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That evening Mr. Tomsa, chief clerk in a government office, had just settled down with his earphones and, with a gratified smile, was listening to a pleasant performance of some Dvorak dances on the radio — now that’s what I call music, he said to himself contentedly — when suddenly two sharp reports sounded outside, […]
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Karel Čapek (1890 – 1938) was a Czech writer, playwright, critic and journalist. He has become best known for his science fiction, including his novel War with the Newts (1936) and play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots, 1920), which introduced the word robot. he campaigned in favor of free expression and strongly opposed the rise of […]
In the course of the five or six years I spent in Russia I was several times killed and liquidated by various organizations and individuals. When I returned home to Czechoslovakia I found I had been hanged three times, shot twice, and quartered once by wild Kirghiz insurgents near Lake Kale-Yshel. Finally I was definitely […]
In Mladá Boleslav there lived a stationer called Petiška. He was a man who respected the law and had lived, for longer than anyone could remember, across the road from the barracks. On the Emperor’s birthday and other Imperial and Royal occasions, he would hang out a black-and-gold banner from his house and provide Chinese […]
Before the law sits a gatekeeper. To this gatekeeper comes a man from the country who asks to gain entry into the law. But the gatekeeper says that he cannot grant him entry at the moment. The man thinks about it and then asks if he will be allowed to come in later on. “It […]
I stand on the end platform of the tram and am completely unsure of my footing in this world, in this town, in my family. Not even casually could I indicate any claims that I might rightly advance in any direction. I have not even any defense to offer for standing on this platform, holding […]
Winter breathes its last gasp, leaving mounds of black ice and frozen chunks on the sidewalks. The sun occasionally climbs above the city now, edging across the glassy sky. The curtains here are always shut, except for a narrow crack. The sun’s rays pour into the room in a single spot. She says they’re easier […]
Jaroslav Hašek (1883-1923) was a Czech journalist, satirist, and author. He has written over 1,500 short stories, a portion of which were collected to became his major work of prose, the novel The Good Soldier Švej. On the futility of war and his own sincere agenda toward his readers, he has written the following: “It […]
“I am nothing but literature,” he self-proclaimed, “and can and want to be nothing else.” Franz Kafka, born in Prague in 1883, to a German-speaking Jewish family, wrote in German and left one of the most influential philosophical and literary legacies in the 20th century. Kafka worked as a clerk in an insurance company, and […]
Jáchym Topol was born in Prague in 1962. In the eighties, he began publishing subversive poems and established himself as a familiar spokesperson for Czechoslovakia’s fringe culture. Until the early nineties, he was a member of the underground band Psí vojáci. In 1988 he won the Tom Stoppard Award, which has been awarded to Czech writers […]
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