Gjalski, Ksavjer Šandor

(also K. Š. Djalski; pseudonym of Ljubomir Babic). Born Oct. 26, 1854, in Gre-dice, near Zagreb; died there Feb. 9, 1935. Croatian writer. Member of the bourgeois gentry that opposed Austro-Hungarian dominion in Croatia.

Gjalski drew upon contemporary life (In the Night, 1886, and Radmilovic, 1894) and history (Dawn, 1892, and For the Native Word, 1906) in his development of the theme of national struggle in his novels. He derided the careerism of the bureaucracy and its arbitrary tyrannical treatment of the “little man.” He also questioned the intelligentsia’s obligatory service to the regime. Gjalski considered the age-old gentry families to be the bearers of national Croatian spirit and chivalric tradition. This is expressed in his collections of short stories Underneath Old Roofs (1887), From the Varmedja Days (1891), and Around Native Places (1899). Gjalskïs later works are imbued with pessimism.