SOURCE: Goldfarb, David A. “Lermontov and the Omniscience of Narrators.” Philosophy and Literature 20, no. 1 (April 1996): 61-73.

In the following essay, Goldfarb examines Lermontov's innovative use of narrative style in A Hero of Our Time.

God and fictional narrators are the only beings who are sometimes considered omniscient. God, who is sometimes regarded as not fictional, is frequently also regarded as omnipotent. Narrators, who normally seem to have no sphere of action save for conveying information to readers, particularly when they speak omnisciently in the third person, are not considered to have “power” in any way, because they are supposed to function outside the story. God always speaks in the first person, and is regarded as an all-powerful agent.

But what happens when the narrator gets in on the action? First-person narrators can enter the plot, speaking in the voice of personal narrative, and sometimes “know” as much or...