Petko Todorov

He is cited as the originator of the Romantic short story in Bulgaria[1] although this is true only for his earlier texts because he soon progressed to deeper and newer psychological observations and experimental techniques such as interior monologue.

[2] As part of the intellectual circle ‘Misal’ (Thought) he worked along some of the greatest Bulgarian writers of the late 19th and early 20th century, such as Pencho Slaveykov and Peyo Yavorov who were his close friends.

He studied law in Bern and literature in Leipzig, travelled through France, Germany, Switzerland, Russia, Italy, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Ukraine, and focused on his literary career after the first years of the 20th century.

[9] Todorov interweaved the fantastic with the realistic, placing an emphasis on folklore poetic, and is best known for his stylistically brilliance in the short stories ‘Idilii’ (Idylls, 1908) and his dramas ‘Zidari’ (The Builders also known as Masons, 1902) and ‘Zmeyova svatba’ (Zmei's Wedding, 1910).

[10] Among his best known stories are: ‘Ovchari’ (Shepherds); ‘Mechkar’ (Bear-Ward); ‘Slunchova zhenitba’ (Sun's Wedding); ‘Nesretnik’ (Unfortunute); ‘A Memory’ (Spomen); ‘Orisnitzi’ (Fates); ‘Senokos’ (Haymaking).