The story "Lepo" and the artistic mastery of Elin Pelin

Elin Pelin's artistic mastery has already been written, but what has been said is still not enough. The history of the story "Lepo" is indicative of the direction of development of the great fiction writer, his growth as a writer with an original approach and view of our rural reality from the end of the last and the first decades of the present century. A comparison of the different editions of the story leads not only to a more accurate understanding of it, but also to a more complete clarification of Elin Pelin's artistic mastery, illuminates some moments of the creative process: the wear and tear of the product, the embodiment of the idea in verbal form.