Short stories
Lazebník
Not translated into English
Richard Weiner · 1929
Synopsis
Five prose pieces. The first, which gives the book its title, reflects on the way these narratives are built; next comes a journey to Sweden placed under the title of a song, Long is the way to Tipperary, then the shortest, built on a waking dream, and a general meeting whose setting slides towards Czechoslovakia. The last, Ela, shows an anonymous narrator who meets the same woman in roles that are different each time, without being able to say which one she is.
Context
The collection appeared in 1929 from Aventinum, in Prague, while the author was living in Paris. It was coldly received, like his other difficult writings, and the author fell silent after a last book of prose published in 1933. Critics today regard Ela as the most successful of his prose pieces, and the collection was combined in 1974 with that last book in a single volume, augmented by a commentary by the author.
Who it is for
Five short prose pieces, written in a style regarded as one of the most complex in Czech literature. In French under the title Le Barbier.
Prizes and reception
Coldly received when it appeared, it is regarded as one of the high points of its author's work, which Czech readers rediscovered after 1989.