I just finished this last night, and enjoyed it tremendously. I've written it up on my blog (
http://pechorinjournal.blogspot.com/) and now reading your comments I note that I picked out two of the same examples as you did (one of descriptive prose, one of incident), which is interesting.
Interesting you also said operatic, John Self said the same as did I, it looks like there's a fair degree of consensus on this one looking afresh at the various reviews. I hope it gets a bit more attention going forward.