Michael Henry Heim Boeken

All too often, this brilliant novel of thwarted love and revenge miscarried has been read for its political implications. Now, a quarter century after The Joke was first published and several years after the collapse of the Soviet-imposed Czechoslovak regime, it becomes easier to put such implications into perspective in favor of valuing the book (and all Kundera 's work) as what it truly is: great, stirring literature that sheds new light on the eternal themes of human existence. The present edition provides English-language readers an important further means toward revaluation of The Joke. For reasons he describes in his Author's Note, Milan Kundera devoted much time to creating (with the assistance of his American publisher-editor) a completely revised translation that reflects his original as closely as any translation possibly can: reflects it in its fidelity not only to the words and syntax but also to the characteristic dictions and tonalities of the novel's narrators. The result is nothing less than the restoration of a classic.

Een oudpapierhandelaar tracht uit de aangevoerde papiermassa waardevolle boeken te redden.

An entrancing collection of short stories from a renowned 20th century European writer, now part of Penguin Modern Classics, features a counter-prophet striving to prove his power, a girl witnessing her family's grim fate through a gypsy's mirror, and the unexpected uprising following a prostitute's death. These narratives explore themes of love and death, truth and lies, myth and reality, spanning various epochs and settings. The author masterfully blends fact with fiction, and horror with comedy in this final work, published in Serbo-Croatian in 1983. Recognized as one of the great European writers of the post-war era, his writing is described as compulsively readable, with a unique blend of fantasy and reality reminiscent of Pirandello and Borges, yet distinctly original. His intense and exotic mysteries suggest unspeakable secrets that remain elusive. Born in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1935, the author experienced a turbulent childhood during World War II, which claimed several family members. He later studied literature at the University of Belgrade, where he spent most of his life, producing novels, short stories, and poetry, and receiving the prestigious NIN Award for his novel Pešcanik before his death in Paris in 1989.

Ideeënroman aan de hand van de levens van twee stellen, Tomas & Tereza en Franz & Sabina, waarbij Sabina, een onafhankelijke schilderes die Tsjechoslowakije na 1968 verliet en in Genève woont, een verbindende rol tussen de koppels speelt door haar verhouding met Tomas. Ook deze chirurg en rokkenjager vlucht, met Tereza, uit Tsjechoslowakije naar Zwitserland. Beiden zullen echter terugkeren. Franz is een Zwitserse linkse intellectueel die aanvankelijk een ideale maîtresse vindt in Sabina. Kundera laat zien hoe op beslissende momenten in hun diverse levens lichtheid en zwaarte verwisselbaar zijn, liefde en haat, trouw en verraad, schoonheid en lelijkheid, kunst en kitsch, het komische en tragische, afhankelijk van ieders levensperspectief. Contrapuntsgewijs weeft Kundera hun diverse levens door elkaar, becommentarieert ze en veralgemeent ze met filosofische aforismen. Kundera (1929), vooraanstaand Tsjechisch schrijver, woont sinds 1974 in Frankrijk.

Attempting to go beyond the cliche of Prague as the golden city , this book brings out all its mystery, ambiguity, gloom, lethargy and hidden fascination. More than a literary and cultural history of Prague, this book seeks to be both a celebration and requiem for an oppressed culture.

Developed by Professor Michael Heim (UCLA), the text contains grammar, extensive model sentences, and exercises (Part 1) and a series of review lessons (Part 2). Vocabulary and sentences are recorded along with a selection of exercises. Czech-English, English-Czech glossaries are provided. This intermediate course is particularly helpful for those who have a command of Russian. text. Product no. AFCZ10D

The pieces collected in Lend Me Your Character—the novella "Steffie Cvek in the Jaws of Life" and a collection of short stories entitled Life Is a Fairy Tale— solidify Dubravka Ugresic's reputation as one of Eastern Europe's most playful and inventive writers. From the story of Steffie Cvek, a harassed and vulnerable typist whose life is shaped entirely by clichés as she searches relentlessly for an elusive romantic love in a narrative punctuated by threadbare advice from women's magazines and constructed like a sewing pattern, to "The Kharms Case," one of Ugresic's funniest stories ever about the strained relationship between a persistent translator and an unresponsive publisher, the pieces in this collection are always smart and endlessly entertaining.

Een Tsjechische vluchtelinge denkt terug aan haar leven in Praag.

Een wat oudere schrijver raakt tijdens een verblijf in Venetië in de ban van de schoonheid van een 14-jarige Poolse jongen.

This ebullient, gallivanting novel encapsulates the world vision of the Czech Republic's best-loved author in one tumbling, breathtaking sentence. Saints and sinners, emperors and embezzlers, barmaids and balalaikas all play their part in the bawdy reminiscences of Hrabal's cobbler as he charms an audience of young beauties.

Jan Nerudas erstmals 1878 veröffentlichte Erzählungen führen den Leser ins verträumte Prag des 19. Jahrhunderts. Zwischen den verwinkelten Gassen, stolzen Adelspalästen und prächtigen Kirchen der Kleinseite lebten und strebten jene originellen Gestalten, denen Neruda in den Kleinseitner Geschichten Unsterblichkeit verlieh, etwa die besorgte Frau Lakmus, der alternde Junggeselle Doktor Loukot, die reizende Otylka oder die unversöhnlichen Kontrahenten Ryšánek und Schlegl. Nerudas großer Klassiker hat bis heute nichts von seinem Reiz verloren und gehört zu den unverzichtbaren Werken der tschechischen Literatur. Prädikat: lesenswert.