[orthoxerox]

> I felt really sorry the author died an early death.

Everyone who knew Lermonotov personally thought Michel was a massive asshole. His biggest hobbies were destroying existing relationships by seducing the women and badmouthing everyone in his vicinity.

[eager_learner]

Eh... I don't think a man capable of such poetry to be that asshole. He says as much in the second preface. I think he may have used the narrator in the first part of the novel as his own mouthpiece.