The Fourth Dimension. Crimson Wine

The “Non-Canonical Canon” series is a way to talk about those we did not know, whose texts we read without understanding the context of their time. It brings together a wide range of Ukrainian authors and their works. Each text is accompanied by reading guides by Ukrainian literary scholars.

The historical novel The Fourth Dimension is set in the mid-19th century, when Ukrainian weapons had fallen silent and independence had been lost, yet young artists and intellectuals founded a secret political organization aimed at reviving Ukraine. At the center of the story is the life of Ukrainian mathematician, lawyer and public figure Mykola Hulak, who co-founded the Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius with Mykola Kostomarov. After his arrest, unlike Kostomarov, he refused to renounce his educational work and spent three years in solitary confinement in the Shlisselburg Fortress in Saint Petersburg.

Crimson Wine is a novel about the defense of Olesko Castle in 1431, when the Polish king Jogaila laid siege to Lutsk. The defenders understand that the battle is unequal, yet they are ready to fight to the death in order to remain in history as knights rather than cowards.