The status of Radoy Ralin in Bulgarian literature and culture is enviably paradoxical: his admirers greatly outnumber his readers. Ralin's political satire, coupled with his histrionics, have made him extremely popular even among people with no taste for literature, and his work has been given an extra luster by anecdotes about him, some of which are authentic and some of which are apocryphal. Ralin's creativity unites the lyrical poet with the satirist, a peculiarity that has confused many critics who approach Ralin either as a poet only or as an exclusively satiric writer. Last but not least, the evolution of Ralin's ideological commitments poses a question to the literary and cultural historians, because in him "verses and politics" are entwined, which means that his political preferences leave a direct mark on his work and public persona. Like many other Bulgarian intellectuals from his generation, Ralin was deeply influenced...