Bosnian Chronicle: A Novel [Paperback]

Ivo Andric (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 7, 1993

Set in the Napoleonic era in the town of Travnik, the book presents the power struggles within the region.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This novel, the first volume in Nobel Prize winner Andric's Bosnian trilogy, debuted in 1963. LJ 's reviewer heaped upon it high praise, finding it "rich with humanity and the humor that comes with wisdom" ( LJ 11/1/63). The plot explores the lives of the inhabitants of the city of Travnik in the early years of the 19th century. With Bosnia much in the news these days, this remains "an essential addition for all fiction collections."
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Serbo-Croation

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Arcade Publishing; 1st Arcade paperback ed edition (September 7, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559702362
• ISBN-13: 978-1559702362
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #447,048 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #20 in Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Slavic

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Andric's best work by far, August 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Bosnian Chronicle: A Novel (Paperback)

Most people, whether from the former Yugoslavia or elsewhere, tend to say that "Bridge on the Drina" is Andric's best work. Well, they are wrong. Bosnian Chronicle ("Travnicka hronika" in the original) is Andric's true masterpiece. Nominally it presents the life of Travnik, the Bosnian provincial capital during Ottoman rule, during the early 19th century in the eyes of the French and German consuls stationed there. Andric says so much about central Bosnia in the way he shows the effect the people and the land have on these foreigners. Stunning, beautiful. If you can't read it in the original language, Hitrec's translation is surprisingly good. If you read nothing else by Andric, read this.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another great book by Ivo Andric, September 19, 2004

By 

Vladimir Miletic - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bosnian Chronicle: A Novel (Paperback)

"Travnicka hronika" (The Bosnian Story, The Time of the Consuls... etc.) is Andric's second best work. I don't like ranking books, but I will dare to do it now. His major work "The Bridge on the Drina" (Na Drini cuprija) is a work of such originality and power, unequalled in literature... This book, however, uses a more conservative method, it talks about a smaller period of time and has a significantly smaller gallery of characters, all of which are, of course, very believable and beautifully depicted.
After opening it for the first time, I couldn't stop reading. It was so captivating that I read it in twice in the same week. Not many books do this for me.
"Bosnian Story" follows Austro-Hungarian and French consuls in the Bosnian city of Travnik over the period of five-six years. Andric didn't do much research for his novels, all his major works were written in Belgrade, during WWII, and all that time he almost never left his apartment. It is amazing that one can posses such great knowledge of Travnik and Bosnia, and most impressive of all, his depiction of Turkish, French and Austro-Hungarian politics is so accurate and clear.
What attracts me the most in Andric's works is his clear and simple, yet beautifully sounding sentence.
I strongly recommend you read this one. Chances are, you won't be disappointed. Simpler and less ambitious in approach, this book should perhaps be read before his masterpiece "The Bridge on the Drina."

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Andric's Best, July 15, 2003

By 

A. Schur "aschur99" (San Francisco) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bosnian Chronicle: A Novel (Paperback)

I read this book a few years ago, and still think about its stories and themes. This brilliant novel opens a window to the small Bosnian town of Travnik (Andric's hometown) where representatives of the great European empires have come to play out their epochal hostilities under the suspicious eyes of the local townfolk. While the novel takes place in the Napoleonic era, the story was written (as was "Bridge on the Drina") while Andric was under house arrest during World War II, and thus its story of great forces coming to shake up a small town can be read in light of more recent world changing events. I made a point to visit Travnik on a trip to Bosnia two years ago, and felt as if I already knew the town intimately: the remains of the Pasha's palace on the hill is still there just as Andric describes it, as is the town nestled in the rolling Bosnian hills replete with Turkish fountains and monuments. Sadly, the multiethnic character of the town is gone now, as Serbs such as Andric himself are hard to come by in this part of Bosnia, and Jews are even more difficult to find. By reading this book, however, one can briefly visit Travnik in its multiethnic heyday, and enjoy the depiction of comraderie and sparring between the different local ethnic groups before the age of nationalism truly took hold. Everyone I have met from the former Yugoslavia cites this novel as Andric's best work.

Incidentally, this book has been translated as Travnik Chronicles (the original title), Bosnian Chronicle, and Days of the Consuls (translated by Celia Hawkesworth). Also, a collection of Andric short stories, entitled "The Damned Yard" in the edition I have, also features several more stories set in Travnik around the same era.