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)

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 two novellas in Beacons in the Darkness, the second volume of the trilogy one, Unknown Waters, set in rural Halychyna, and the other, Lel and Polel, in Lviv, the capital of the region describe the post-1848 emergence of educated, nationally and politically aware young people dedicated to the enlightenment and empowerment of the largely illiterate masses in both the Ukrainian (Eastern) and Polish (Western) parts of Halychyna. These activists became beacons of hope in the multifaceted and discouraging struggle for social justice, economic equity, and democratic and national rights in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. 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.

Beacons in the Darkness (Turbulent Times, Vol. 2)

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 setting of the third volume, the novel Fateful Crossroads, is Eastern Halychyna in the 1890s. The major protagonist, a young lawyer, is a distillation of the characteristics that Franko most valued in those members of the Ukrainian intelligentsia engaged in national, social and political activism. Committed to arming the peasantry with the tools of self-confidence and knowledge, he dedicates his talents to the promotion of social justice and democratic institutions, channels the peasants resentments into positive political activism, and models the use of constructive, legitimate ways to ameliorate their lot in life. 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.

Fateful Crossroads (Turbulent Times, Vol. 3)

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Behind Decorum's Veil

Winds of Change (Turbulent Times, Vol. 1)

Beacons in the Darkness (Turbulent Times, Vol. 2)

Fateful Crossroads (Turbulent Times, Vol. 3)