Czechoslovak Stories/Alois Jirásek

by Šárka B. Hrbková

ALOIS JIRÁSEK

 

(Born August 23, 1851, in Hronov.)

 

Alois Jirásek was born of a family of small farmers and weavers of modest means. In his native district near Náchod, the bloodiest scenes of the Prussian war of 1866 took place and on young Jirásek that period of his country’s history left an ineffaceable effect. The wars in which his people fell, from earliest times to his own day, whether in a cause they themselves upheld or to gain the selfish ends of the monarch who controlled the man power of the nation, form the basis of most of his elaborate historical novels as well as of many of his shorter tales.

While an instructor in the college at Litomyšl, where he remained some eighteen years, he gathered further material for novels whose background shows his intimate knowledge of the history and traditions of that locality rich in the lore he sought. His student novels “Filosofská Historie” (A Philosopher’s Story) on which he later based his drama “M. D. Rettigová,” together with all the stories included in his “Maloměstské Historie” (Small Town Stories), his three-part novel “F. L. Věk” concerned with the torchbearers of literary, linguistic and political progress, his drama “Vojnárka” based on the later religious struggle of the Czechs, the sharply cut figures in his play of “Otec” all owe their origin to the influence of the Litomyšl district.

Jirásek excels as a novelist in using the times of John Huss and the Hussite Wars as a background and in merging himself deep in the significance of that period for his nation and for the world in general. The first fruits of his study of the spiritual revolution in Bohemia was his romance, “Slavný Den” (The Glorious Day) in the collection entitled “In Stormy Days.” The crest of the Hussite period is described in “Proti Všem” (Against All) which had been prepared for in the “Mezi Proudy” (Between Currents), and these two books with “Bratrstvo” (Brotherhood) complete a wonderful trilogy. In the final work “Bratrstvo,” Jirásek rises to his best as a painter of far-reaching struggles and great national enthusiasms. Here Henryk Sienkiewicz in no wise excels the Czech artist.

In “V Cizích Službách” (In Foreign Service) Jirásek gives a close but heartbreaking view of the part played by a chivalrous Czech in the defense of a Bavarian ruler—another tragic parallel to the “Anabasis.”

His short stories, like his more extensive pieces of work, are concerned with three main themes: first the splendor of the non-producing class—the nobility—contrasted with the squalor and sorrow of the workers, second, the careers of the soldiers of his native land in home and foreign fields, and third, the life of the people of his native district during the period of the nation’s downfall. His best known collections are the “Small Town Tales,” “In Stormy Days,” “Short Stories and Sketches,” “Homeward and Other Sketches,” and “From Diverse Ages.” A very popular collection of legends of local Czech origin is his “Staré pověsti České” (Old Czech Legends) published in 1894 and later issued in several editions. Another favorit collection for younger readers is his “From Bohemia to the End of the World.” Alois Jirásek has been the recipient of many honors from his countrymen in recent times, in recognition of his many and great contributions to literature and of his work in building up through his stalwart patriotism and opposition to lukewarmness and hypocrisy a sturdy uncompromising spirit in matters pertaining to the national welfare.