Dva romana: Povratak Filipa Latinovicza / Na rubu pameti

These two novels present two of Krleža’s key prose works: The Return of Philip Latinowicz and On the Edge of Reason. Although they differ in narrative technique and protagonists, both novels explore individual alienation, social hypocrisy, moral crisis, and the conflict between the individual and the environment to which they belong.

In The Return of Philip Latinowicz, the painter Filip returns to his native region after an absence of more than twenty years. This return stirs up memories of his childhood, his complex relationship with his mother Regina, and questions regarding his own origins. At the same time, he undergoes an artistic and existential crisis. In Kostanjevac, he meets various members of a decaying provincial world of the bourgeoisie and nobility; he is particularly drawn to Bobočka, a woman around whom passion, jealousy, and tragic relationships unfold.

On the Edge of Reason depicts the fate of an unnamed Zagreb intellectual who dares to publicly oppose the powerful and socially prominent general manager, Domaćinski. A single honest remark is enough to cause his hitherto orderly life to collapse. Society brands him a misfit and a danger; he loses his social standing and endures humiliation, a trial, and imprisonment.

In both novels, Krleža dissects bourgeois society, its conventions, moral compromises, and self-deception. Filip’s introspective quest for identity and artistic expression, alongside the open rebellion of the protagonist in On the Edge of Reason, represent two distinct forms of refusal to conform to a world defined by false authorities and social masks. Together, the novels present a powerful portrait of a solitary individual confronting their own doubts and the absurdities of the environment in which they live.