Timrava is the culminating representative of late realism in Slovak literature. In her prose works by original tragicomic means she caught human relations and destinies against the background of social changes at the end of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth century. Because of her themes and technique of presentation her works had a provocative effect on Slovak literature, and from the first they were interpreted contradictorily. On the one hand, critics praised their great empathy, but on the other hand, they rejected their aesthetics. Timrava's position among prose writers was felt then and is still felt today to be unique. This position resulted not by accident but from her deliberate literary stance.

Timrava was born Bozena Slancíková on 2 October 1867 with her twin brother Bohuslav in the village of Polichno in Novohrad County in central Slovakia. She lived in Polichno and...