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Posts Tagged ‘Lermontov’

Physiognomy: Fighting on in the 20th Century

Posted in Apropos of the 19th century..., Comment on the Seminar, tagged , , , on November 24, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

In one of last week’s classes, we discussed the 19th-century psuedo science known as physiognomy, where one attempts to divine personality traits of a subject given their physical attributes.  This “science” was extremely popular in the 1830s in Russia, and certainly did seem to have influence upon Lermontov.
Most sources that treat physiognomy refer to it [...]

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Last year’s Lermontov posts

Posted in Apropos of the 19th century..., tagged on November 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

 
 
If anyone is interested in going deeper into the topic of Lermontov and the Caucusus, there are a few old posts on this blog that you can check out.
There’s a map of Vladikavkaz up here, and a post on Lermontov’s Romantic Caucusus-themed paintings here.

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Who was Lord Byron?

Posted in Apropos of the 19th century..., Comment on the Seminar, tagged , , , on November 18, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

Today in class we were discussing Lord Byron and the impact of his work upon Lermontov’s HoT.  If you have twenty minutes, check out this podcast on Lord Byron’s life.
It’s from the “Stuff you Missed in History Class” programme at HowStuffWorks.com.  They broadcast free, entertaining, and informative bits on history, and their site is well [...]

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Apropos of Lermontov

Posted in Apropos of the 19th century..., tagged , , , on November 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

As you may have realised while reading A Hero of our Time, most of the action in the first section takes place in the now heavily contested borders of “independent” (at least according to Russia, Nicaragua, and Venezuela) South Ossetia.  With winter coming on, and most of the mountainous passes becoming impassable, it looked as though [...]

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Lermontov’s Image of Tbilisi

Posted in Apropos of the 19th century..., tagged , on November 27, 2008 | 2 Comments »

Here’s a postcard of Tbilisi, ca. 1890s:

The city appears to enjoy a moderate climate, is encircled by a few low hills, and has a calm, smoothly-running river in the middle of town.
You can click this link here to view another, more modern photograph that appears to have a lot in common with the postcard above.
Now [...]

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Tbilisi – Vladikavkaz

Posted in Apropos of the 19th century..., tagged , , , on November 27, 2008 | 1 Comment »

here’s the area where the narrator’s journey in “Bela” takes place:
View Larger Map
Take a good zoom in to view the massive Caucasian Mountains that are located in-between. It was this area that registered a good portion of the hostilities in September of this year.

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