Marketa Lazarova – Vladislav Vancura
Marketa Lazarova by Vladislav Vancura / ISBN 9788086264431 / 183-page hardcover from Twisted Spoon Press (Czech)
Very attractive little book. Cover by Dan Mayer.
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Cinematic in approach to draw the reader into the action, as if it were happening right before one’s eyes, Marketa Lazarova deserves its place among the classics of interwar modernism, and it was awarded Czechoslovakia’s State Prize for Literature upon its publication in 1931. Yet the novel has been largely known by Frantisek Vlacil’s 1967 film adaptation, generally considered one of the greatest achievements of Czech cinema, and unavailable in English until now.
“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
