August Senoa - Zagreb, Croatia
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WayExplorer
N 45° 48.505 E 015° 58.739
33T E 576066 N 5073227
Bust of August Senoa in Zagreb, Croatia.
Waymark Code: WM7YMY
Location: Croatia
Date Posted: 12/23/2009
Views: 6
This bust of August Senoa is located on the Strossmayer Square, near Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
"August Senoa (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:
- Goldsmith's gold; 1871
- Pirates of Senj; 1876
- Peasants' revolt; 1877
- Diogenes; 1878
Senoa was greatest Croatian novel writer.
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").
In his novels, he fused the national romanticism characterized by buoyant and inventive language with realist depiction of the growth of petite bourgeois class.
This "father of Croatian novel" (and modern national literature) is at 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 "Senoa created the Croatian reading public", especially by writing in a popular style."
An example of his poetry is his patriotic song "Long live Croatia":
"Loud, clear since immemorial,
Over lowlands, over hills,
The Croatian song flies,
All the way to the deep sea,
At times soft, at times like thunder,
Eternal echo for our home.
Let's go, let's go,
My brother, my brother!
Line up the voices of brothers, long live Croatia,
Line up the voices of brothers,
Long live, long live, long live Croatia!
Long live, long live, long live Croatia!
It resounds across Croatia,
The song of our great men,
In it burns the eternal flame
Of the glory of Zrinski-Frankopan.
At times soft, at times like thunder,
Eternal echo for our home.
Let's go, let's go,
My brother, my brother!"
Source: Wikipedia
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