SOURCE: Barratt, Andrew and A. D. P. Briggs. Conclusion to A Wicked Irony: The Rhetoric of Lermontov's A Hero of Our Time, pp. 123-35. Bristol: Bristol Classical Press, 1989.

In the following essay, Barratt and Briggs suggest that the ironic stance operating within Lermontov's text has led to numerous misunderstandings regarding interpretation of the novel.

The Real Pechorin

Several times in the preceding chapters we have asked the question: how much do we know about Pechorin? On each occasion the answer has been guarded. Reliable conclusions have been hard to find. A striking feature of A Hero of Our Time is the gross disparity everywhere in it between the easy manner of narration, the apparent naturalness and objectivity assumed by the narrators, and the meagre amount of dependable truth which they really purvey. We have attempted to demonstrate how, in every chapter, misconceptions can arise. Examples are plentiful: that...