Čuvaj se senjske ruke / Diogenes

The novel describes the life and struggle of the Uskoks against the Venetians in the first half of the 17th century (more precisely, from 1600 to 1614). At that time, the town of Senj, in which the story of this novel is set, was under Austrian rule, and the Uskoks were in charge of defending the town and its surroundings from attacks by the Turks and Venetians, who were constantly trying to conquer it and its surroundings and bring them under their rule. The novel tells how the Uskoks were brave knights and soldiers who tried with all their might to defend this region and its people so that they would not fall into captivity to the interests of other nations who only wanted to enslave and exploit them.

In Diogenes, Shenoa does not describe large panoramic scenes, wars and conflicts on the battlefield; the novel is practically, all enclosed within four walls, in the interiors, either of banyan courts, or of private noble houses and manors, or of warm civil, artisan environments, and above all, it is based on the dialogic form as the basis of the dynamics and dramatic character of the action. Basing Diogenes on the principle of a conversational historical novel, through which both historical and intimate and non-historical (often even more important) situations come to full expression, which, together, express not only political events but also the atmosphere of the zeitgeist around the middle of the 18th century.