This book, published on the 150th anniversary of the birth of the author, Ivan Franko (1856 - 1916) contains two novellas: For the Home Hearth (Dlya domashnoho ohnyshcha) and Pillars of society  (Osnovy suspilnosty).  The original Ukrainian works were translated into English by Roma Franko, former Head of the Department of Modern Languages at the University of Saskatchewan. The themes and subject matter of these two novellas depict real events that culminated in criminal trials covered by the author when he worked as a journalist for a Lviv newspaper.  The evidence presented in the two court cases moved him to illuminate the socio-economic backdrop of the crimes and the motivations of their perpetrators. As Franko explores the social, economic, and philosophical contexts of the protagonists' thoughts and actions, he delineates a realistic and disturbing panoprama of the social strata of the society in which he lived. His sharpest barbs are directed at the moral decadence and insensitivity of the most powerful echelons of that society, a society that he strove to change by prodding his readers to rethink the values underlying the systemic social injustice depicted in these two novellas.

Behind Decorum's Veil

Ivan Franko

Translator: Roma Franko

Language Lanterns Publications Inc.

The overarching theme of the trilogy Turbulent Times is the growth of national and political awareness in Halychyna (Galicia) in Western Ukraine in the second half of the nineteenth century. The social and economic unrest of the early nineteenth century culminated in the abolition, in 1848, of the oppressive feudal system established in 1772 when Halychyna came under Austrian control. The themes of the short stories in the first volume, Winds of Change, are the rising tide of discontent with the evils of serfdom in the early 1800s, the spilling over of the serfs anger in the 1840s, and the insurrections of urban revolutionaries in 1848. The focus of the novella, The Raging Tempest, is the emergence of peasant leaders in the years of uncertainty, confusion, and manor-village hostilities in the 1850s. The three volumes in this trilogy paint a vivid and unsettling picture of life in Halychyna from the rural and urban insurrections of the 1840s and the abolition of serfdom in 1848, to the disillusionment of the following decades and the complex struggle for national and democratic reform in the latter part of the 19th century. Franko drew the material for his prose from personal observations and experiences, and infused it with his passionate commitment to ameliorating the lot of the common people and raising their national and political consciousness. Franko understood his literary mission to be the illumination of historical events and periods by telling the stories of individuals on whose lives they impinged. This he did so successfully that his prose works constitute a veritable encyclopedia of the beliefs, attitudes, and lifestyles of the social strata and ethnic groups whose intertwined destinies became the grist for his creative genius.

Winds of Change (Turbulent Times, Vol. 1)

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Translator: Roma Franko. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Translator: Roma Franko

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Translator: Roma Franko. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Behind Decorum's Veil

Winds of Change (Turbulent Times, Vol. 1)