Short stories
Among the Mountains
Med gorami
Ivan Tavčar · 1888
Synopsis
Twelve scenes of village life in the hills above Škofja Loka, over the valleys of the Poljanska and Selška Sora. A peasant tells them in the first person, without taking part in the action himself. He describes the poverty of the farms and the harshness of lives, and above all what comes from outside: the townspeople who come up to the countryside or whom one meets in town, weak, affected, deceitful in love, greedy and little attached to their language, bring misfortune there.
Context
The sketches first appeared separately, in the journal Zora in 1876, in Zvon in 1878 and in a collection of 1880, and the series extends to 1888; the subtitle ties them to the hills of Škofja Loka, the author's native region. The narrator reports what the townspeople do without intervening, and his judgement depends on his condition, which makes him partly unreliable. Critics read in it an attack on the bourgeois way of life, judged contrary to nature because it detaches people from work on the land.
Who it is for
Twelve short stories, which can be read separately, in simple language; there is no French translation.
Prizes and reception
Ranked by the Slovenian national biography among the best works of its author, for its realism and its understanding of the characters.
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