Prague Tales

by Jan Neruda, Michael Henry Heim (Translator), Ivan Klima (Introduction)

Overview

This is a collection of Jan Neruda's intimate, wry, bittersweet stories of life among the inhabitants of the Little Quarter of nineteenth-century Prague. These finely tuned and varied vignettes established Neruda as the quintessential Czech nineteenth-century realist, the Charles Dickens of a Prague becoming ever more aware of itself as a Czech rather than an Austrian city.

Prague Tales is a classic by a writer whose influence has been acknowledged by generations of Czech writers, including Ivan Klíma, who contributes an introduction to this new translation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789639116238
Publisher:	Central European University Press
Publication date:	09/28/2003
Series:	Central European Classics Series
Pages:	346
Sales rank:	623,514
Product dimensions:	4.96(w) x 8.27(h) x (d)

About the Author

Jan Neruda, Czech poet, novelist, essayist and journalist (1834-1891) was both radical and European in outlook. Born of a poor family in 1834, he knew at first hand the life he evoked in Prague Tales. The stories in this collection date from the 1860s and 70s and reflect Neruda’s enthusiasm for feuilletons, vivid sketches on the border between journalism and fiction.

Table of Contents

Introduction by Ivan Klíma

A Week in a Quiet House

1. In Night Clothes
2. Most of the House Begins to Stir
3. At Home with the Landlord
4. A Lyrical Monologue
5. Bachelorhood is Bliss
6. A Manuscript and a Storm Cloud
7. Fragments from the Notes of a Scrivener
8. At the Funeral
9. Further Proof of the Pudding
10. In a Moment of Agitation
11. A First Attempt at Fiction
12. Five Minutes after the Recital
13. After the Draw
14. A Happy Family
15. The Week Draws to a Close

Mr Ryšánek and Mr Schlegel

A Beggar Brought to Ruin

The Tender Heart of Mrs Rus

Evening Chitchat

Doctor Spoiler

The Water Sprite

How Mr Vorel Broke in His Meerschaum

The Three Lilies

The St Wenceslas Mass

How It Came to Pass

Written This Year on All Souls’ Day

Figures

Notes

Editorial Reviews

"How often is a reviewer privileged to make so marvelous a discovery?"—Michael Hulse, The Spectator (London)

From the Publisher