In its adventurous happenings, its abductions, duels, and sexual intrigues, A Hero of Our Time looks backward to the tales of Sir Walter Scott and Lord Byron, so beloved by Russian society in the 1820s and 30s. In the character of its protagonist, Pechorin, the archetypal Russian antihero, Lermontovs novel looks forward to the subsequent glories and passion of Russian literature that it helped, in great measure, to make possible.