August Šenoa

August Šenoa

August (Ivan Nepomuk Eduard) Šenoa (originally Schönoa, November 14, 1838 – December 13, 1881) was a Croatian novelist, critic, editor, poet, and dramatist.

He was a transitional figure, who helped bring Croatian literature from Romanticism to Realism and introduced the historical novel to Croatia. He wrote more than ten novels, among which the most notable are:

• Zlatarovo zlato (Goldsmith's gold; 1871)
• Čuvaj se senjske ruke (Pirates of Senj; 1876)
• Seljačka buna (Peasants' revolt; 1877)
• Diogenes (1878)

Šenoa was one of the greatest Croatian novelists and the author of the popular patriotic song "Živila Hrvatska".

Life

Statue of August Šenoa in Vlaška street, Zagreb

He was born in Zagreb, then part of the Habsburg Empire, into a family of Czech-German origin. His surname was originally spelled Schönoa. His father was Alois Schönoa, and mother was Terezija Rabacs, a Slovak woman from Budapest. He studied law in Prague. He also lived in Vienna for a while, but returned to Zagreb in 1866. He died in Zagreb at the age of 43.

From 1874 to 1881, he edited the literary journal Vijenac ("Wreath").

He died from disease picked up after the 1880 Zagreb earthquake.

Work

In his novels, he fused national romanticism characterized by buoyant and inventive language with realistic depictions of the growth of the petite bourgeois class.

This "father of the Croatian novel" (and modern national literature) is at his best in his mass Cecildemillean scenes and poetic description of oppressed Croatian peasantry, nobility struggling against foreign rule (Venetians, Austrians/Germans and Hungarians) and romanticised period from the 15th to the 18th century. It has become a commonplace phrase that "Šenoa created the Croatian reading public", especially by writing in a popular style.

References

• August Šenoa at the Zagreb City Museum