A Hero of Our Time (Russian: Герой нашего времени, romanized: Gerój nášego vrémeni, IPA: [ɡʲɪˈroj ˈnaʂɨvə ˈvrʲemʲɪnʲɪ]) is a novel by Mikhail Lermontov, written in 1839, published in 1840, and revised in 1841.

He is possessed of extreme arrogance, yet has a deep insight into his own character and epitomizes the melancholy of the Romantic hero who broods on the futility of existence and the certainty of death.

He considers women such as Princess Mary to be little more than pawns in his games of romantic conquest, which in effect hold no meaning in his listless pursuit of pleasure.

Yet a lifetime of superficiality and cynicism cannot be so easily eradicated and when fate intervenes and Pechorin's horse collapses, he undertakes no further effort to reach his one hope of redemption: "I saw how futile and senseless it was to pursue lost happiness.

For what?” Pechorin's chronologically last adventure was first described in the book, showing the events that explain his upcoming fall into depression and retreat from society, resulting in his self-predicted death.

The narrator is Maxim Maximytch telling the story of a beautiful Circassian princess, "Bela", whom Azamat abducts for Pechorin in exchange for Kazbich's horse.

Though Bela is completely devoted to Pechorin, she says she's not his slave, rather a daughter of a Circassian tribal chieftain, also showing the intention of leaving if he "doesn't love her".

In Ian Fleming's From Russia with Love the plot revolves upon Soviet agent Tatiana Romanova feigning an infatuation with MI6's James Bond and offering to defect to the West provided he'll be sent to pick her up in Istanbul, Turkey.

The Soviets elaborate a complex backstory about how she spotted the file about the English spy during her clerical work at SMERSH headquarters and became smitten with him, making her state that his picture made her think of Lermontov's Pechorin.

In the opening sequence of Bergman's next film, Persona (1966), the same child actor is seen waking in what appears to be a mortuary and reaching for the same book.

Claude Sautet's film A Heart in Winter (Un cœur en hiver) was said to be based on "his memories of" the Princess Mary section.

The relationship with Lermontov's work is quite loose – the film takes place in contemporary Paris, where a young violin repairer (played by Daniel Auteuil) seeks to seduce his business partner's girlfriend, a gifted violinist named Camille, into falling for his carefully contrived charms.

[2][3] The production received universal acclaim,[4][5][6] especially praising it for not having lost "neither the linguistic finesse nor the social paralysis of Lermontov’s Zeitgeist",[5] both of which constitute the novel's Byronic character.