Mikhail Lermontov

Robert Reid (University of Keele)
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Mikhail Lermontov (1814-41) is one of the major figures in the history of Russian literature who, together with Pushkin and Gogol, set the parameters for the ascendancy of Russian realism and its principal medium – the novel – during the second half of the nineteenth century. Yet, while occupying this position, he is also a profoundly paradoxical figure. He was primarily a romantic poet whose Byronism far outstripped that of his predecessor Pushkin. He died in his twenty-seventh year and, even allowing for a remarkable precocity, came nowhere near to realising his full creative potential. Gogol was impressed with him and reportedly predicted that “Lermontov the prose writer will be greater than Lermontov the poet”. This proved to be both true and untrue. Lermontov published only…

2007 words

Citation: Reid, Robert. "Mikhail Lermontov". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 26 October 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2697, accessed 19 March 2024.]

2697 Mikhail Lermontov 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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