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CHAPTER
23

ences are frequently utilized in his stories. In his collection of short stories “Jih” (The South), he first opened to Prague readers the story lore of the Slavs of the Balkans whose struggles for liberty he had witnessed.

František Jaromír Rubeš, at first wrote poems of a patriotic nature the best being his “Já jsem Čech” (I am a Czech) but his chief contribution to his nation’s literature is in his distinctive and deliciously humorous stories of the provincials of city and countrylife. His best stories are “Pan Amanuensis” (The Amanuensis), “Pan Trouba” (Mr. Fool) and “Ostří Hoši” (Clever Chaps).

Ludevítú Štúr, a Slovak poet and publicist, did much through his essays, poems and stories to defend his people against the violent Magyarization practised sedulously by the Hungarians.

Jos. M. Hurban, a Slovak realistic writer, rendered invaluable service to his nation not only by his own well-conceived and excellently presented stories of his people but by the founding of a Slovak review which became the repository of the most worthy literary treasures of the language.

FROM 1848 TO THE PRESENT DAY[1]

In the second part of the modern period of the literature of the Czechs and Slovaks or that which is expressive of the nation after 1848, an impressive host of writers appears. In no other equal space of time has a

  1. Note.—Ten of the important authors of this period are treated in detail in sketches preceding each story, hence they are merely mentioned in this summary.