Pavlina Pajk, ''née'' Doljak (9 April 1854 – 1 June 1901) was an early Slovene poet, novelist, essay writer and biographer.

Biography

Born in

Pavia Pavia (, , , ; la, Ticinum; Medieval Latin: ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy in northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was the capit ...

, then part of the

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central-Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence, ...

, Pajk's parents were Slovenes. The area came under Italian control when she was about five, and her family remained there. She first received an Italian education but after her parents had died, when she was 16 she moved to stay with her uncle in

Solkan Solkan ( or ; it, Salcano, german: link=no, Sollingen or ''Salcano'') is a settlement in the Municipality of Nova Gorica in the Gorizia region of western Slovenia, at the border with Italy. Although it forms a single urban area with the city of N ...

, Slovenia. She published her first collection of poems, ''Prva Ljibezen'' (First Love) in 1873. When she was 22, she fell in love with Janko Pajk, a Slovenian professor and editor. They arranged the wedding before they even met (through letters) and when they got married they moved first to

Maribor Maribor ( , , , ; also known by other #Name, historical names) is the second-largest city in Slovenia and the largest city of the traditional region of Styria (Slovenia), Lower Styria. It is also the seat of the City Municipality of Maribor, th ...

then to Austria where she lived for the next 20 years. She wrote for Slovenian papers while living in Austria. She had a son named Milan and when he got a teaching job in Ljubljana Pavlina and her husband moved to

Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the ar ...

where Pavlina Pajk died in 1901. While her poetry was acclaimed by the critics, her prose works, which included six novels, were said to be less successful. In 1876, she also wrote an extensive obituary of

George Sand Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil (; 1 July 1804 – 8 June 1876), best known by her pen name George Sand (), was a French novelist, memoirist and journalist. One of the most popular writers in Europe in her lifetime, bein ...

, and went on to write other shorter obituaries. In 1893 and 1895 a two part collection of her works was published. In 1884, she wrote an article advocating the elementary schooling of women of all social classes.

Works

*Odlomki iz ženskega dnevnika (1876) *Roka in srce (1881) *Blagodejna zvezdica (1881) *Mačeha (1882) *Pripovestnik v sili (1883) *Očetov tovariš (1884) *Arabela (1885) *Dora (1885) *Domačija nad vse (1889) *Najgotovejša dota (1892) *Prijateljev sin (1894) *Obljuba (1894) *Najdenec (1894) *Planinska idila (1895) *Roman starega samca (1895) *Igra s srečo (1895) *Spomini tete Klare (1895) *Dušne borbe (1896) *Judita(1896) *Slučaji usode (1897) *Življenja križi (1903)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pajk, Pavlina 1854 births 1901 deaths Slovenian feminists Slovenian women poets Slovenian poets Slovenian novelists Writers from Pavia Writers from Ljubljana 19th-century poets 19th-century novelists 19th-century women writers Italian emigrants Writers from Austria-Hungary Immigrants to Austria-Hungary