Novel
The Descent of the Idol
Bloudění
Jaroslav Durych · 1929
Synopsis
In the aftermath of the execution of the Czech lords on the Old Town Square in Prague, Jiří, a young Protestant rebel, meets Andělka, a Spanish Catholic who has come to Bohemia on the orders of her confessor, and Kajetán, who also loves her. During the years of the Thirty Years' War, in the shadow of Wallenstein, they lose and find one another from Prague to Stralsund and Magdeburg, separated by war, wandering and their faith.
Context
The novel appeared in November 1929 with the Prague publisher Ladislav Kuncíř, the eleventh volume of the Philobiblon series, after a long study of the sources; it is dedicated to the memory of Albrecht of Wallenstein. F. X. Šalda devoted a study to it in 1930 that praises its strength as much as it discusses its baroque construction. During the author's lifetime, the book appeared six times, almost always with variants, and Jan Linka and Martin Valášek have established a critical text of it.
Who it is for
A long novel in three parts, now more than eight hundred pages, with a baroque construction and proper names written in the old style. Translated into English in 1936; not into French.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as the peak of his prose and his best-known book; it won a state prize in the year of its publication and was translated into several languages before the Second World War.