Народ

Petar Pondev is the author of nine literary-historical and critical books, the most significant of which were created in the last ten years. This is not only a fruitful period for him, but also a truly new stage in his creative development. Over the last decade, Podev has further developed his concepts on the main issues of literary development, literary trends and works. The initial stage of its formation is painful and contradictory, accompanied by a long and persistent search for the right path. The struggle that the critic leads with himself to overcome the stifling dogmas, to clarify his research thought, to achieve logic and harmony in his presentation was crowned with success. The progress in Pondev's creative development in the second half of his literary-critical activity is obvious and undeniable. The book "Literature and People" contains selected works by the author and, of course, the most significant that he has created and which presents him as a serious literary worker - a fighter against dogmatic and stereotyped thinking in Bulgarian literary science. Everything in this book speaks of a broader view of the problems studied and of a conscious aspiration to analyze Literature not only as one of the forms of public consciousness, but also as a specific, complex area of ​​art. The important thing here is to establish to what extent the author of "Literature and People" succeeded in realizing this undoubted aspiration of his, to what extent he succeeded in revealing literary processes precisely as literary, to enter into their complex essence, to understand and feel the world of the artists he writes about.

I will not hide that I was moved at the time by this book - The Price of Gold". I touched the exalted soul of the unknown author, the assertive, angry, music cut into sharp and metallic sounds that does not flow, but drags you along with it. As if everything is a revelation that is impossible not to make. And I did not dare to write a single line! This story was so intimate and personal that it forced you to listen to it rather than discuss it. Later I met the author. It turned out that the first impression of the book was not accidental. That it really poured out the entire subjectivity of this man - nervous and painfully acute, with a subtle sense of beauty. It is impossible to talk calmly with Gencho Stoev. He keeps you on your guard, always challenges you and makes you argue. He assesses every fact from his own angle, makes it more unusual, by taking it out of the usual order. Being in his consciousness becomes a movement towards his inner understanding of the beautiful. Always conflicting! Harmony blinds his eyes and this makes him desire it even more ardently. That is why reconciliation touches him less often. His suffering is as if second nature. I have the feeling that G. Stoev is constantly self-analyzing, but not only to make an accurate assessment, but also to provoke pain, self-torment, reproach to himself and the world, in order to experience irritation, which increases the internal tension of thought.