ABSTRACT
Vilius Karalius (Vilius the King, first part published in 1939, others in later years, under the Soviet regime) is again a similar figure of decay and evil, again a representative of the exploiting classes, a "kulak." Other heroes are portrayed as positive, painfully searching and eventually finding ideals worthy of commitment, those of the Soviet society In this novel, however, Simonaitytè does demand personal responsibility (and implicitly recognizes the personal power) of each individual for his own destiny, whatever the dark force over everybody's heads. Vilius Karalius is written in conventional third-person narrative, without any attempts at modernistic style, or even without any of the grand, solemnly poetic, rhetorical cadences that can be found in Aukstujy Simonin likimas.
