Доктор Серафікус

Written in 1929 and first published in 1947, V. Domontovych's experimental novel about the eccentric Professor Komakha has received a new visual design by Osnovy. Olha Selyshcheva's illustrations transport readers to the constructivist urban landscapes of the early 20th century. The streets and beaches of Kyiv in the 1920s serve as the backdrop for the story of Komakha's friendship with five-year-old Irtsia, his platonic love for the eccentric actress Ver, the artist Korvyn, and his careful scientific work with numerous notes that obscure the core of his research.

Along with the authentic text of the novel's lifetime edition, Osnovy includes two important literary studies. In his afterword, Ihor Kostetskyi examines the diverse style of Doctor Seraphicus and its significance in Ukrainian literature, while Salomea Pavlychko situates this “intellectual provocation” within the discourse of Ukrainian modernism and seeks to understand the enigmatic figure of the author.

Both the afterword and the novel itself include comments from Paweł Krupa and Katarzyna Glinianowicz, contemporary researchers of V. Domontovych's work.