Famous Like Me > Writer > H > Bohumil Hrabal
Profile of Bohumil Hrabal
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Name: |
Bohumil Hrabal |
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Date of Birth: |
28th March 1914 |
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Place of Birth: |
Brno / Brünn, Moravia, Austria-Hungary [now Czech Republic] |
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Writer |
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From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia Bohumil Hrabal (March 28, 1914, Brno - February 3, 1997, Prague) was a famous Czech writer.
Life and work
Born in Brno-Židenice, Moravia, Hrabal received a Law degree from Prague's Charles University, and lived in the city from the late 1940s on. He worked as a manual laborer in the Kladno ironworks in the 1950s, which inspired the "hyper-realist" texts he was writing then. His best known novel was Closely Watched Trains (1965) (Ostře sledované vlaky), which was made into a film by Czech director Jiřà Menzel.
Several of his works were not published in Czechoslovakia due to objections of the authorities, including The Little Town Where Time Stood Still (MÄ›steÄko, kde se zastavil Äas) and I Served the King of England (Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále).
He died when he fell from a fifth floor hospital where he was apparently trying to feed pigeons. It was noted that Hrabal lived on the fifth floor of his apartment building and that suicides by leaping from a fifth-floor window figured in more than one of his books.
He wrote with an expressive, highly visual style, often using long run-on sentences; in fact his work Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age (1964) (TaneÄnà hodiny pro starÅ¡Ã a pokroÄilé) is just one long sentence. Many of Hrabal's characters are portrayed as "wise fools" - simpletons with occasional or inadvertent profound thoughts - who are also given to coarse humour, lewdness, and a determination to survive and enjoy oneself despite harsh circumstances. Political quandaries and their concomitant moral ambiguities are also a recurrent theme.
Along with Jaroslav Hašek and Karel Čapek - who like him were imaginative and very funny satirists - he is considered one of the greatest Czech writers of the 20th century. His works have been translated into 27 languages.
Quotations
- It's interesting how young poets think of death while old fogies think of girls. -- Bohumil Hrabal in Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age
- Bohumil Hrabal embodies as no other the fascinating Prague. He couples people's humor to baroque imagination. -- Milan Kundera.
Selected bibliography
In English
- Closely Watched Trains, translated by Edith Pargeter with a foreword by Josef Škvorecký Evanston, Ill: Northwestern University Press, 1995
- Cutting It Short; The Little Town Where Time Stood Still, London: Abacus, 1993
- Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age, New York: Harcourt Brace, 1995
- The Death of Mr Baltisberger, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1975
- Closely Observed Trains: A Film by Jiřà Menzel and Bohumil Hrabal, London: Lorrimer Publishing Ltd, 1971
- Closely Watched Trains: A Film, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1971
- I Served the King of England, translated by Paul Wilson New York: Vintage International, 1990
- Too Loud a Solitude, translated by Michael Henry Heim San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1990
- Total Fears: Letters to Dubenka, translated by James Naughton Prague: Twisted Spoon Press, 1998
In Czech (first editions)
- Ztracená uliÄka, Nymburk: Hrádek 1948
- PerliÄka na dne, Prague: CS 1963.
- Pábitelé, Prague: MF 1964.
- TaneÄnà hodiny pro starÅ¡Ã a pokroÄilé, Prague: CS 1964.
- Ostře sledované vlaky, Prague: CS 1965.
- Inzerát na dům, ve kterém už nechci bydlet. Prague¨: MF 1965.
- Morytáty a legendy, Prague: CS 1968.
- Domácà úkoly, Úvahy a rozhovory. Prague: MF 1970.
- Poupata, Prague: MF 1970, conficated and burnt by communist regime
- Postřižiny, Prague: Petlice 1974 (Anti-communist secret publishing house)
- Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále, Prague: Petlice 1971 (Anti-communist secret publishing house)
- MÄ›steÄko, kde se zastavil Äas, Prague: Petlice 1974 (Anti-communist secret publishing house); Exile Edition: Comenius, Innsbruck, 1978.
- Něžný barbar, Prague: Petlice 1974 (Anti-communist secret publishing house); Exile edition: Index, Koeln, 1981.
- PÅ™ÃliÅ¡ hluÄná samota, Prague: Ceska expedice 1977 (Anti-communist secret publishing house); Exile edition: Index, Koeln, 1980.
- Slavnosti sněženek, Prague: CS 1978.
- KrasosmutnÄ›nÃ, Prague: CS 1979.
- Harlekýnovy milióny, Prague: CS 1981.
- Kluby poezie, Prague: MF 1981.
- Domácà úkoly z pilnosti, Prague: MF 1982.
- Život bez smokingu, Prague: CS 1986.
- Svatby v dome, Prague: Prazska imaginace 1986 (Anti-communist secret publishing house); Exile edition: 68’Publishers, Toronto, 1987.
- Vita nuova, Prague: Prazska imaginace 1986 (Anti-communist secret publishing house); Exile edition: 68’Publishers, Toronto, 1987.
- Proluky, Prague: Petlice 1986 (Anti-communist secret publishing house) Exile edition: 68’Publishers, Toronto, 1986.
- KliÄky na kapesnÃku, Prague: Prazska imaginace 1987 (Anti-communist secret publishing house)
- Listopadový uragán, Prague: Tvorba 1990.
- Ponorné Å™ÃÄky, Prague: Prazska imaginace 1991.
- Růžový kavalÃr, Prague: Prazska imaginace 1991.
- Aurora na mÄ›lÄinÄ›, Prague: Prazska imaginace 1992.
- VeÄernÃÄky pro Cassia, Pražská imaginace, Prague 1993.
- Atomová maÅ¡ina znaÄky Perkeo sc, Prace, 1991
- Bambino di Praga; Barvotisky; Krásná Poldi Praha: Československý spisovatel, 1990
- Básněnà Praha: Pražská imaginace, 1991
- Bibliografie dodatky rejstÅ™Ãky Praha: Pražská imaginace, 1997
- BuÄte tak hodná, vytáhnete rolety: výbor z milostné korespondence Praha: Triton, 1999
- Chcete vidÄ›t Zlatou Prahu?: výbor z povÃdek Praha: Mladá fronta, 1989
- Já si vzpomÃnám jen a jen na sluneÄné dny Nymburk: S Klos, 1998
Complete works edition in 19 volumes was published in 90ties by Prazska imaginace.
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