Novel
Пауци
Not translated into English
Ivo Ćipiko · 1909
Opening lines
На Бадњи дан у дућану газда—Јова живље је но обично.
On Christmas Eve, Boss Jova's shop is livelier than usual.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from sr.wikisource.org
Synopsis
In a village in the Dalmatian hinterland, Rade Smiljanić, a vigorous young highlander, has inherited from his father a debt to gazda Jovo, the moneylender who keeps the village shop and to whom everyone owes money. Rade works to free himself from it, but each season ties him more firmly to Jovo's counter, like his neighbours, who call the moneylender their master and sink from poverty into despair.
Context
The novel appeared in 1909 with the Serbian Literary Cooperative, despite members of the board who judged it too free for schoolboy readers; Jovan Skerlić opposed them, secured publication and hailed a new social novel. The narrative begins and ends in the moneylender's shop, and the chronology follows a straight line between these two scenes. The book was translated into Russian in 1958 and reissued in 1969 in the collection of a hundred Serbian classics.
Who it is for
A novel of medium length, in simple language. It is better to know that Dalmatia was then Austrian and that usury was ruining the peasants there.
Prizes and reception
The novel through which the figure of the rebellious peasant entered Serbian literature, and the most studied of its author's works.