Birth date

20. 07. 1914  [en] Vrútky

Death date

16. 03. 2004  [en] Bratislava

Fields of interest

próza, dráma, literatúra pre deti a mládež

Briefly about author

The wide-ranging prose work of Hana Zelinová is built mainly on a dominating authorial voice which is strengthened by a selection of attractive themes for novels and the ability to tell a story with elements of a secret, with dimensions of fateful life conflicts. This has secured for Zelinová's books a permanent and mass interest in her readership. Her first novels were inspired by Scandinavian literature which in the early 1940's was very popular in Slovakia.
While the novel, Harbour of Peace, shows the fate of one landowner's family, the trilogy, The Angel's Earth, was directly influenced by northern sagas. It is
a celebration of patriarchal relationships in untamed nature. Here a "natural man" becomes the ideal; this caused in the post-war reality a polemical discussion about "angellike landowners" and the call of critics for Slovak prose to return from unrealistic and social isolation to the reality of the times.
The limited principles of social realism had begun to be incorporated into prose and this was alien to Zelinová's naturalistic prose.
After ten years of silence her novel The Devil's Czardas was published, an interesting psychological study of a family with the dominating character being a despotic grandmother. From this time Zelinová's prose work can be divided into two main lines: novels from Slovak history and stories dominated by the world of women.
From the point of artistic depiction the most successful (among historical novels) is the Turiec trilogy Elizabeth's Courtyard, The Call of the Wind, and The Flower of Horror, "a long tale of the Fabricio family's curse" where the author succeeds in joining the fate of a landowner's family with well-known historical and regional facts. Thus she creates a tale with many remarkable protagonists. The author's capacity to develop a complex story with elements of mystery was also employed in a saga of the Mikuláš tanners (The Silk Road, Thirst, The Winding Flight of the Butterfly), which again shows very attractively the penetration of a savage capitalist element into the patriarchal world of a family of Liptov tanners. Beside these wide-ranging historical cycles, Zelinová continued writing psychological stories from contemporary life mainly from the 1990's (Wine of Kings, Two Words, It Also rains in Paradise), which have reached a wide readership. This demonstrates that Zelinová is able to attract many readers with her stories strengthened by their ingenious composition and engaging subjects.

Briefly about production

(selection)

prose:
The Mirror Bridge (Zrkadlový most, 1941), Harbour of Peace (Prístav pokoja, 1944),
a trilogy: The Angel's Earth (Anjelská zem, 1946), The Mountain of Temptation (Hora pokušenia, 1948), Wake Up, Little Girl! (Dievočka, vstaň! 1948); The Devil's Czardas (Diablov čardáš, 1958), The Stone Rosary (Kamenný ruženec, 1970), the trilogy: Elisabeth's Courtyard (Alžbetin dvor, 1972), The Call of the Wind (Volanie vetra, 1974), Flower of Horror (Kvet hrôzy, 1977); The Hour of Lighting the Candles (Hodina zažínania sviec, 1979), the trilogy: The Silk Road (Hodvábna cesta, 1980), Thirst (Smäd, 1981), The Winding Flight of the Butterfly (Kľukatý let motýľa, 1983); The Night Concert (Nočný koncert, 1989), Wine of Kings (Víno kráľov, 1993), The Harlequin's Millions (Harlekýnove milióny, 1994), Two Words (Dve slová, 1996), It Also Rains in Paradise (Aj v raji prší, 1998 ), The Wall of Tears (Múr plaču, 1999)

books for children and young people:
Jakubko (1959), The Grey Goose (Sivá húska, 1959), Such a Strange Spring (Taká čudná jar, 1962), I Won't Come in the Evening (Večer neprídem, 1964), Goodbye, Little Suzanne (Do videnia, Zuzanka, 1966), Revenge is Mine (Moja je pomsta, 1967), Hannibal at the Gate (Hanibal za bránou, 1970), Father, Tell the Truth (Otec, povedz pravdu, 1977), Freckled Little Nose (Pehavý noštek, 1981), Little Matt and Me (Maťko a ja, 1986), Ploppy Wawes, a selection (Vlnky-žblnky, 1987, výber), In the Sun Again (Spať na slnku, 1988), Well of Fairy Tales (Rozprávková studnička, 1999) 

stage plays:
Maria (Mária, 1943), Someone is Behind the Door (Niekto je za dverami, 1944), I Live
a Stranger's Life (Žijem cudzí život, 1948)

radio plays:
A Bouquet of Peonies (Kytica pivónií, 1946), A Laurel Wreath (Vavrínový veniec, 1948), Jánošk's Whistle (Jánošíkova píšťala, 1960), Kismet (1968)

TV plays:
lusion (Ilúzia, 1956), The Amethyst Flower (Ametystový kvet 1965), The Bamboo Princess (Bambusová princezná, 1966), The Sunflower (Slnečnica, 1967), Light on
a Low Bough (Svetlo na spodnej haluzi, 1967), A Bowl Filled with Ambrosia (Čaša plná ambrózie, 1974)

works translated:
Jakubko (1961 Czech, under the title A Tale from the Windy Valley)
The Devil Czardas (1974 Czech)
Goodbye, Zuzanka (1976 Czech)
The Call of the Wind (1977, Czech)

Biography for author

Born 20 July 1914 in Vrútky. She studied at the Teachers' Institute in Bratislava. From 1937 to 1938 she was an editor for the magazines Slovenský východ and Novosti in Košice. During the Second World War she lived in Prešov and Bratislava and continued her literary activities. From 1946 to 1948 she headed the publishing house Svojet' in Košice. After 1948 she was excluded from the Slovak Writers' Union, as she did not conform to the canons of socialist literature. She was not allowed to publish for ten years. In the 1950's she worked as a clerk in different state-owned companies. From 1962 to 1970 she was an editor for the children's magazine Zornička. Zelinová lives in Bratislava.

Author about himself

My novels always touch on human problems. (…) As a woman I know the psyche of women most intimately and that of my heroes, too. I describe the heroines and heroes in my books in such a way as if they watched themselves in a Venetian mirror. Simply, with them and in them.

Sample

THE ORDER OF WOLVES (extract)