Костов

Everyone who has interacted with him says that he was a very quiet and kind person. But in his work we often see him angry and merciless. He boldly exposed the disgrace of the bourgeois world, deeply undermined its rotten foundations, without realizing it himself. Stefan Kostov was born in Sofia on March 30, 1879. His father, Lazar Kostov, was a prominent voivode from Bansko, who took an active part in the liberation struggles of Macedonia. There are no turbulent moments and dramatic events in the life of St. L. Kostov. His biography is quite modest. But if the biographer delve into the inner image of the writer, he will find rich material for his spiritual portrait. Stefan Kostov graduated from Slavic Philology at Sofia University. He listened with interest to the lectures of our distinguished scholars Benyo Tsonev, Miletich and Ivan Shishmanov. As a student, and for a year after graduation, Stefan Kostov was engaged in journalism. This profession gave him the opportunity to see the ugliness of political mores, which he so passionately exposed in his comedies. In 1903 he became a teacher in Sofia, at the Second Boys' High School. In 1906 Kostov was sent to specialize in Vienna. There he listened to lectures by prominent Slavic scholars Yagich, Vondrak, Reshetar, and also by K. Irechek. But these lectures did not satisfy him. "Anyway," he shared with Professor Shishmanov, "I am now a student again and will soon send you an official certificate to the Ministry. I signed up to listen to Old Bulgarian literature for 2 hours with Mr. Yagica, Old Czech literature for 2 hours with Mr. Vondrak, Serbo-Croatian literature in the 18th century for 2 hours with Mr. Reshetara, and ethics with Mr. Jodl. For now, at least, the lectures on literature do not attract me at all, because they seem very elementary in content to me and because I do not find in them at all what I am looking for. It seemed to me that they treat questions more from the field of Slavic paleography: monuments, their redactions, sources, translations, witty guesses about dates and eras when they were created are listed before me - this, indeed, gives a somewhat impression of deep learning. But as for explaining the content of a work, starting from living, social conditions. environment, time, etc. - there is no mention of all this, or very little is expected... maybe I am wrong, but it still seems to me that as long as Slav. literature remains so isolated on philological soil, it will not progress much. It suits me better to do things at home and I do most of them that way. Now I am reading about Serbo-Croatian works - history, literature, ethnography