Novel · A way to begin
Under the Yoke
Под игото
Ivan Vazov · 1889
Opening lines
Тая прохладна майска вечер чорбаджи Марко, гологлав, по халат, вечеряше с челядта си на двора.
On that cool May evening Chorbadji Marko, bareheaded, in his dressing gown, was having supper with his household in the yard.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from litclub.com
Synopsis
In the spring of 1875, in Biala Cherkva, a small mountain town, the supper of the notable Marko is interrupted by a fugitive hidden in his stable: Ivan Kralich, escaped from the prison of Diyarbakır, pursued by Ottoman policemen. He finds refuge in a mill, then in a nearby monastery. Doctor Sokolov gives him a new identity, that of Boycho Ognyanov, schoolmaster; he gradually wins the inhabitants over to the cause of freedom, takes the lead of the secret committee and falls in love with Rada, a young orphaned teacher.
Context
Exiled in Odessa, the author wrote the novel there; its first part appeared in 1889 in the Sbornik za narodni umotvoreniya, the other two in 1890; Heinemann's English edition, in London, appeared in 1894, the same year as a Bulgarian edition. The action takes place on the eve of the April uprising of 1876, in a town modelled on Sopot, and the handling of the narrative owes something to Victor Hugo's historical novel. Dako Dakovski brought it to the screen in 1952, with the young Sylvie Vartan in the role of a schoolgirl, and Yanko Yankov made a television series from it in 1990.
Who it is for
A broad, readable novel, needing no prior knowledge; translated into French as early as 1957, it has had several translations.
Prizes and reception
The first great Bulgarian historical novel, studied for more than fifty years in secondary school and voted in 2009 the Bulgarians' favourite novel.