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A fictionalized biography of Ilona Nováková (1856- 1932), wife of Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav (1849-1921), one of ia's most revered poets. By reconstructing the minutiae of Ilona's everyday domestic routines and envisioning her thought processes, Jana Juráňová paints a vivid and subtly ironic portrait of a woman who spent her life in the shadow of her husband. Juráňová debunks the myth of the great artist, showing instead a vain and self-centred man, unwilling to take criticism and oblivious of his wife's needs. Wittily recreating or imagining Hviezdoslav's real-life encounters with fellow writers and literary scholars—based on careful research in historical and literary sources—Jana Juráňová weaves a rich tapestry of cultural, social and political life in fin-de-siècle ia.
