Czechs in History A look at the life and work of Jan Neruda
Poet, writer, and journalist, Jan Neruda has long been recognised as one of the outstanding figures of 19th century Czech literature, an author who mastered the art of the feuilleton, whose column was published regularly in the politically-liberal Narodni listy, and read widely by the masses. An ironical but also often melancholic poet who strived for modernity and the defeat of provincialism; a writer whose works were carefully dissected in his day who was endlessly expected to write his 'great' novel, but whose ultimate masterpiece remains his cycle of short stories titled 'Tales of the Little Quarter'. Stories that offered a satirical but also gentle depiction of the loves, lives, and small failures of petty bourgeois inhabitants of Mala Strana. An area which to this day remains the most picturesque area of the capital beneath Prague Castle and Petrin Hill.
Jan Neruda
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