Narrative
Българи от старо време
Not translated into English
Lyuben Karavelov · 1867
Opening lines
Хаджи Генчо е такъв един българин, какъвто се рядко ражда и на Еньовден: такъв човек ти не можеш намери ни в Ингелизко.
Hadji Gencho is the kind of Bulgarian who is rarely born, even on Midsummer Day: you could not find such a man even in England.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from chitanka.info
Synopsis
The Bulgarians of old: in Koprivshtitsa, in the 1850s, two old notables rule the roost: Hadji Gencho, pompous, petty and greedy, and Grandfather Liben, a rich merchant, a bon vivant with a murky past. They agree to marry off their children, Pavlin and Lila, who love each other, but the intrigues of the town soon set the two fathers against each other, and their public quarrel threatens the young people's happiness.
Context
Written in Russia, the narrative first appeared in Russian in 1867, then entered in 1868 the author's Moscow collection, Pages from the Book of the Sufferings of the Bulgarian Tribe. It takes the writer's native town as its model, and one of the main characters has his grandfather as prototype. Igor Kaliganov notes in it the everyday detail, the humour and a fine irony, a popular language stylised with comparisons and proverbs, and the heritage of Gogol quickly surpassed; the names of Hadji Gencho and Grandfather Liben have become common nouns. Assen Karastoyanov made an operetta of it, first performed in Sofia in 1959.
Who it is for
A short tale, in the public domain, full of humour and proverbs; no French or English translation has been found.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as the best Bulgarian narrative of its time; the operetta it inspired is the most frequently performed in the country.