Bulgarian Book Aleko Konstantinov - "To Chicago and Back" Bulgarian travelogue

ISBN: 954-9308-24-3
Author: Aleko Konstantinov
Printed: 2004
Pages: hard cover, 103 pp.

This is one of the most emblematic Bulgarian books, well familiar to every Bulgarian. It has been hard for the author to gather the money necessary for his trip, yet he managed to cross the Atlantic and visit the Chicago Exposition of 1893. Apart from a witty and interesting observation of the States, this travelogue is the first book where Aleko introduces to his readers the most colorful Bulgarian character, Bai Ganyo. Carrying his muskals and saddlebags, with his quite primitive and open nature, Ganyo Balkanski is an ironic representation of a patriarchic, left-behind society with its mores and drawbacks.

Aleko's subtle, at times harsh ironic style, is both appealing and provocative. He is one of the few Bulgarian geniuses of his time, who unfortunately couldn't fulfill his dream to travel round the world as he was untimely killed. Let's help that his translated book will have the opportunity to do so.
Aleko was the first person who came to my mind when I get off the train to Chicago...

In 1893, apart from everything else, the following events occurred: on May 1st the American President Grover Cleveland opened the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago; on June 20th the Bulgarian writer Aleko Konstantinov set out for Chicago from Sofia Railway Station. The two events seem incommensurable in importance. But there is one fact that brings them together. Konstantinov’s travel gives forth magnificent travel notes called "To Chicago and Back" – the best travel book in Bulgarian literature so far. The author of "To Chicago and Back" couldn’t make a trip round the world. Aleko Konstantinov’s travel notes "To Chicago and Back" were recently published by Bulgarian Bestseller – NMBBP, translated in English by Robert Sturm. This small monument of the restless and curious spirit, of the narrative skill, of the wit and humaneness can already start its journey around the world. 110 years later these "light, flying notes" have turned out to be amazingly sagacious. Today, the questions of the place of the man in the technical era, the relations between cultures, the diversification and the equalisation of people have gathered head. To these questions "To Chicago and Back" gives its answer – apparently modest, jocular, but deeply humane and filled with dignity and independence of the spirit.

Categories

Aleko Konstantinov - "To Chicago and Back" Bulgarian travelogue