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[ excerpt ]
book view
also by the author:
Woman in the Plural
The Absolute Gravedigger
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders
Edition 69
Antilyrik
events:
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a prague flâneur
by Vítězslav Nezval
translated from the Czech by Jed Slast
photographs by the author
By spring 1938, Prague is a city increasingly on tenterhooks in expectation of an attack by Nazi Germany. Earlier that year the pressure of
the situation produced a schism in the Surrealist Group in Czechoslovakia between Vítězslav Nezval, who wanted to continue to support the
Soviet Union, and those who condemned Stalin’s show trials, purges, and executions. Nezval chronicles this tumultuous period by embedding
it in a paean to Prague, wondering if the city, and everything about the city he loves, will survive the horrors that are about to be visited
upon her. With Apollinaire serving as his guide, he introduces us to the cafés and pubs he would frequent, many of which no longer exist,
the various neighborhoods he lived in as a destitute student, the parks where he sought solace, and the people he would meet on the street,
musing on some of the figures central to his poetics, such as André Breton and Lautréamont. While at times lamenting the changing face of
Prague and that Hitler might reduce it to rubble, Nezval takes us into the places that spontaneously spur him to reflect on the issues
facing artists of the day and the precarious sociopolitical situation.
This translation is of the rare unabridged first edition and includes Nezval’s photographs and illustrations as well as an appendix that maps
out the significant revisions made later, providing additional translations of the longer passages that were inserted as replacement for what was
expunged from the original edition.
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So A Prague Flâneuris a book which provides many riches; a glimpse of Prague at a point just before catastrophe; a look at the complex personal politics which existed at the time;
and an exploration of the self-censorship which took place when invasion seemed imminent. It makes for an engrossing book [...]
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— Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings
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A Prague Flâneur is a lovely document of its times and, especially, place, and an appealing personal account, Nezval
a very good guide also to the feel of the place -- and parts of the artistic scene there (and beyond) as well.
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— The Complete Review
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ISBN 9788088628002
213 pp., 135 x 195 mm
softcover with flaps
10 b/w photo illustrations
publication:
UK: September 2024
US: November 2024
Order directly:
airmail postage & handling incl.
also available from:
Wordery
Bookshops
Bookshop.org
Amazon US
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Central Books
e-book [978-80-88628-31-6]
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