|
|
|
Prague : A Traveler's Literary Companion (Traveler's Literary Companion) by Paul Wilson |
 |
Prague : A Traveler's Literary Companion (Traveler's Literary Companion) by Paul Wilson
Publisher : Whereabouts Press
List Price :$14.95
Amazon Price : $10.17
Used Price : $10.96
 |
| Reviews for Prague : A Traveler's Literary Companion (Traveler's Literary Companion)
Amazon.com
The city of Prague has inspired a lot of fine literature, and Paul Wilson has done the English-speaking world a vast favor by compiling this anthology of 23 Prague stories. There are classics by the likes of Franz Kafka, Jan Neruda, and Ivan Klima, and lesser-known works making their English-translation debuts. There are autobiographical pieces, fiction, legend, stories from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, tales from the Soviet regime, and contemporary pieces from the Czech Republic. Ivan Klima's epilogue is titled "The Spirit of Prague," and after reviewing Prague's history--cultural and political--he concludes that paradox is at Prague's heart, and irony and ridicule are its primary tools. Both devices are employed deftly throughout Wilson's anthology, providing clever, lyrical, and moving snippets of Prague's complex reality.
From Publishers Weekly
Novelist Ivan Klima explains in "The Spirit of Prague" that his native city has inspired people's creativity by the blending of three cultures that lived side by side for decades, even centuries: Czech, German and Jewish. It is also a city in which "the best people in the country were often imprisoned, tortured or executed." Czech writers deal with such injustices with a subversive sense of humor. It shines in Bohumil Hrabal's description of "The Hotel Pariz," Josef Skvorecky's rendition of President Clinton's sax playing at the Reduta jazz club, Egon Erwin Kisch's "The Case of the Washerwoman," and Jaroslav Hasek's sendup of The Society of Teetotalers. To see human comedy in the midst of great suffering allowed the spirit of Prague to prevail, and that is the genius of the authors presented here. These 24 stories, arranged by the areas of the city they illuminate, are a literary banquet for readers who already know and love "the city of a hundred spires." As such, they are designed, according to editor Wilson, to reveal "a deeper truth about the psyche of the people of Prague than perhaps direct description could." Also included are biographies of contributors and translators and a historical chronology of Prague.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
This book is a compilation of short stories set in or around the city of Prague. As readers wanders through the imaginations of the authors, who include Franz Kafka, Josef Skvorecky, Bohumil Hrabal, Jaroslav Hasek, Karel Capek, and Daniela Hodrova, they will find themselves assuming an understanding of this magnificent city's essense and history. The stories, myths, legends, and vignettes explore the city's streets, palaces, cathedrals, restaurants, and beer halls; the ambience and soul of Prague is revealed. This work is not a travel guide but a collection of literary pieces set in a mysterious city over the past century. It would be great fun to read before traveling to Prague or while there, but the short stories stand on their as individual works of art. For comprehensive travel and literature collections.
Melinda Stivers Leach, Precision Editorial Srvcs., Wondervu, Col.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
Travel to one of the most beautiful cities in the world in the company of its finest writers. Walk the mysterious nighttime streets of Prague with Franz Kafka and Jaroslav Hasek, eavesdrop on intimate conversations in restaurants and lively beer halls with Karel Capek and Bohumil Hrabal, listen to jazz in stylish nightclubs with Josef Skvorecky.
Contributors:
Michal Ajvaz
Karel Capek
Ivan Divis
Jaroslav Hasek
Daniela Hodrova
Bohumil Hrabal
Alois Jirasek
Franz Kafka
Jiri Karasek ze Lvovic
Egon Erwin Kisch
Ivan Klima
Jiri Kovtun
Frantisek Langer
Gustav Meyrink
Jan Neruda
Karel Pecka
Ota Pavel
Josef Skvorecky
Jindriska Smetanova
Jachym Topol
Jiri Weil
"The perfect companion for the discriminating visitor to Prague."-Timothy Garton Ash\
"Find yourself enthralled with the collection of twenty-four stories editor Paul Wilson has artfully arranged to lead the reader-visitor through Prague on a tour that only literature could deliver with such vivid intimacy."-Review of Contemporary Fiction
"A rewarding collection of short stories for the serious reader who does not want just to scratch the surface when traveling. . . . It adds a special dimension to a Prague trip."-International Travel News
Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Czech
Listmania!
|
|
Read customer reviews about Prague : A Traveler's Literary Companion (Traveler's Literary Companion) at Amazon.com |
|
Buy Prague : A Traveler's Literary Companion (Traveler's Literary Companion) at Amazon.com |
|
Customers who shopped this item also shopped for
|
 |
Prague (Eyewitness Travel Guides) - DK Publishing
Publisher - DK ADULT |
 |
Prague: A Cultural and Literary History (Cities of the Imagination) - Richard D. E. Burton
Publisher - Interlink Books |
 |
Streetwise Prague - Streetwise Maps
Publisher - Streetwise Maps |
 |
The Coasts of Bohemia: A Czech History - Derek Sayer
Publisher - Princeton University Press |
 |
Prague in Black and Gold : Scenes from the Life of a European City - Peter Demetz
Publisher - Hill and Wang |
|
|
