FICTION.
UNDER THE YOKE.*
M. VAZOFF'S remarkable novel, recently issued in a new and revised , edition, demands special attention not only as a representative ppecimen of the work of Bulgaria's fore- most author and poet, but also as a vivid picture, based on the writer's own experiences, of the early stages of the story of Bulgarian emanpipation. To the vast majority of British readers Bulgaria has hitherto stood simply as a factor in the Balkan problem. The leading figures in her recent history— Prince Alexander, Karaveloff, Panitza, Stamboloff, and King Ferdinand-,are associated in their minds with politics and action, The: prevalent view of the Bulgarians en masse, a view confirmed by the observations of correspondents during the last few .months, is that of a hardy, dour, and singularly reticent people, for the most part devoted to agriculture, and in whom the emotional traits of the Slav are conspicuously absent. Inasmuch, however, as the Bulgars represent a Slavicized Turanian stock, this deviation from Slav charac- teristics is net to be wondered at, nor has their internal history in the last half-centeiry conduced to the cultivation of art or letters. That this deficiency is likely to be remedied and that we .my before long have to revise our estimate of the mental equipment of the Bulgarians, is clearly shown by the fine quality of M. Vaz,off's work. For it is not merely notice- able for its pateiptic fervour or its faithful delineation of local customs. The style, so far as one can judge from the admirable trenalation now before us—the name of the trans, lator is unaecounta.bly emissing from the title-page--is more than efficient: it has_a nervous force and a pieturesqneness which re.mincleas of Afaurns Jokai. He recalls joltai, again, by his introduption of strange, .grotesque, eccentric figures, ctre4r. OP La ROINroa:ai -tt pi 4.9 veeeff- NFlik an Introduction Edmund Closet, pow an,d revised edition. Lsvidon : VI:Arvin 'amijna, lad such as the idiot Mouncho or Ivan Kill-the-Bear; by 44 flashes of sardonic humour ; by,a sort of primitive melodrama
et once extravagant yet inipreesive. And elong .with these natural resources he shows unmistakable evidences_ of .wiele reading and familiarity with European literature.
The period which N. Vazoff has chosen for ,illastration is that of the darkness before the dawn of Bulgarian inde, pendence—the period which culmitutted in the abortive risings of 1876 and the wholesale massacres of c4ristians in the provinces of philippopolis ad Tlrnova. M. Vazoff, as we learn from the sketch of his career given in Mr. Gosse's intro, duction, was born and spent his yonth-at Sopot, in Eastern Rounielia, but lived and studied in Roumania from 1870 to 1872, when he returned to Bulgaria. In 1876 he fled for his life to Bucharest, where he joined the Bulgarian Revolutionary Committee, returning in 1878 to find his native village
destroyed and his father murdered by the Bashi-ba.zoules. Thus it will be seen that M. Vazoff was not only a grown man during the period he describes in his novel, but that he took an active part in this early movement of liberation and suffered acutely from its failure Yet while his hostility to. the rule of the Turk is uncompromising and .unquenchable, one cannot but admire the honesty with which he sets forth the weaknesses and shortcomings of his fellow-countrymen. In some the habit of servitude had engendered a .self- protecting attitude _which led them to make common cause with the • oppressor; the mass of the peasants were terrorized into acquiescence, and fought shy of the few enthusiasts who sought to spread the seeds of revolt. Their childish ignorance and timidity are unsparingly brought out in these pages. One recognizes almost from the first that the rising was foredoorned to disaster. If. Vazoff's honesty is
also shown in his frank admission that, oppressed and mal- treated as they were, the Bulgarian peasants went on with the ordinary business of life, even with merrymaking and festivities. Yet against this unromantic background figures of a truly romantic type detach themselves in bold relief ; Ognianoff, the hero, a yeung Bulgarian who had been banished to Diarbekr and, breaking prison, had made his way back to. carry on the propaganda. of revolt in Eastern Roumelia ; Sendoff, the doctrinaire Socialist, Ognianoff's rival for the affections of Rada, the ermine schoolmistress; Sokoloff, the reckless young doctor. There ie a wonderful picture of the spy Samanolf, a man who, " though tall and powerfully built, stopped considerably, as though under the weight of public. execration," and one of the most striking surprises in the book,
is connected with his discovery of an incriminating document which be returns to the revolutionary committee with a letter of warning ending "Good luck to you!" and signed "The Bulgarian traitor and spy, Petraki Samanoffi" The author's comment is worth quoting. Samanoff, he observes, had never been guilty of political treachery.
"He had undertaken the spy's calling with the sole aim of getting money from the Turks as well as the Bulgarians. In order to levy blackmail upon thoiatter he had, used countless threats, but he never went further than that. .Self-respect be had none, but conscience was still alive within him. Clearly he had not been intended by nature for a spy, but circumstances had remorselessly
driven him into that tortuous path!' •
This is only one of the many unexpected touches which lend vitality to the narrative, in which, as in real life, tragedy jostles comedy. The hero and his fellow-insurgents so often escape from imminent peril that one begins to hope they may win through, but the force of untoward circumstance is too strong, and the story marches on its inevitable course to the final disaster. Yet, though these obscure Bulgarian "apostles" paid for their temerity with their lives, the spirit that animated them lived on, immortalized in the pages of a surviving con- temporary, to enkindle the valour and fortify the resolve of their descendants.
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