The first Czech novel - The Village Novel!
It's 150 years since the book left Gregor's press. And although it seemed ridiculous at the time that a woman would become a writer, Karolina Světlá surpassed all Czech novelists, even Neruda and Hálek, when she fully mastered the composition of the modern European novel.
The multi-layered story of love and jealousy, sacrifice and selfishness, humility and greed, set in the picturesque Podještědí region, does not copy traditional sentimental templates. On the contrary, it reveals the complexity of interpersonal relationships: of partnership, intergenerational, neighbourhood and nationality, and is heading towards an unexpected resolution. Reconciliatory? Or tragic?
In a dramatic dialogue, the Christian world, in its irreconcilable dichotomy of Catholicism and Protestantism, clashes with the world of folk customs, in which each of the characters becomes the bearer of one distinctive characteristic or the advocate of a particular belief. The narrator remains impartial and leaves it to the reader to think through the validity of their attitudes and actions: Does man have the right to personal happiness, or must he give up freedom for the sake of the general order? Can he defy social conventions? Are they allowed to exceed moral and ethical standards? And the laws of God?
