The Slave Girl
and other stories about women
Ivo Andrić (1892–1975) was a novelist,
short story writer, and winner of the 1961 Nobel Prize
in Literature, “for the epic force with which
he has traced themes and depicted human destinies drawn
from the history of his country."
Edited by Radmila J. Gorup, Columbia
University
Introduction by Zoran Milutinović
A string of newly translated as well as already published
stories by a real classic of East European literature.
Andrić, novelist and short story writer of Croatian
descent from Bosnia who identified himself as a Serbian,
was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1961 “for
the epic force with which he has traced themes and depicted
human destinies drawn from the history of his country.”
While the volume includes numerous examples of the oppression
of women and the disaster that ensues if any should
defy the established rules, thereby evoking the fabric
of this society, Andrić has also woven into it
a more personal experience of the categories which society
assigns to women.
Widely read in the whole of Eastern Europe, and a favorite
for addressing themes of general concern in the region,
the fervor of his prose catching, the boldly romantic
plots speak to all alike. A preface by Celia Hawkesworth
and an introduction by Zoran Milutinović, top specialists
of southern Slav literatures are useful in providing
a background both in historical and intellectual terms.
This collection of stories by the most prominent
Balkan author of the twentieth century offers unique
insights into his development as a storyteller joining
post-Oriental sensibility and European high modernism.
It is an excellent addition to The Bridge on the Drina
, Bosnian Chronicle and The Damned Yard, the novels
that have already established Ivo Andrić as one
of the leading voices of world literature in general.
Although the stories have been translated by a variety
of scholars, the overall collection reflects well on
the original Bosnian / Croatian / Montenegrin / Serbian
and captures a unique literary style characteristic
of Ivo Andrić’ poetics and his calm narrative
detachment. - Tomislav Z. Longinović, University
of Wisconsin-Madison
"While Andric’s novels, especially The
Bridge on the Drina, get top billing, the short
story was his forte. And judging from the 22 tales gathered
here, Andric was endlessly inspired by women and their
struggle for autonomy. With searing lyricism and stinging
candor, Andric summons up the mysteries of sexuality
and the age-old attractions and animosities between
men and women, and among the diverse peoples of the
gorgeous, unforgiving Balkans. Darkly symphonic, Andric’s
mesmerizing stories of women trapped and enslaved by
love and contempt delve into humankind’s stubborn
battle against the 'brutal laws of life.'” - Booklist
Contents
Acknowledgments; Preface by Celia
Hawkesworth; Introduction by Zoran
Milutinovic: The Wisdom Effect—Ivo Andrić
the Storyteller; Love in the Kasaba; An Uneasy Year,
Ćorkan and the German Tightrope Walker, Byron in
Sintra, Maltreatment, The Surveyor and Julka, Ojujaci,
Thirst, Miracle at Olovo, In the Camp, The Slave Girl,
Zuja, Loves, Woman on the Rock, The Pasha’s Concubine,
Anika’s Times, A Family Portrait, The Snake, The
Tanners, The Game, An Ivory Woman, Jelena, the Woman
Who Is Not; Glossary, A Key to Pronounciation
2009
580 pages
978-963-9776-42-5 paperback $18.95 / €15.00 / £13.99
Published in the series:
CEU
Press Classics
ISSN 1418-0162
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