This section contains 17,014 words (approx. 57 pages at 300 words per page) |
![]() |
Dictionary of Literary Biography on Mikhail Lermontov
Mikhail Lermontov is considered by many to be the greatest poet of Russia's Golden Age after Aleksandr Pushkin. Although he died at the age of twenty-six, his legacy in poetry and prose gained him a firm place in Russian literary history. The handful of mature lyrics upon which his reputation as a poet rests are characterized by a direct intimacy and personal pathos that distinguish him from his virtuosic predecessor. These poems bear the imprint of a strong Romantic individualism: the hero battles for the poet's right to self-expression against the background of a society viewed as antagonistic to poetry and poets. Indeed, the 1830s, when Lermontov wrote, was a period marked by the turn to prose in Russian literature. Critics began to react against the gentry-dominated school of Pushkin's age, branding poetry a golden plaything. They demanded a new literature to deal with current cultural concerns (such...
This section contains 17,014 words (approx. 57 pages at 300 words per page) |
![]() |