Vjenceslav Novak

Vjenceslav Novak (11 September 1859 in Senj – 20 September 1905 in Zagreb) was a Croatian Realist writer, dramatist, and music historian.

Vjenceslav Novak

He was born into an emigrant Czech family, of which his mother was from an emigrant Bavarian family. He was the most successful Croatian realist writer and was known as the Croatian Balzac. He finished elementary and middle school in Senj and Gospić. He also worked as a teacher in Senj for some time.

He entered into literature in 1881 with his novella Maca. He wrote seven novels. He published thirty novellas. Apart from stories he also wrote poetry, feuilleton, dramatic works, reviews, critiques and musical arrangements.

In 1892 he initiated (jointly with Vjekoslav Klaić) the music periodical Gusle: Časopis za svjetovnu i crkvenu gasbu, which he coedited with Klaić. The periodical was published only for a year, but next year he started a new journal Glazba: List za crkvenu i svjetovnu gazbu te dramatsku umetnost, which he edited alone. This periodical ceased its publication at the end of 1893.

He had a large family, suffered from tuberculosis, fought poverty, and during this period of his life was an average writer of that time. He was a novelist, narrator, critic and translator and worked right up until his death in 1905. He started out as a Romantic story-teller and ended up a writer of modern psychological prose with occult themes.