Great Essays of All Nations/Czechoslovakia

OHN HUS, the reformer, who was for a time rector of Prague University is generally considered to be the father of Czech literature though its earliest records date back to the thirteenth century. There is no parallel among other Slavs to the richness and variety of Czech medieval literature. The favourable period of the Bohemian reformation ended abruptly in the disasters of the Thirty Years’ War which marks a new departure in the political, social, and literary life of the country. J. A. Comenius (Komensky), “the Teacher of Nations,” died in exile and his famous Labyrinth of the World was long a prohibited book in Bohemia. However, the powerful tradition of the classic period, based mainly on the “heretic” Bible of Kralice, which was mercilessly destroyed in Bohemia but treasured in Slovakia, reasserted itself in the romantic period. The literary renaissance that followed produced remarkable lyric poetry culminating in the mystic rhapsodies of Otokar Březina. In the realm of the literary essay there is a whole cohort of distinguished writers. F. X. Šalda, a master of language, and the learned Arne Novák are the foremost critics in the present generation. ***