august ivan nepomuk eduard šenoa (; originally schönoa; 14 november 1838 – 13 december 1881) was a novelist. born to an ethnic german and slovak family, šenoa became a key figure in the develoment of an independent literary tradition in the croatian language and shaping the emergence of the urban croatian identity of zagreb and its surroundings at a time when austrian control was weaning. he was a literary transitional figure, who helped bring croatian literature from romanticism to realism and introduced the historical novel to croatia. he wrote more than ten novels, among which the most notable are: