Bohemia’s contribution to literature
did not dare to take this man in broad daylight, but spirited him away at night, treacherously and illegally to its eternal shame. The woman was Božena Němcová, the author of Babička (The Grandmother) which is translated into the English language, and which has so much subtle beauty, so much freshness and charm, that it shall always remain a classic of its kind of writing. Němcová is one of the noblest characters the annals of history record. All her writings reflect her gentle, suffering soul, which finds its happiness in reminiscences of childhood and youth, depicted so wonderfully in her masterpiece, Babička.
The next era, if it be allowable to apply the term, is the present one. The modern Bohemian Literature has finally gained its honorable place among the literatures of the world. Merely to enumerate the authors worth mentioning would take pages, not to mention their works. I shall have to limit myself only to the greatest: Svatopluk Čech, the most popular and beloved great poet of the Bohemians; next Jaroslav Vrchlický, the greatest master of Bohemian verse, exquisite, rich, dazzling; the most facile translator of world’s masterpieces; the most prolific poet of the Bohemian literature; Machar is the iconoclast, the fearless realist, much admired abroad, the avenging knight of progress; the pet of the masses who adore him.
Machar poured new blood into the Bohemian Literature. He brought into it a deeper social consciousness, gave it a backbone, an aim. And this aim was: bare, severe truth. His greatness as a poet does not lie so much in exquisiteness and beauty of form, in which Vrchlický surpasses him, but in the magnificence of his conceptions, strong individuality of his convictions and colossal courage combined with simple directness with which he expresses them. While in many ways different from him, he strongly reminds one of Walt Whitman. His blank verse epic Magdalen holds a unique place in the literature of the world as it is a new departure both in the substance and in the form, which is severely simple and sharp. The poem has its roots in the turbid stream of everyday life but still never completely loses the touch of the divine in the sordid struggle, which it makes the reader yearn for in spite of its
