A HERO OF OUR TIME
Short description:
The novel A Hero of Our Time is a masterpiece of Russian psychological literature by the great poet and prose writer Mikhail Lermontov. The prototype for the book’s unusual cover was the uniform of an officer of the Nizhny Novgorod Dragoons from the 1830s.
Artists:
Edition:
26 copies numbered and signed by the publisher and the artist. Copy № 1 is in the collection of the State Hermitage.
Additional information
Details of the creation of this masterpiece
-
Year of publication:2009
-
Number of pages:82
-
Dimensions:375 × 240 mm
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Paper:Vélin d’Arches (France), 250 g/m2, handmade
Language:
Russian
The novel A Hero of Our Time is one of Mikhail Lermontov’s most famous and significant works. It is made up of five parts that have different characters and separate plots but are linked by an interest in the personality, the inner world and behaviour of the main protagonist – Grigory Pechorin, a “Russian Hamlet”.
This edition includes three of the stories within the novel: Bela, The Fatalist and Taman.
Participants in the work on this publication:
Creator of the illustrations — Pavel Tatarnikov
Design of the cover — Mikhail Kopylkov
Printing of the etchings — Alexander Mikhailov
Layout — Yevgeny Bolshakov
Hand typesetting and printing of the text — Sergei Yashin
Hand-sewing the cover in the form of an officer’s uniform — Vitaly Korolev
Making the silver counter-epaulettes and buttons — Valentin Belenky
Binding work — Andrei Degtev, Andrei Kulikov
Technical assistance — Victor Davydov
Scholarly consultant — Victor Faibisovich
This edition includes three of the stories within the novel: Bela, The Fatalist and Taman.
Participants in the work on this publication:
Creator of the illustrations — Pavel Tatarnikov
Design of the cover — Mikhail Kopylkov
Printing of the etchings — Alexander Mikhailov
Layout — Yevgeny Bolshakov
Hand typesetting and printing of the text — Sergei Yashin
Hand-sewing the cover in the form of an officer’s uniform — Vitaly Korolev
Making the silver counter-epaulettes and buttons — Valentin Belenky
Binding work — Andrei Degtev, Andrei Kulikov
Technical assistance — Victor Davydov
Scholarly consultant — Victor Faibisovich
The Russian-language text was typeset by hand, using the Yelizaventinskaya typeface, and printed on a 19th-century Dingler hand press.
The book contains 37 exquisite graphic miniatures created in the etching technique by Pavel Tatarnikov.
In copies 1–16, the artist hand-tinted the etchings with gouache. For copies 17–26, the etchings were printed using the à la poupée technique, where variously coloured inks are applied to different parts of the plate.
The uniqueness of this edition lies in the fact that for the first time in the history of book-printing, etchings were printed not on separate sheets, but incorporated directly into pages with the text. Furthermore, the pages were printed on both sides. This had previously been considered a technical impossibility.
Amazingly, the artist Pavel Tatarnikov was also a distant relative on Lermontov, through the Von Derwies family line. In the artist’s works, the hero of the novel, Grigory Alexandrovich Pechorin, bears a visual resemblance to his great literary forebear.
In copies 1–16, the artist hand-tinted the etchings with gouache. For copies 17–26, the etchings were printed using the à la poupée technique, where variously coloured inks are applied to different parts of the plate.
The uniqueness of this edition lies in the fact that for the first time in the history of book-printing, etchings were printed not on separate sheets, but incorporated directly into pages with the text. Furthermore, the pages were printed on both sides. This had previously been considered a technical impossibility.
Amazingly, the artist Pavel Tatarnikov was also a distant relative on Lermontov, through the Von Derwies family line. In the artist’s works, the hero of the novel, Grigory Alexandrovich Pechorin, bears a visual resemblance to his great literary forebear.
The original design for the book’s cover employs elements found in the uniform of an officer of the Nizhny Novgorod Dragoons from the 1830s. The Nizhny Novgorod Dragoon Regiment was one of the oldest cavalry units in the Russian army. In 1837 Lermontov himself donned the green uniform of a dragoon officer after being transferred from the Life Guard Hussars to the Nizhny Novgorod Regiment on account of his poem On the Death of a Poet, an accusatory elegy for Pushkin.
The cover was hand-sewn from green and red woollen cloth. Attached to it are five gilded buttons cast from sterling silver bearing the number 9 (that of the regiment in which Pechorin might have served). On the spine of the book there are two gilded counter-epaulettes (the crossways loops on the shoulder of the uniform that held the epaulette in place), also cast in silver.
The book fits in a mahogany case modelled on those used for duelling pistols. It is lined with velvet. The title of the book is inlaid with brass letter in the lid of the case.
The cover was hand-sewn from green and red woollen cloth. Attached to it are five gilded buttons cast from sterling silver bearing the number 9 (that of the regiment in which Pechorin might have served). On the spine of the book there are two gilded counter-epaulettes (the crossways loops on the shoulder of the uniform that held the epaulette in place), also cast in silver.
The book fits in a mahogany case modelled on those used for duelling pistols. It is lined with velvet. The title of the book is inlaid with brass letter in the lid of the case.
Additional information
Details of the creation of this masterpiece
About this edition
About this edition:
-
Year of publication:2009
-
Number of pages:82
-
Dimensions:375 × 240 mm
-
Paper:Vélin d’Arches (France), 250 g/m2, handmade
Language:
Russian
The novel A Hero of Our Time is one of Mikhail Lermontov’s most famous and significant works. It is made up of five parts that have different characters and separate plots but are linked by an interest in the personality, the inner world and behaviour of the main protagonist – Grigory Pechorin, a “Russian Hamlet”.
This edition includes three of the stories within the novel: Bela, The Fatalist and Taman.
Participants in the work on this publication:
Creator of the illustrations — Pavel Tatarnikov
Design of the cover — Mikhail Kopylkov
Printing of the etchings — Alexander Mikhailov
Layout — Yevgeny Bolshakov
Hand typesetting and printing of the text — Sergei Yashin
Hand-sewing the cover in the form of an officer’s uniform — Vitaly Korolev
Making the silver counter-epaulettes and buttons — Valentin Belenky
Binding work — Andrei Degtev, Andrei Kulikov
Technical assistance — Victor Davydov
Scholarly consultant — Victor Faibisovich
This edition includes three of the stories within the novel: Bela, The Fatalist and Taman.
Participants in the work on this publication:
Creator of the illustrations — Pavel Tatarnikov
Design of the cover — Mikhail Kopylkov
Printing of the etchings — Alexander Mikhailov
Layout — Yevgeny Bolshakov
Hand typesetting and printing of the text — Sergei Yashin
Hand-sewing the cover in the form of an officer’s uniform — Vitaly Korolev
Making the silver counter-epaulettes and buttons — Valentin Belenky
Binding work — Andrei Degtev, Andrei Kulikov
Technical assistance — Victor Davydov
Scholarly consultant — Victor Faibisovich
Text
The Russian-language text was typeset by hand, using the Yelizaventinskaya typeface, and printed on a 19th-century Dingler hand press.
Illustrations
The book contains 37 exquisite graphic miniatures created in the etching technique by Pavel Tatarnikov.
In copies 1–16, the artist hand-tinted the etchings with gouache. For copies 17–26, the etchings were printed using the à la poupée technique, where variously coloured inks are applied to different parts of the plate.
The uniqueness of this edition lies in the fact that for the first time in the history of book-printing, etchings were printed not on separate sheets, but incorporated directly into pages with the text. Furthermore, the pages were printed on both sides. This had previously been considered a technical impossibility.
Amazingly, the artist Pavel Tatarnikov was also a distant relative on Lermontov, through the Von Derwies family line. In the artist’s works, the hero of the novel, Grigory Alexandrovich Pechorin, bears a visual resemblance to his great literary forebear.
In copies 1–16, the artist hand-tinted the etchings with gouache. For copies 17–26, the etchings were printed using the à la poupée technique, where variously coloured inks are applied to different parts of the plate.
The uniqueness of this edition lies in the fact that for the first time in the history of book-printing, etchings were printed not on separate sheets, but incorporated directly into pages with the text. Furthermore, the pages were printed on both sides. This had previously been considered a technical impossibility.
Amazingly, the artist Pavel Tatarnikov was also a distant relative on Lermontov, through the Von Derwies family line. In the artist’s works, the hero of the novel, Grigory Alexandrovich Pechorin, bears a visual resemblance to his great literary forebear.
Binding
The original design for the book’s cover employs elements found in the uniform of an officer of the Nizhny Novgorod Dragoons from the 1830s. The Nizhny Novgorod Dragoon Regiment was one of the oldest cavalry units in the Russian army. In 1837 Lermontov himself donned the green uniform of a dragoon officer after being transferred from the Life Guard Hussars to the Nizhny Novgorod Regiment on account of his poem On the Death of a Poet, an accusatory elegy for Pushkin.
The cover was hand-sewn from green and red woollen cloth. Attached to it are five gilded buttons cast from sterling silver bearing the number 9 (that of the regiment in which Pechorin might have served). On the spine of the book there are two gilded counter-epaulettes (the crossways loops on the shoulder of the uniform that held the epaulette in place), also cast in silver.
The book fits in a mahogany case modelled on those used for duelling pistols. It is lined with velvet. The title of the book is inlaid with brass letter in the lid of the case.
The cover was hand-sewn from green and red woollen cloth. Attached to it are five gilded buttons cast from sterling silver bearing the number 9 (that of the regiment in which Pechorin might have served). On the spine of the book there are two gilded counter-epaulettes (the crossways loops on the shoulder of the uniform that held the epaulette in place), also cast in silver.
The book fits in a mahogany case modelled on those used for duelling pistols. It is lined with velvet. The title of the book is inlaid with brass letter in the lid of the case.
Mikhail Lermontov
A HERO OF OUR TIME
A masterpiece of Russian psychological literature by the great Russian poet and prose writer