Packed with both scholarly and entertaining literary information involving history, geography and politics, this collection will open readers' minds to the fascinating and diverse culture and traditions of Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Albania, and the former Yugoslavia. Contributors include Franz Kafka, Vaclav Havel, Ivan Klima and more.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Study it before you go,
This review is from: Traveller's Literary Companion: Eastern & Central Europe (Paperback)
Before undergoing a major tour of central Europe in 1998, I used this text, edited by the renowned Czech specialist, James Naughton, as an adjunct to study up on these areas. It provides a much-needed supplement to the usual sightseeing guidebooks out there, especially if one has a literary bent like myself. I toured with one of the major travel agencies; we hit all of the expected tourist sites but with the "downtime" provided during any touring excursion, I went ahead and hit the "literary sites." This book inspired me to hunt down the Adam Mickiewicz Museum of Literature in Old Town Warsaw which contains manuscripts, mementos, and portraits, particularly from the romantic era. The guidebook also inspired me to sample a coffee and pastry at the famous Jama Michalikowa coffeehouse on Florianska Street in Krakow, "the gathering place for early 20c writers & poets" and reportedly a favorite hangout of the late Jerzy Kosinski when he would visit his native Poland. Inbetween gazing at the architectural gems of Prague, I was able to visit Kafka's birthplace and his gravesite (and leave a note under a stone--the touristy thing to do at Kafka's grave). In preparation for an upcoming trip to Slovakia, I have already devoured the chapter on Slovakia, written by Mr. Naughton himself. Thanks to his diligence in the section entitled "Literary Landmarks," I've plotted out an entire literary itinerary to visit, including the birthplaces and/or memorials of Slovak writers like Timrava, Krasko, Kollar and Bernolak. As a student of Slovak culture and literature, I also found Naughton's list of Slovak literature translated into English an invaluable resource. Other countries included in the book are Hungary, Romania, Albania, Bulgaria and the lands of the former Yugoslavia. Short author bio's/photo's and condensed literary samplings from various authors are a nice touch as well.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Extensive, Good Introduction,
This review is from: Traveller's Literary Companion: Eastern & Central Europe (Paperback)
This book was published in 1996 and contained 121 selections from 116 authors.
There were 49 poems or excerpts of poems, 43 excerpted novels, 17 selections from short stories, and a small number of excerpts from essays, journals, autobiographies, nonfiction novels and a play. All but a handful of the works came from authors native to the region. The few exceptions were usually English -- Lord Byron, Edward Lear, Anthony Trollope, Olivia Manning and the poet Tony Harrison -- in addition to Bram Stoker (Dracula), Günther Grass (The Tin Drum) and Thomas Keneally (Schindler's Ark). Of all the writers in the book, 10 were women. A chapter each in the collection was devoted to Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, and the lands of former Yugoslavia. Each chapter contained (1) an essay on historical and literary background, (2) a booklist for further reading, (3) the prose and poetry excerpts, and (4) capsule biographies of the authors excerpted as well as many others whose works weren't included. Unlike some of the other books read in this series (on Africa and South & Central America), the historical/literary background was by far the largest part of the anthology, comprising just under half of it; the prose and poetry itself was only about a quarter, and the biographies a fifth. Except for Albania, for the poetry and prose there were 10-20 excerpts for each chapter, none longer than a page. With one exception from the Middle Ages, the works covered the period from the 1830s to the 1980s, with something for each decade. For the 19th century, most of the pieces were poetry, from Polish (Mickiewicz, Slowacki, Norwid), Czech (Mácha, Erben), Hungarian (Petofi), Slovenian (Preseren), Serbo/Croat/Bosnian/Montenegrin (Njegos), Slovakian (Král'), and Bulgarian (Botyov). Many of these were Romantic poets who on drew on rich oral traditions to establish their native tongues as literary languages and promote national consciousness. The prose authors, most of them from late in the century, were Nemcová and Neruda (from Czech), Jókai (Hungarian), Kukucín (Slovakian), Vazov and Stoyanov (Bulgarian) and Reymont (Polish). There was much lyrical writing about nature, churches in the countryside and village life -- reflecting concern with national and peasant traditions -- and a few works from the Balkans on revolt against the Ottomans. Mentioned in the essays on background were struggles to reconcile the impact of modern currents received from elsewhere with native traditions, as well as the general lack of political autonomy until recently. For the 20th century, there was a lot particularly for the interwar period -- a time of flowering for many of the countries and literatures -- as well as the 1960s and 80s. Works from the 1940s, 50s and 70s were comparatively rare. The styles of the works roughly paralleled those of Western Europe, though the selections gave comparatively little space to expressionism or surrealism. Or from the late 1940s and 50s, even to socialist realism. For 20th century prose, writers included Reymont, Conrad, Witkiewicz and Schulz (from Polish), Hasek, Capek, Kundera, Páral, Hrabal and Klíma (Czech), Svantner, Jarunková and Mnacko (Slovakian), Kosztolányi, Konrád and Nádas (Hungarian), Iorga, Rebreanu, Blaga and Liiceanu (Romanian),Vazov, Yovkov, Dimitrova and Paskov (Bulgarian), and Kadare (Albanian). Those from the former Yugoslavia included Krleza, Andric and Ugresic (Croatia), Cankar and Kosmac (Slovenia), Djilas (Montenegro), Selimovic (Bosnia), Kis, Cosic and Selenic (Serbia) and Cingo (Macedonia). Writers translated from German included Meyrink and Kafka for Prague, and Wagner from Romania. The works most enjoyed were Andric's evocative writing on a historic bridge, Parál's description of a drunken, happy celebration, and Mnacko's dry observations on changes in a tavern that reflected larger changes in his world. There were also a description by Djilas of his perception in childhood of a beautiful forest and reflections by Konrád and Nádas on life in a totalitarian state. And the work of Selenic, in which a foreigner in Serbia described the warm relations of the family she'd married into, closer than those she was used to. For the 20th century, poets included Jastrum and Przybos (Polish), Nezval, Seifert, Holub (Czech), Krasko (Slovakian), Jozsef, Pilinszky, Orbán and Weöres (Hungarian), Sorescu (Romanian), Slaveikov, Vazov, Bagryana and Trayanov (Bulgarian), and Migjeni (Albania). Those from the former Yugoslavia included Ducic (Hercegovina, writing in Serbian), Sarajlic (Bosnia) and Koneski (Macedonia). As interesting as some of the excerpts were, for this reader the book was strongest in the essays on background, rather than the prose and poetry themselves. The chapters on Bulgaria and Romania seemed especially good at outlining historical and literary development, discussing development of the states -- Bulgaria was one of the oldest in Europe, founded in the 600s -- and describing their major writers' significance rather than just running through names and dates. The chapters on the former Yugoslavia and the Czech Republic were also enlightening, and they too provided a foundation for exploring further. (The chapters for the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania also contained a few pages on literary landmarks.) Unfortunately, unlike the other essays, the one on Poland omitted a historical outline and appeared to assume a certain familiarity with national history, since it recounted little in systematic fashion. Different chapters were assembled more or less independently by different editors, accounting for the unevenness. Also unfortunate was that a large number of important writers discussed in the background essays weren't excerpted, either because of space limitations or because representative translations weren't available. In this category were Gombrowicz, Milosz, Kantor, Borowski, Konwicki, Grotowski and the poet Bacynzski (Polish); Weil, Pavel, Hodrová and Ajvaz (Czech); Kalinciak, Urban and Tatarka (Slovakian); Mikszáth Molnár, Ottlik, Esterházy, Kertesz and the poet Radnóti (Hungarian); Petrescu, Preda, Popescu and the poet Eminescu (Romanian); and Minkov, Radichkov and the poet Yavorov (Bulgarian). Among those omitted from the former Yugoslavia were Basagic, Mulabdic, Kulenovic and Dizdar (from the Bosnian Muslim community); Samokovlija, who wrote on Bosnian Sephardic Jews and has been called Bosnia's Sholom Aleichem; Kovacic, Matos, Desnica, Marinkovic, Aralica, Majdak and the poets Mazuranic and Kranjcevic (Croatia); Janevski and Solev (Macedonia); Lalic (Montenegro); Crnjanski, Pavic, Tisma and the poets Radicevic, Jovanovic and Popa (Serbia); and Tavcar, Kocbek and the poets Zupancic, Salamun and Debeljak (Slovenia). Among writers from outside the region, the editors regretted the exclusion of something from Rebecca West's Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, and the travel notebooks of Camus. Also omitted was something from the autobiographical Eastern Approaches by Fitzroy Maclean. The excerpts were all quite short. Given that so many of them referred to geographic features, it would've been helpful to have more country maps; there were detailed ones for Bulgaria and Hungary but not elsewhere. Finally, developments in all the places since 1989, particularly in the former Yugoslavia, were referred to only in passing. If you're looking for new works in the region since 1989, this isn't the right collection and a better choice would be Description of a Struggle: The Vintage Book of Contemporary East European Prose (1994). That anthology has its problems, but two-thirds of the pieces in it were published after the fall of Communism. As an introduction to earlier works, though, as well as to the history, languages, religions, and conflicts that have weighed so heavily on the region, the present anthology was very good and I haven't found a better one -- as long as you don't mind very short excerpts. And the biographies and booklists were very useful for getting an idea of the important writers and books available in English. The amount of work that went into assembling the collection can hardly be imagined. Excerpts: "For this great stone bridge, a rare structure of unique beauty, such as many richer and busier towns do not possess . . . was the one real and permanent crossing in the whole middle and upper course of the Drina and an indispensable link on the road between Bosnia and Serbia and further, beyond Serbia, with other parts of the Turkish empire, all the way to Stambul. . . . The town owed its existence to the bridge and grew out of it as if from an imperishable root." "Below us, in the dizzy depths, stretched the dark, shadowy forest with the oblong lake, bluer and clearer than a piece of the sky itself. It was like a morning when one awakes from a dream. Everything seemed in vertiginous movement amid the mystery of the impassable, boundless forest . . . . Through long years, for all my life, that morning, that eye of the forest, glowed and shone in dream and in waking, in prison and in conflict with the realities of the everyday world . . . . [The lake] and the forests around it, huge trunks of every kind of tree close-packed against one another, were identified with my youth, with my first songs and my first disenchantments . . ." "Can you restrain the wind which comes down from the heights, / bursting through the gorges, tossing clouds above the threshers . . . Can you restrain me then -- I'm self-willed, wandering, free -- / true sister of the wind, of the... Read more ›
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