Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    A Tale of Two Worlds
    A Tale of Two Worlds
    A Tale of Two Worlds
    Ebook414 pages6 hours

    A Tale of Two Worlds

    By Vjenceslav Novak

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    In this novel, written by the esteemed novelist in 1901, a provincial composer and organist from Croatia struggles to find his way along the perilous frontier between the worlds of artistic vocation and humdrum family life. The local kapellmeister---a Czech, in good Habsburg tradition, and a confidant of Gaj and Palacky, influential politicians of the time---recognizes young Amadej Zlatanic as a prodigy and persuades the stingy mayor and stubborn parish priest to pack the teenager off to the conservatory in Prague. After several years of sordid student purgatory, Amadej returns to Croatia---ready for love and ready to make great art.
    The world of Central Europe in the 1860s flows past, and Amadej tries to keep abreast of political change. At the same time he ducks and dodges predatory relatives and townspeople in his native district, to which he has returned for the sake of employment. Despite his marriage to the impressionable and vulnerable local beauty, Adelka, and his devotion to their daughter Veruska, Amadej is sorely troubled by the political corruption and isolation of Croatia. His wife takes ill and his family is poor. Yet ultimately it is the vulgar, populist notion of Croatian "identity"---symbolized by the worship of the tamburica, a local musical instrument---that crushes Amadej's career. As it does so, he contemplates the two worlds of national greatness, amidst the Croatian national awakening, and international fame. Finally, frustrated beyond relief by unsuccessful affairs both amorous and professional, and tortured by the philistinism surrounding him, Amadej leaves the world of sanity for a mind-blowing descent into the maniacal and inescapable world of hallucination, paganism, and paranoia.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCentral European University Press
    Release dateMar 10, 2014
    ISBN9786155225833
    A Tale of Two Worlds
    Author

    Vjenceslav Novak

    Vjenceslav Novak (1859–1905) was a Croatian realist writer and dramatist, author of modern psychological poetry with occult themes.

    Related to A Tale of Two Worlds

    Related ebooks

    General Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Surviving Populism

      Jun 8, 2018

      In 1992, a former RAND Corporation analyst, Francis Fukuyama, published a book titled The End of History and the Last Man. Written at the end of the Cold War, the book argued that the great ideological battle between the forces of liberal democracy a

      2 min read

    • Article

      Slava Ukraini! Dispatches from Kyiv: Part Two

      Mar 1, 2022

      Millions staff writer Il’ja Rakos and his family live in Kyiv, Ukraine. What follows are his Facebook posts from the ongoing Russian invasion, many of them written from a bomb shelter, reposted with his permission and the assistance of his friend Mar

      5 min read

    • Article

      Prophet And Loss

      Apr 29, 2022

      Prophet And Loss
      3 min read

    • Article

      Stop Hating on Adjectives!

      Jun 12, 2019

      A common admonition in creative writing pedagogy is, “Cut as many adjectives as possible.” I propose that this rule springs from mere prejudice. The post Stop Hating on Adjectives! appeared first on The Millions.

      7 min read

    • Article

      Everlasting Lane

      Feb 24, 2022

      SEND FORUM SUBMISSIONS TO THE EDITOR: DRSUTTON@FORTEANTIMES.COM In the summer of 2020, when the first lockdown started to lift, I took up walking again. I was never going to repeat the crazy mile-munching escapades of my youth, like marching to the “

      3 min read

    • Article

      Everlasting Lane

      Feb 24, 2022

      SEND FORUM SUBMISSIONS TO THE EDITOR: DRSUTTON@FORTEANTIMES.COM In the summer of 2020, when the first lockdown started to lift, I took up walking again. I was never going to repeat the crazy mile-munching escapades of my youth, like marching to the “

      3 min read

    • Article

      If It Happened Here

      Mar 1, 2019

      If It Happened Here
      6 min read

    • Article

      László Krasznahorkai

      Jun 15, 2018

      László Krasznahorkai
      27 min read

    • Article

      Chronicle Of A Plague

      Jan 17, 2021

      Chronicle Of A Plague
      2 min read

    • Article

      A Fold in Time

      Jun 9, 2020

      A Fold in Time
      5 min read

    • Article

      A Final Walk With Olds

      Oct 2, 2023

      A Final Walk With Olds
      6 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Scott, Bucak, Zeh, Steinberg, and More

      Aug 20, 2019

      An intriguing near-future dystopian thriller, two innovative short story collections, and a remarkable portrait of Britain at its Brexit inflection point. The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Scott, Bucak, Zeh, Steinberg, and More appeared firs

      5 min read

    • Article

      To Make Art Is To Be Human

      Oct 13, 2021

      IN 1950, Ernst Gombrich published The Story of Art. The book was an instant bestseller and was the first to show that there was, indeed, such a thing as a story of art, that artists and movements existed not in isolated moments of time, but as part o

      7 min read

    • Article

      Edvard Munch Lightens Up

      Aug 11, 2023

      Edvard Munch Lightens Up
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Corridor Stories

      Sep 1, 2022

      The Corridor Stories
      5 min read

    • Article

      Getting Down to The Bones Of It

      Apr 18, 2022

      The first line on the back of the memoir Prague in My Bones tells us that author Jindra Tichý is one of the most influential Czechs living abroad. The academic, writer and author of 19 novels has been living in Dunedin for the past 35 years. How she

      11 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for A Tale of Two Worlds

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      A Tale of Two Worlds - Vjenceslav Novak

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1