Mikhail Lermontov (1814-1841) is best known to readers as the author of A Hero of Our Time. Bursting into print with an impassioned poem on the death of Pushkin, he continued to attract unfavorable attention from the authorities while enjoying a high reputation in literary circles and beyond. Having served in the Caucasus, and taken part in dangerous engagements against the Chechens, like Pushkin he died in a duel of dubious legality. Peter France is an eminent scholar and translator of modern Russian poetry. He is joint general editor, with Stuart Gillespie of Glasgow University, of the five-volume Oxford History of Literary Translation in English. Robyn Marsack is an editor, critic, and translator, and is director of the Scottish Poetry Library in Edinburgh.