Novel
Marketa Lazarová
Markéta Lazarová
Vladislav Vančura · 1931
Opening lines
Blázniviny se rozsévají nazdařbůh.
Follies are sown at random.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from digitalniknihovna.cz
Synopsis
In a medieval Bohemia where the king strives to make the roads safe, two clans of robber knights, that of Kozlík and that of Lazar, plunder and hate each other around Mladá Boleslav. To take revenge on Lazar, Mikoláš, Kozlík's son, abducts his daughter Markéta, and a violent bond forms between the captive and her captor. At the same time, a young German knight lost in the forest, Kristián, falls in love with Alexandra, Mikoláš's sister, whose wild beauty fascinates him.
Context
The novel appeared in 1931 with Sfinx, Bohumil Janda's publishing house, in the Pyramida series, under the title Margareta Lazarová, with a dedication to Jiří Mahen, a distant relative of the author. The author had found its subject in the chronicle of his ancestors, the Vančuras of Řehnice, who included brigands. Roman Jakobson reviewed it as early as May 1931, and critics praised above all its language. František Vláčil made a film of it in 1967.
Who it is for
A novel of about two hundred pages, divided not into chapters but into “heads”, in an archaising, stylised language. Translated into French by Milena Braud, into English by Carleton Bulkin.
Prizes and reception
Book of the year according to the survey of the daily Lidové noviny, State Prize in 1931; Vláčil's film was named in 1998 the most important of Czech cinema.