Narrative
Гераците
Not translated into English
Elin Pelin · 1911
Synopsis
In a Bulgarian village, dyado Yordan Gerak, the best-off and most respected man in the place, has kept the inn for forty years with his wife, old Marga, who rules the house where their three sons, Bojan, Petar and Pavel, and their wives live. In spring, Marga suddenly dies, and order unravels: the daughters-in-law quarrel and turn on Elka, the wife of Pavel, who is away; Bojan hides the money from the drawer and pads the account books, Petar hunts, drinks and gives credit, and the old man ends up closing the inn.
Context
The story appeared in 1911, in the author's second collection of stories. Critics read in it the crisis of the traditional village family, between rural simplicity and the modernisation of the country. Old Gerak's savings disappear, and the story never says clearly who took them, which makes it, according to Tsvetelina Mutafchieva, the subject of literary trials in classrooms. In 1932, the critic Dimitar Mitov suspected Yordan Yovkov of having drawn the plot of his play Boryana from it; the quarrel between the two writers ended in reconciliation.
Who it is for
A narrative in eleven short chapters, in simple language; no French or English translation has been found.
Prizes and reception
Adapted for the screen by Anton Marinovich in 1958, then for the stage at the Lovech theatre in 2018, under the title Bojan, Petar i Pavel.