The Jail. Experiences in 1916. Josef Svatopluk Machar

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      Introduction

       Table of Contents

      INTRODUCTION

       Table of Contents

      Among the many interesting and talented Czech writers of today J. S. Machar occupies a foremost place. He has succeeded in gaining popular favour without sacrificing his literary ideals. He is always in close touch with the events of the day, upon which he comments fearlessly and often drastically. He is, in fact, not merely a literary celebrity but a national personality, whose opinions meet with interest, if not always with agreement, among a wide circle of readers in Czechoslovakia.

      J. S. Machar was born at Kolín in 1864. He was educated at Prague where he underwent all the privations of a needy student. The death of his father in 1881 left him unprovided for, and he eked out a livelihood by giving lessons, and from 1882 onwards, when his first verses were printed in the periodical "Světozor", by literary work. Already during this early period of his life we find him obliged to change schools on account of his religious views, the free expression of which brought him into conflict with the instructor in divinity. After passing his school-leaving examination, he spent a year in the army, and was then enrolled as a student of law. His legal studies, however, were confined to this formal enrolment, and he remained in the army until his appointment as an official of the "Bodenkreditanstalt" in Vienna. He occupied this inappropriate post for thirty years until the events described in "The Jail". When the independent Czechoslovak State was founded in the autumn of 1918, Machar became a member of the National Assembly. Later on he was appointed inspector general of the Czechoslovak army, and he is still continuing in this capacity.

      Machar's first book, "Confiteor" was published in 1887. It consists of lyric poems, the tone of which is sentimental, romantic, ​sceptical and ironical by turns. To a certain extent they suggest the influence of Heine and the Russian Byronists. but they are sufficiently subjective to acquit Machar of being a mere copyist of other poets' emotions. The second and third parts of "Confiteor" appeared in 1889 and 1892 respectively, and from then onwards Machar, with his reputation fully established, issued numerous volumes both in verse and prose. In the "Summer, Winter, Spring and Autumn Sonnets", published between 1891 and 1893, Machar reveals the same dual capacity as lyric poet and ironical observer as in his earlier books, together with technical skill in imparting variety to the sonnet form. "Tristium Vindobona" (1893) СКАЧАТЬ