Written during and right after World War I, this volume pairs two short story collections from Karel Capek, considered one of the greatest Czech writers. The first collection, 鈥淲ayside Crosses,鈥� presents an agonized and unsuccessful search for God and truth. These metaphysical tales are not about finding God as much as they are about discovering man鈥檚 limitations, his terror and helplessness, and understanding the value of the ongoing search. The second collection, 鈥淧ainful Tales,鈥� contains more realistic stories of characters being forced to make choices in which one good conflicts with another.
Karel 膶apek is one of the the most influential Czech writers of the 20th century. He wrote with intelligence and humour on a wide variety of subjects. His works are known for their interesting and precise descriptions of reality, and 膶apek is renowned for his excellent work with the Czech language. His play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) first popularized the word "robot".
Poeticky a kr谩sn臎 popsan茅 "n谩hody" b臎啪n茅ho 啪ivota, "oby膷ejnosti", kter茅 膷asto tvo艡铆 velkou 膷谩st na拧ich 啪ivot暖... o z谩zrac铆ch, nevysv臎tliteln媒ch v臎cech, kter茅 se n谩m d臎j铆 v 啪ivot臎. Doporu膷uji pov铆dky str谩vit, nehltat a nechat je dozn铆t. "Chv铆lemi, vid臎l jsem tak podivn茅 z膷e艡en铆 na vod臎, 啪e nelze pochopit, odkud p艡ich谩z铆. N臎kdy se zlom铆 vlna a zaleskne se kr谩sn臎ji ne啪 jin茅; a jsou i 煤kazy na nebi 鈥� st谩v谩 se to velice z艡铆dka. A tu si mysl铆m: pro膷 by to nemohl b媒t B暖h? Snad je pr谩v臎 t铆m nejprchav臎j拧铆m na sv臎t臎; snad i jeho skute膷nost je n谩hl茅 zlomen铆 vlny a z谩blesk; nepochopiteln臎, v媒jime膷n臎 se vyskytne, a zajde 鈥� 膷asto jsem o tom p艡em媒拧lel; ale hle膹te, m谩m tak mal媒 obzor, po l茅ta jsem nedo拧el d谩le ne啪 sem. Je mo啪no, 啪e i mezi lidmi se p艡ihod铆 takov茅 z膷e艡en铆 nebo z谩blesk, a zase se zlom铆. Mus铆 se zlomit. Prav谩 skute膷nost se mus铆 zaplatit z谩nikem."
Je to soubor text暖 (pov铆dek) filozofick茅ho lad臎n铆. Postavy jsou poeticky kresleny: Boura, Holub, L铆da, Slav铆k, Je啪ek, R暖啪i膷ka, Z谩ruba ... 膶apek se tu nesoust艡e膹uje na d臎j. Moc se mi l铆bil cel媒 soubor, ale n臎kter茅 texty se mi v铆c l铆bily, tj. 艩l茅p臎je, Ztracen谩 cesta, Pomoc.
I am a huge fan of 膶apek's books, so I was really looking forward to reading this, another book I thought I would read in honour of the recent celebration of Czechoslovakia's centennial, but in the end I was disappointed. With a few exceptions, most of the stories were too bleak and hopeless. Nothing good ever happens to these characters. While that can be fine to a certain extent, here it is too condensed. I don't know if it is these times we are living in, but I just needed some scrap of optimism to catch hold of, and I didn't get it here.
Read this mainly because of my recent vacation to Prague. The first section (Wayside Crosses) I'd give 2 stars on its own, with only "The Waiting Room" and "Help!" being what I would consider notable. The second section (Painful Tales) was far superior. The characters and their dilemmas were much more relatable, as strange as some of their predicaments may be. All of the stories in this collection were at least average, with "Three", "Helena" and "Money" reaching greatness.
started in 1904ish but from 1917 1921, so not prewwi, but "most popular" czech author and widely translated and printed in uk and usa. was a heady time for the new country and all looked bright, before world depression and hitler, and stalin. uff
he gives miraculously visceral descriptions of so many different forms of human transcendent emotion and i dont understand why he;s not ranked up with borges.