Novel
Хајдук Станко
Not translated into English
Janko Veselinović · 1896
Synopsis
Crna Bara, a village in the Mačva, on the eve of the first Serbian uprising. Stanko and Lazar love the same girl, Jelica, who prefers Stanko. Pushed by the Turkish subaša and his accomplices, Lazar breaks open his own grandfather's chest and has his rival accused of the theft, in a village that took itself to be the most honest in the country. Rejected by his own people, Stanko takes the road to the forest and the outlaws.
Context
The novel was published in Belgrade in 1896, in three parts, the Outlaw, the Avenger and the Immortal. Its hero existed: Stanko Aleksić, an outlaw of the Mačva, about whom local memory tells a different story from the book and who is said to have lived long enough for the author as a child to have met him. The novel divides its characters between heroes without fault and traitors without excuse. Well received on publication, it enjoyed its greatest success after the Second World War; it was translated into Lithuanian in 1971.
Who it is for
A large novel in three parts, easy and quick to read. It is better to know that the First Serbian Uprising broke out in 1804 and that a hajduk was an outlaw whom the people regarded as a champion of justice.
Prizes and reception
Its author's most famous novel, studied at school and reissued twenty-four times up to 1963.