Ksaver Šandor Gjalski
Encyclopedia
Klanjec
Klanjec is a small town in northwestern Croatia, in the region of Hrvatsko Zagorje on the border with Slovenia. The population of Klanjec is 565, but there are 2,915 people in the municipality...
– 6 February 1935) was a Croatian writer and civil servant.
His real name was Ljubo Babić and he was born in Gredice castle (Zabok
Zabok
Zabok is a town and municipality situated in northwest Croatia in the Krapina-Zagorje County. It has a total population of 9,365 . Zabok is situated on the main crossroads in the heart of Hrvatsko zagorje region...
), Klanjec
Klanjec
Klanjec is a small town in northwestern Croatia, in the region of Hrvatsko Zagorje on the border with Slovenia. The population of Klanjec is 565, but there are 2,915 people in the municipality...
, in Hrvatsko Zagorje
Hrvatsko Zagorje
Hrvatsko Zagorje is a region north of Zagreb, Croatia. It comprises the whole area north of Medvednica mountain up to Slovenia in the north and west, and up to the regions of Međimurje and Podravina in the north and east...
, into a minor aristocratic family. He finished high school in Varaždin
Varaždin
Varaždin is a city in north Croatia, north of Zagreb on the highway A4. The total population is 47,055, with 38,746 on of the city settlement itself . The centre of Varaždin county is located near the Drava river, at...
and earned law degrees in Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
and Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
. He was involved in politics and had a seat in the Croatian Parliament.
He wrote novels, but his best known work is Pod starim krovovima (Under Old Roofs), a collection of short stories in which he described the economic decline of the Croatian aristocracy. Gjalski managed to combine realism and poetry in his work because of his status as an aristocrat and his strong emotional connection to the region of Hrvatsko Zagorje
Hrvatsko Zagorje
Hrvatsko Zagorje is a region north of Zagreb, Croatia. It comprises the whole area north of Medvednica mountain up to Slovenia in the north and west, and up to the regions of Međimurje and Podravina in the north and east...
. His importance in modern Croatian literature was described by the Croatian historiographer Antun Barac
Antun Barac
Antun Barac , was a Croatian historian.-Biography:Barac graduated at the Faculty of philosophy at the University of Zagreb in 1917, and received his Ph.D. as a high school professor on Sušak in 1918, with the thesis on Vladimir Nazor's poetry. Since 1930 he is a regular professor at the Faculty of...
: "His appearance in the literature and political life of Croatia was fateful, and his work links the romantic orientation of Croatian writers of the sixties and seventies (of the 19th century) with the modern outlook of those who discovered the wider and stronger cultural life of Europe." Gjalski was heavily inspired by Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev.
His major works are: U novom dvoru (1885), Pod starimi krovovi (1886), U noći (1887), Janko Borislavić (1887), Đurđica Agićeva (1889), Na rođenoj grudi (1890), Osvit (1892), Radmilović (1894), Za materinsku rieč (1902), Dolazak Hrvata (1924), Pronevjereni ideali (1925), etc.