LERMONTOV, MIKHAIL IVANOVICH, a Russian poet and novelist was born in 18[1, of a noble family, was educated at home and at the school of the Pages, entered the military service, and became an officer of the guards. In 1837, when Pushkin, the Russian Byron, fell in a duel with a Frenchman, Lermontov wrote a poem ' On the Death of Pushkin,' which excited in so strong a degree the wrath of the Emperor Nicholas, that he struck the author off the list of officers of the guard, and sent him to serve in the army of the Caucasus. The poem, which long circulated in manuscript in Russian society, was printed for the first time iu 1856, in the second number of the 'Polar Star,' a Russian periodical published at London by Horizon, who had been Lermootov's personal friend. It insinuates that the insidious favour of the court, which it reproaches for its per secutiou of Pushkin when his soul was free, had placed on the noble forehead of the poet a "crown of thorna," and that Pushkin died with a deep thirst for revenge mingled with a secret sorrow for hopes deceived. Lermontov wrote, in the midst of the hardships and perils of the Caucasus, a novel entitled Geroy nashego vremeni' (' A Hero of our Times '), which was published at St. Petersburg in 1840, and at once attained a high popularity, which it appears still to retain. The hero, Pechorin, an offiecr in the army of the Caucasus, is a misanthropic mieehief-maker disgusted with life, who, finding that his friend is in love with a lady, wins her affections to tell her that he rejects them, and shoots her lover in a duel under frightful circumstances, which are described at length. The character of Pechorin was said to be
intended by the author for himself, and this was faintly denied in much the same manner that Byron at times denied his own identity with Childe Harold. Apart from its repulsive plot the novel has many merits, in particular some easy and vivid sketches of the moun. tain scenery of the Caucasus. It has been rendered into several languages, and two English translations appeared in the same year 1854, one by Madame Theresa Pulszky. The poems of Lermontov are also rich in descriptions of Caucasian scenery, from which he appeared to receive a feeling of vivid pleasure, his favourite amusement being s solitary ride over the steppes. His fame had scarcely begun to spread when news was received of his death. The duel of 1837 had first darkened his career ; the most striking incident in his novel was s duel in the Caucasus; and he fell in a dud in the Caucasus in 1841 before he was thirty. His poems were collected soon after his death at St. Peteraburs, and a third edition of his whole works appearec here in 1852. A complete translation of his poems into German by 3odenstedt was published at Berlin in the same year. After Pushkin 1,ermontov is considered the moat distinguished Russian poet of the 3yronic school, to which he belonged in every point of view.