For more than fifty years Ivan Vazov was the most prominent figure in Bulgarian literature after the liberation. He was a citizen-poet who considered the social mission of literature an organic part of the nation's life and fate. He wrote his most compelling works to glorify Bulgaria's national reawakening and to articulate the ideals of the past, lest they be forgotten by postliberation society. His view of the Bulgarian national character had an enormous impact on his people, and to this day his works remain an invaluable treasure of Bulgarian cultural history. Vazov is considered the patriarch of Bulgarian literature because he provided the highest standards for future generations of writers, who would seek in his verse a solution to their doubts and a confirmation of their ideas. Vazov was in fact the founder of all the literary genres employed by modern Bulgarian literature. His wide-ranging works are...