Charmingly bound in maroon and gold, this new translation makes a valuable contribution to Slavic studies and world literature.

— C.M. Coppage Slavic & East European Journal

As Vančura is seldom rendered in English, we are fortunate to have so lively a work now available.

— Jeff Bursey, Rain Taxi

The story is fantastic: exposing the ruthlessness of medieval Bohemia and taking us down into the mud and filth with the brigands. The snow falls and blood is shed, morality is questioned and God is called upon as a sadist.

— Waterstones

[T]his is a remarkable and unusual book, particularly since archaic text is relieved with beautiful writing and contemporary asides. […] Marketa Lazarová is a little treasure of a book for its historical value, the lusty tale it tells, and the literary worth of Vladislav Vančura’s writing.

— Valerie Wieland, NewPages

[Vančura] draws regular distinctions between the ‘Herculean times’ of yore and modern society, gently mocking the refined reader’s probable unease over certain elements of the story and chiding you for not fighting and loving as ferociously as men and women had once done.

— Books, Yo

Strange, violent, funny, and ultimately devastating, this Marketa Lazarova is a medieval tale of family loyalty, kidnapping, and love. Nothing I can do here would be a substitute for Vančura’s vivid, surreal voice—a voice that guides the story cynically, ironically, but also energetically, buoyantly. One of the best things I read all year.

— Biblioklept

In a certain sense the novel is a milestone in Vančura's evolution. Just as scattered rays converge in a single golden strand in the lens of a magnifying glass, in Marketa Lazarová Vančura's creative endeavors converge in a single, undivided stream.

— Milan Kundera

Vančura keeps both the fairly complicated action going but also the strange love affairs between Mikolas and Markéta and between Kristian and Alexandra. Using the narrator to give his clear and not always objective views on what is going on and at times jumping ahead or back in time, we get a fascinating modernist take on a medieval romance (in both senses of the word).

— The Modern Novel