Novel
Njeno življenje
Not translated into English
Zofka Kveder · 1914
Synopsis
Tilda, the daughter of a former officer turned model civil servant, marries Roman Strle, whom she met at a party, despite the warnings of her future mother-in-law. Her husband drinks, gambles, cheats on her and loses his posts through embezzlement, and Tilda pays his debts; their son, Rajko, lies, steals and gets himself expelled from school. The young woman, whom shame keeps from leaving, seeks refuge in contemplating the sea.
Context
Published in 1914, the novel is regarded as Zofka Kveder's most accomplished in her own language. It dwells on heredity, the fear of sexuality and the pain of childbirth. Slovene critics of the eighties saw in it the mark of Maupassant's naturalism; others doubt this, since the author never mentions the French writer in her correspondence. The book was reissued in Maribor in 1980 and has been translated neither into French nor into English.
Who it is for
For an unsparing portrait of a woman, between a gambling husband, a lost son and the dream of the sea.
Prizes and reception
Janko Kos saw it as a Slovene variant of the naturalist novel; Erna Muser holds that the author learned from life more than from books.