“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
