Bohemia’s contribution to literature
the Bohemian people. They are not heavy psychologists but the most skillful portrayers of the character and life of the common, suffering gêns. Neither do they stop at the surface, but dive deep into the national soul and bring up real gems, unsuspected in the rough shell in which they are hidden. Of these Josef Holeček is the first, often called the Bohemian Tolstoi, and indeed very much like him in his deep analysis of the soul of the common people. His greatest work is “Naši” (Our Folk). K. V. Rais may be linked with him, though he is not of the same depth, is not as analytic and profound, but charms us with the same love for the native clod and the people living upon it. His best known works are “Výměnkáři”[1] “Západ”, (The Sunset,) and others. Inexpressibly charming, full of local atmosphere, full of color and spirit of the people are the writings of Jan Herben. His “Hostišov” (name of a Bohemian village), “Do třetího až čtvrtého pokolení” (To the Third and Fourth Generation) are real gems of their kind of writing.
To this group rightly belongs Teresa Nováková (viz. below) with her studies of the mystics of Eastern Bohemia. She approaches closely Holeček’s standard of writing.
To complete the list of types of writers, one must not leave out Vilém Mrštík, and his wonderful “Pohádka Máje”, in which he gives a superb description of nature and youth, and his talented brother.
Of the dramatists, the foremost are Stroupežnický, Šubert; Dr. Dvořák; (Král Václav IV,—King Václav IV.) Viktor Dyk, Jan Hilbert and Jirásek whose Jan Hus and Jan Žižka z Trocnova, are truly great works, not to mention his poetic “Lucerna” and numerous other works. The dramatic art promises a magnificent future. The nation—persecuted, with its path to progress blocked by the Austrian Government, built at a great sacrifice, from individual gifts, a magnificent temple of drama and music, The Bohemian National Theatre which is not merely a place of amusement, but a fireside of culture, a source of the nation’s aspirations, a real life giver in the
- ↑ Untranslatable. Výměnkář is the old father of a peasant to whom he has given the farm after making some reservations for his needs.
