Povijest moga života / Tajanstvene noći

The first part consists of the memoirs of Count Cavadonga (Don Alfonso de Borbón y Battenberg, 1907–1938), former Prince of Asturias and eldest son of King Alfonso XIII. After the abdication of the Spanish monarchy in 1931 and the renunciation of his rights to the throne in 1933 (in order to marry the Cuban singer Edelmira Sampedro), the prince lived a turbulent and tragic life in exile.

In his memoirs, he describes his childhood at court, illness (hemophilia), family dramas, exile, love affairs and the turbulent years after the fall of the monarchy. The book is written honestly, sometimes sentimentally, with an emphasis on personal dramas and life outside protocol.

The second part of the book consists of Mysterious Nights by German author Giselher Mumm, an adventure-romantic story with exotic motifs, secrets, tension and erotic overtones. Mumm wrote popular fiction, often with elements of adventure, espionage and faraway places (e.g. Asia), which suited the taste of a wider audience in the 1930s.

This Osijek edition is typical of the interwar publishing of light and popular literature in Croatia. Hrvatski list attracted a wide readership with such books (memoirs of famous people + entertaining prose), especially in the provinces. The book was published in a format that allowed for cheap and accessible purchase.

Today, this edition is a rare antiquarian copy, sought after by collectors of old Croatian periodicals and popular literature. It represents an excellent insight into the literary taste and publishing policy of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in the second half of the 1930s – a mixture of sensationalism, memoir intimacy and light fiction.