The City (Ukrainian: Місто) is an urban novel by Ukrainian writer Valerian Pidmohylny, published in 1928. Pidmohylny created the modern novel, which is focused on urban problems and touches upon philosophical questions of being. In this novel psyche of the characters is analyzed and the conflict takes place between people with different worldviews. Misto is the first urban novel in the Ukrainian literature, with new characters, issues and narrative style.

Notes of a Pug-Nosed Mephistopheles (Zapysky kyrpatoho Mefistofelia), a novel first published in 1917, provides some good examples of Vynnychenko's views on sexual morality. Preserving virginity is a “violation of the laws of nature” (p.105); morality is “the pink cosmetic powder over the laws of nature” (p.121); and honesty is a concept “invented by human hypocrisy, stupidity and by the imperfect social structure” (p.123). The novel deals with the problem of unwanted children that complicate the lives of sexual partners and an attempted infanticide. Uncertainty about paternity is one of Vynnychenko’s preoccupations; once it is firmly established, paternity becomes a force that can overcome his commitment to free love and replace it with moral obligations. (Marta Tarnawsky)

Marko Vovchok. After Finishing School. Translated from the Ukrainian by Oles Kovalenko. Kyiv: Dnipro, 1983. 124 p.