SOURCE: "A Hero of Our Time and the Historicism of the 1830s: The Problem of the Whole and the Parts," in MLN, Vol. 92, No. 5, December 1977, pp. 969-86.

In the following excerpt, Ripp examines the structure of A Hero of Our Time.

When Belinskij reviewed A Hero of Our Time he immediately noted the book's unusual structure, a vehicle of disjunct and seemingly self-sufficient sections which nevertheless form a seamless entity. In order to explain the "harmonious relationship between the parts and whole" which he claimed to see, Belinskij resorted to a series of analogies. Just as the several organs of man function to their separate ends and still constitute one human being, so may the sections of a work of art fuse meaningfully. Just as discrete things in nature reflect the workings of a common spirit, so may an apparently disharmonious novel possess a deeper unity. These analogies...