Prague Stories

by Bassett, Richard

• ISBN13: 9780525659570
• ISBN10: 0525659579
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2020-10-20
• Publisher: Everyman's Library

Summary

A gorgeously jacketed hardcover anthology of stories set in Prague, by an international array of brilliant writers.

The Golden City of Prague has long been an intellectual center of the western world. The writers collected here range from the early nineteenth century to the present and include both Prague natives and visitors from elsewhere. Here are stories, legends, and scenes from the city’s past and present, from the Jewish fable of the golem, a creature conjured from clay, to tales of German and Soviet invasions. The international array of writers ranges from Franz Kafka to Ivan Klíma to Bruce Chatwin, and includes the award-winning British playwright Tom Stoppard and former American Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, both of whom have Czech roots. Covering the city’s venerable Jewish heritage, the glamour of the belle-époque period, World War II, Communist rule, the Prague Spring, the Velvet Revolution, and beyond, Prague Stories weaves a remarkable selection of fiction and nonfiction into a literary portrait of a fascinating city.

Author Biography

RICHARD BASSETT, who was a staff foreign correspondent for The Times (London) in the 1980s and early 1990s covering central and Eastern Europe, is the author of Last Days in Old Europe, For God and Kaiser, Hitler's Spy Chief, Guide to Central Europe, The Austrians, and Balkan Hours. He is currently a Visiting Professor at the Central Europe University of Budapest.

Table of Contents

Preface by Richard Bassett

J. G. Kohl, “A Visit to Prague in 1841”
R. W. Seton-Watson, “Appeasement: ‘Peace with Honour’”
Prince Alfons Clary-Aldringen, “Student Life in Belle-Époque Prague”
Lieut.-Col. B. Granville Baker, “From a Terrace in Prague”
C. J. C. Street, “Atmospherics in the Old Town”
Franz Kafka, “The Conscription of Troops”
Gustav Meyrink, from The Golem
E. I. Robson, “John Hus”
Robert Young, “The Imminent German Occupation of Prague”
Franz Kafka, “Description of a Struggle”
Nicholas Rothwell, “One Velvet Evening”
Ivan Klimá, “The Spirit of Prague”
Tom Stoppard, from Rock ’n’ Roll
Madeleine Albright, from Prague Winter
Anne Edwards, “Shirley Temple Witnesses the Warsaw Pact Invasion from the Hotel Alcron”
Sylva Fischerová, “The Stones Speak Czech”
Bruce Chatwin, from Utz
František Langer, “The Sword of St Wenceslas”
Jiří Weil, from Mendelssohn is on the Roof
Ivan Diviš, “Invasion Day”
Michael Farr, “A Long-Awaited Family Reunion in Prague”
Daniela Hodrová, “Prague, I see a city...”
Madeleine Albright, “Revisits Prague and Holocaust Memories”