can't imagine anybody that's ever bought a novel not liking this one, so I suppose if you're a pure non-fiction reader, this ain't for you. And Nabokov is a bit bloodless at times, you won't find the wild, sloppy joy of a Kerouac, or the brawny aggressiveness of a Hemingway, but finely finely crafted and turned and polished words delivered impeccably, perfectly.

Please, please, read Pale Fire. The more of us that carry Nabokov's masterwork in our hearts, the more he will have "lived on, flew on, in the reflected sky"

Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov has an absolutely marvelous sense of humor that is unbecoming a professor of literature at Harvard. Good for him! The humor of this book is unmistakable & is transparent to even the most naive of Nabokov's readers. That this gentleman can write a book that is hilarious and at the same time a work of depth and genius is awe inspiring.

"Pale Fire" is the tale of a pedantic, psychotic, misogynistic literary critic who attempts to write an overly-elaborate critique of a poem written by a recently deceased scholar. What is so amusing is how this academician commits so many undergraduate fallacies such as reading too much into a poem and saying "the poet must have had me in mind when he wrote this." He catches erudite allusions only to miss the most obvious references. In the meantime, he also grapples with the demons of his hypochondriac unconscious which make him think that someone or something is "after" him.

This is a wonderful book that has very few peers. For those other reviewers who found that it lacked depth, I would suggest that they read it again. If they still don't find profundity, I would recommend that they read it a third time....a fourth time, etc. until they see what is really "going on" and that the book may be all fun and games, but is fun and games centered around a recondite maze of allegories. A book for the more daring spirits amongst us (and for those who have been waiting a book that makes fun of literary critics......)

Pale Fire is essentially a mystery story. It presents facts and the testimony of a deranged man, and allows the reader to do the detective work. The task presented the reader is daunting as the plots, subplots, and character sketches twist in ever tightening involutions, levels of complexity stacking one on top of another. Nabokov is kind though. Ever conscious of the novel as entertainment he allows the proccess to be fun. He gives away many of the mysteries in ways that lead the reader to believe that he or she has made the discovery. He also leaves some that are so complicated that it would take multiple rereads (or a good companion reader) to make the discoveries. This book is without a doubt my favorite of Nabokov's works, and there are few that I would not recommend it to. My only warning is that you will get out of this book exactly what you put in it. If you read straight through and put it down, you will only scratch the suface of what this novel offers and intends. Though even this will eb an enjoyable experience. The more time you invest and the more you investigate, the richer the experiece will be, and in my opinion, the more fun you will have. Pale Fire is a beautiful and entrancing puzzle capable of almost infinite entertainment.

It is difficult to add anything new not already said by previous reviewers of this book. I think, however, that a distinction should be made between the absolutely extraordinary narrative and the actual topic of the book. Most negative reviews refer to the apparent "lack of morals" of the story, due to the fact that it revolves around a case of paedophilia.

The main character recognises the "perverted" nature of his emotions and desires, so it is difficult to support any idea that the book fosters any concept of sexual liaison with a minor, despite the fact that he ends up acting upon his obsession. In any case, the extraordinary power of the book goes beyond the issue of Humbert's sexual inclination for Lolita.

The narrative puts the reader right under Humberts skin. The vivid description of his obsessive/compulsive behavior is nothing like I've read before - its realism is frightning.

I own both the "regular" version and the anotated version of Lolita. I've found that the anotated version is not ultra necessary; though useful at times, I've noticed that it gives away some spoilers.... I personally think that it is not worth the price difference unless the reader becomes a real fan of the book; some commets are interesting as an insider's story to the author and his writing.

By far, the best fiction book I've ever come across.

LOLITA is one of the greatest novels written in the English language...that much is indisputable, except by pc-evangelists who are quick to brand characters "heroes" and "villains." The relationship that develops between Humbert and Lolita is an odd one, nevermind their age differences. Their relationship is one of an S/M variety, as each character's pleasure and empowerment depend upon the other's sexual frustration and vulnerability. And arguments can be tossed both ways, as to which character tortures and preys upon the other.

But nevermind this barrage of psychoanalysis: read LOLITA for yourself and decide. After all, LOLITA is about much more than sex: it deals with post-war sensibilities, relations between America and Europe, censorship, etc. It's one of the most beautiful, wickedly funny novels of the 20th century. Nabokov details so much about American culture at this time--more so than in many other novels I've come across.

(Also, the annotations are a pleasure in themselves, especially if you're a literary buff who likes guessing the origins of character names and likes pondering the significance of particular cultural/literary allusions.)

This is my suggestion about reading 'Lolita' - the first time, delve into it without the benefit of annotations. Read an edition other than Appel's, or - if you're a stronger person than I am - simply ignore the numbers in the margin. Digest it for what it is, explore the story, create opinions and thoughts in your own mind. Even the most learned scholar will feel ignorant at times - Nabokov is, unquestionably, a genius of language and allusions - but I cannot stress enough how vital it is to read this book as an outsider. Allow a few months to go by. And then delve heartily into this annotated edition. The insights provided by Appel are gems, and makes an entirely new experience of the story. He's a passionate scholar and that is reflected in his careful detail, his concern with Nabokov's input, and his personal voice coming though the notes. Some of the notes hit you over the head, a few things seem glossed over, and his obsession with Nabokov's other works get slightly tedious to someone who isn't as dedicated to the author as Appel is. However, on the whole, the notes are absolutely precious and give a depth to the book that is continually lurking behind the surface during a first-time "ignorant" reading. I would have been horribly disappointed at the plot disclosures, as well as terribly confused at times, if I had read this version when I first read the book. But to the reader "in-the-know," Nabokov's genius shines through, as does his humor and sly cleverness that don't neccessarily pop out at first. The notes range from the purely practical (translations of the interspersed French phrases) to the explanatory (literary history is invoked at the most unlikelist of places) to the anecdotal (Nabokov's own musings, his expertise in entemology, etc). But take my advice - read it first without the notes, and then go back. You'll thank me!

Lolita is the story about a European scholar in America, driven by his obsession with young girls. Humbert Humbert marries Lolita's mother simply to be near the 12-year-old girl, and celebrates when his wife happens to die in an accident. With the mother out of the picture, Humbert no longer restrains himself, and instead indulges in a gratuituous relationship with young Lolita (I feel compelled to express my astonisment with the editorial review of this book, which talks about the relationship as an 'erotic' 'love affair'. Such an understanding is in my opinion only possible in Humbert's utterly twisted and deprived mind). The sympathy we might have felt for the yearning Humbert disappears as he allows his compulsion to create an absurd universe in which he is in complete control over her body and behavior.

There are some obvious references to Andre Gide in this novel, and "Lolita" seems similar in many ways to "The Immoralist". Humbert travels through North America like Michel through North Africa, and like Michel Humbert is an extremely erudite and cultured man who gradually leaves culture and convention behind to live by his basest instincts. The main difference is perhaps that Humbert, unlike the "protagonists" of "The Immoralist" or "Death in Venice", pursues his demonic schemes systematically, without doubt or shame. All three books seem to share the idea that men of culture, intellect, and artistic sensibility are particularly likely to succumb to fascinations otherwise bounded by taboo, that their creative spirits make possible perversions which transcend the boundaries of both nature and culture. It is, I think, a very interesting but profoundly disturbing idea.

Reading 'Lolita' is a decisive moment in every reader's life. If it isn't for the controversial issue or the overwhelming narrative, then it's for the unique half-ironizing, half-desperate tone that Nabokov and nymphets will stay in our minds forever. As I see it, the book is no light meal; it has to ripen like fine wine in the reader's own dark vault.
Listening to Jeremy Irons' voice performance is about as decisive for the literary gourmet as the reading of the book. Quite simply, Irons has THE voice for the text as well as he has THE looks for a silver screen Humbert. This trained, sophisticated British voice with its alternating speed and tone irresistibly lures the listener into Humbert's secret world. Irons has amazing command of his text. The job's extremely difficult, given the sheer size and the draining complexity of the Nabokovian text; but Irons has the talent to show the taste of every single word, so that the plainest descriptive bit turns into textual pleasure. (He manages elegantly even with the French quotes; an additional delight!) Needless to say, pleasure peaks at the rare love moments Humbert and Lolita share. Forbidden passion vibrates in Irons' dark-chocolate voice that virtually melts along with Humbert's lonely ecstasies and despairs. Yes, it's mainly about pleasure - Irons delivers all the delight and harmony that Humbert never experienced. To put it briefly, this 12-hour voice performance is a pleasure you would not want to miss. So, buy and enjoy!

This is the wonderful "autobiographic" account of Humbert Humbert's passion for Lolita, a 12-year-old girl. Humbert is an excentric middle-aged European emigré to America, who rents an appartment at a boarding house and falls desperately in love with the beautiful daughter of the widow owner. He devises a plot to be able to live close to the object of his obsession, and then Fate makes a trick. This will make Humbert travel around the United States with her, fulfilling his sexual fantasies. No good will come out of this slippery slope, but the plot is not the most important thing about the book.

What's remarkable is not that the book tells such perverted facts, but the way in which Nabokov almost convinces the reader that the affair is legitimate and desirable. The reader comes to wish that Humbert gets what he lusts after, even if reason keeps reminding us that something is very wrong in the sexual relations between a grown man and a child. Beyond that, the form of the book -its literature- is the subject. It is a perfect mix of fine irony and infinite and desperate tenderness. The metaphors Nabokov uses are practically insuperable. It is a disconcerting, unforgettable and lovable novel. Every paragraph has an intrinsec beauty to it, that you'll find yourself rereading many of them. It is a book to be rejoiced in, to marvel at the power of words to create, recreate and leave the reader in total awe. All the praise this novel has commanded is justified; all attacks on its subject are unjustified. However distorted and reprehensible, Humbert's love for Lolita is absolut. The narration, in the form of a self-defense addressed to the jury, made me feel so happy about not being part of it: I would have acquitted the defendant, even if I knew he was guilty. Such is the power and mastery of Nabokov's literature. Don't be ashamed of falling in love with Lolita: you are perfectly justified and it's only a book, but, like they say on TV shows: don't try this at home.

Nabokov's Speak, Memory is enjoyable and useful precisely because his experience of exile is so unique and so uniquely written. Time limits the autobiographer to dates, actual experiences and other rather black and white exegesis of life, but memory combined with the imagination fuses fiction to fact in way that compells the imaginative reader to explore his spatial-reality: what is a "colored spiral in a ball of glass" (275). This is both the way Nabokov apprehends (with emphasis on seeing) his life, and his philosophical-artistic vision towards literature-the dramatization of one's vision.

Nabokov limits himself to no such temporal and autobiographical constructs, and as such recreates and creatively illuminates his attitude towards a forgotten world, namely pre-Lenin Russia. Time, similar to Lenin, dictates his inability to return to his past utopian existance, the fantasy world of adolescent lust that the Russian Revolution crushed. Yes, we can read Speak, Memory as a subversion of totalitarianism, but it replaces the void usually created by such negitive-charged, albeit justified, criticism with the regenerating powers of the imagination.

With the intensity of spiritual euphoria, Nabokov embraces his liberating memory: "I witness with pleasure the supreme achievement of memory, which is the masterly use it makes of innate harmonies when gathering to its fold the suspended wandering tonalities of the past" (170).

Nabokov's prose is at times opaque and tedious to the fact seeking critic, but good literature as well as poetry challenges the reader to imagine more than words and dates. While reading Speak, Memory one realizes that it is at once the telling of Nabokov's life story, his reverence for and commemoration of memory told with the subtle candor of an egocentric adolescent whose profound discourse eclipses our dull, time-regulated reality with his luminous, spatially expansive immagination.

This book is worth the time it takes to read it, because Nabokov reminds the reader what it is like to lose one's home. He does not, however, lament his loss to the point of self-pity. On the other hand, Nabokov claims the significance of the individual's experience over the group's, the particular over the general.

In the last years of a century which began and ends with war, Nabokov, a literary exile of the 20th century, finds hope in the irrational landscapes of the mind, the home of the spirit, the imagination.

Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited written by Vladimir Nabokov is a rather enchanting, but poetic book about the author's early life. A recollection of his youthful years remembering is father as more liberal-minded and his mother as he describes her as very beautiful.

The author takes on a trip though time, a time soon to be shattered by the Soviet dictatorship. The author writes in a style that commands the English language, but with a foreign taste, making for an interesting read. The author's choice and usage of words will challange you so, be prepared to with a good dictionary and the meaning may be the secord or third usage.

The life style in St. Petersburg and the surrounding countryside are recalled by the author in a writing style wholly his own as he uses all the powers of an excellent writer to convey this intensely human, yet cultured story.

The book has splendid country estates, nostalgia, lost childhood and paint a rather unique picture of a loving family suddenly torn from peace to terror of the Bolshevik Revolution. We are taken on a tour de force through England for education, An emigre life in Paris and Berlin.

But most of all the book is a work of nostalgia and lost childhood written with a unique style by a master stylist of the English language.

I honestly don't consider myself competent to judge whether Nabokov is one of the century's greatest writers. Like many of his contemporaries, much of his work is so obscure as to defy my comprehension, but I do very much like what I understand in Pale Fire and Lolita, both of which made the Modern Library Top 100 Novels of the Century, and, of course, to read him is to be exposed to an English language and a prose style that one little knew existed. So I am more than willing to acknowledge that he was a singular and immense talent. It is altogether fitting then that his memoirs too should be unique.

For the most part, Nabokov's mission here is literally to let his memory speak. In so doing he recreates late czarist Russia in loving, painstaking detail. While to the best of my knowledge Nabokov was never particularly identified with the anti-Communist émigré movement, this book is its own kind of indictment of the USSR. The case it lays out is not the political or the economic one but the historical and cultural one. As he says:

My old (since 1917) quarrel with the Soviet dictatorship is wholly unrelated to any question of property. My contempt for the émigré who "hates the Reds" because they "stole" his money and land is complete. The nostalgia I have been cherishing all these years is a hypertrophied sense of lost childhood, not sorrow for lost banknotes.

And finally: I reserve for myself the right to yearn after an ecological niche:

...Beneath the sky Of my America to sigh For one locality in Russia.

The crimes of the commissars are without number and most are far greater than this, but this richly textured, impossibly specific and deeply moving memoir so brilliantly transports the reader to what seems to have been a wonderful and altogether innocent existence that to that list of crimes must be added the Bolsheviks utter destruction of this world. Even if you've never liked any of his other books, do yourself a favor and read this one. Even the passages that defy comprehension are beautiful.

GRADE: A

I found this book good when trying to fine an album, but disappointing because it shows albums which are not in print (sometimes not even explaining that the album is unavailable). The reviews are inconsistant because of the many critics. Also the star rating I found to be very confusing. The artist profiles are interesting and informative. The charts for each specific instrument are also interesting. I wish the personnel was identified for each album, then indexed like the Penguin Guide, which is a better quality publication when it comes to jazz CD guides. Overall good reading and a decent resource when looking for an album.

I use both the All Music Guide to Jazz and the Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD. If I had to choose between them, I'd choose the All Music Guide because of the capsule biographies (including birth and death dates) of each artist that are included with every entry. Also, it lists more albums, although some of them are not on CD, but on vinyl only. I also love that it has such a wealth of additional material: music histories and charts of the various genres, "maps" of significant players, and even essays and book reviews! Books about jazz and biographies of jazz artists are reviewed; if that weren't enough, there are also listings and reviews of jazz videos! Truly a wonderful book! In most ways it is much more complete than the Penguin Guide, for example, in the All Music Guide, there are 89 listings under "John Coltrane" whereas in the Penguin Guide there are only 66. On the other hand, many of the Penguin reviews are more lengthy and in-depth than those in the All Music Guide. For myself -- I need both of them!

I have used several jazz guides in the past, but the 3rd edition of the All-Music Guide to Jazz is just the best out there. Aside from the 18,000 CDs rated and reviewed,thousands of bios, etc., there is important additional material like dozens of articles and essays, many music maps, play lists, etc. Certainly the Music Hound jazz book pales by comparision. See for yourself.

Henry Jekyll is a renowned scientist and a respected man. But lately, his behavior has become strange, reclusive and mysterious. So his friend Utterson tries to find out what he's up to. In the meantime, terrible and strange things are happening by night in the streets of London. As the tale unfolds, we discover Jekyll's dangerous games with his own psyche. He discovers a drug that reveals his evil side, without any moral restraint, and gradually loses control of the drug. The narrative technique of Stevenson in this short masterpiece is simply perfect; its philosophical stand is frightening; its moral implications are relevant; and the construction of the story superb.

The onion-layer style serves very well its mission to reveal every event in a semi-slow but tense pace. The environment is insuperable: the dark, wet and gas-lighted streets of London, where Mr. Hyde's steps resonate frighteningly. The ending is horrifying and very well written and, overall, this is a gem of a book. It should be best read in loneliness, in the dark. It is much more than a simple horror novel, because it says something very real and very terrible: without moral restraints, our deeper self can be unbearably evil. It's true.

Ah, the classical dark tale of Dr. Jekyll and his mysterious, vicous, murderous counterpart, Mr Hyde. One of my favourite books, one that combienes science fiction and horror like few have others have done so well.

A book of suspense and mystery, it is foremost a book about psychology, exploring the sweet duality of Good and Evil. And though Hyde may be Evil, i have doubts about Jekyill being Good itself. No, the doctor is merely a troubled soul longing for freedom, and that's what Hyde gives. Freedon without consequences, a theme of debate even nowadys.

Stevenson's work is simply grounbreaking. It explores so many things: ethics in science; the limits of science and knowledge; how science may affect people. Like The Invisible Man, it talks about the tribulations of scientists and what are their limitations. It's also a dark view of science, for it makes it as something without benefits in the end.

But besides this, its still a horror story, a classical one, with all the old ingredients: dark nights; the london fog; a murderer walking about the streets after the next victims. And he does find a couple of them. In my chilliest moments, i like to think Jack the Ripper himself reed this book and decided to make it true.

Robert Louis Stevenson's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" is an extremely well-written horror/mystery. While a relatively short novel, the intricately woven plot offers all the right details at different points. And at the end of the book, the characters all seem to make sense, with all of the given clues fitting very well.
This story of the nice, mellow Dr. Jekyll and his hidden mad-man persona, Mr. Hyde, is a classic clash of good and evil. The author does a wonderful job of keeping the reader wondering about each one's true identity. From Hyde's first trampling, to his murder, to the bitter end, he is portrayed as the exact opposite of Dr. Jekyll, despite an odd, hidden relationship. Only at the very end is the mystery compltely solved.
What makes the novel most unique is the inclusion of numerous other developed characters besides Jekyll and Hyde, such as Utterson, Lanyon, and Enfield. All in all, this is a timeless tale, a true stoy of inner conflict. What this novel lacks in length, it makes up for in well-developed characters, and a superb plot. A must-read.

A Hero of Our Time introduces a most memorable character, Pechorin, who, had the novella been named after him, would stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Eugen Onegin in fame. He derives from the same tradition as Onegin, that of the 'superfluous' man, though he moves beyond his predecessor (and prefigures others) in the degree to which he reeks havoc on a personal level. The novella consists of stories only nominally connected, and it is fair to say that the second half is better than the first. The centrepiece is the diary of Pechorin which contains a full narrative of his 'adventures' at a small holiday town. It just has to be read to be believed: it is 'lady-killing' and 'white-anting' at its clinically destructive best. Readers of Eugen Onegin will notice similarities, though the prose form allows much deeper characterisation, for which one is certainly not sorry. Lovers of later 19th-century Russian literature will appreciate this book in its prefiguring of characters and of settings in, among others, Turgenev, Dostoyevsky, and Chekhov. Lermontov died young and in a very Romantic fashion (a duel); one can only be sorry that he did not live to write more.

The Russians seem to have loved Byron. This work is really several stories and all enjoyable. I'm told by a friend that Lermontov is better known as a poet and I want to investigate that lead but this book is a highly entertaining introduction to this little read Russian. The locations are exotic, the Russian wild lands known as the steppe, and the hero travels by horse from one to the next. The book appeals as an adventure but the actual character of the hero is very complex, not at all like the usual adventure hero and thats because these are Byronic times when amourous endeavors are just momentary diversions to relieve one of ones own solitude and duels are really the only pursuits that awaken one fully. I was surprised how good this was. I don't think it is essential reading for anyone but if you read it you will smile knowingly every time you think about it or hear it mentioned. A Byronic smile. I'll get back with you after I have read the poetry.

Mikhail Lermontov was a poet by genius, a romantic at heart, yet by the time of his death at 26, he had already become something of a disillusioned realist. This tension between streaks in his personality is expressed openly in "A Hero of Our Time": the novel starts out as a romantic adventure beautified with most exquisite imagery, but is later transformed into a disquieting tale of manipulation and dark deeds.

The setting for this novel (which is really a loosely connected string of short stories) is the wild Caucasian mountains, to which Lermontov himself had been "exiled" to fight against the fierce Chechens. After the death of Pushkin, Lermontov took it upon himself to keep the great poet's legacy alive. The authorities did not take kindly to Lermontov's endeavour, and transferred the young officer to the war zone.

To 19th centrury Russian writers, the experience of the Caucasus and of 'Asiatics' in general was of tremendous value as a gauge of the value of Russian civilization. Juxtaposing Russian high society with the people of the steppes and the mountains became a familiar device in Russian literature, just like American Indians were used to symbolize the natural/unadulterated or the uncivilized/savage in American literature.

However, in "A Hero of Our Time" the officer Pechorin transcends the boundaries between culture and nature. In the early chapters of the book, Pechorin's adventures are described from outside, and seem extraordinary, bizzare, yet captivating. Later on, other stories are recounted in Pechorin's diary, and they draw a different picture of the modern hero: disillusioned, hateful, and profoundly unhappy. Life is a game which he has long mastered, he knows exactly how to play into people's pride, vanity and passion. Yet, at unlikely moments, a stir of long-forgotten emotion briefly produces a vulnerable, human hero with whom we, despite ourselves, are forced to identify...