For The Pied Piper, Czech writer Viktor Dyk found his muse in the much retold medieval Saxon legend of the villainous, pipe-playing rat-catcher. Dyk uses the tale as a loose frame for his story of a mysterious wanderer, outcast, and would-be revolutionary--a dreamer typical of fin de siecle Czech literature who serves Dyk as a timely expression of the conflict between the petty concerns of bourgeois nineteenth-century society and the coming artistic generation. Impeccably rendered into English by Mark Corner, The Pied Piper retains the beautiful style of Dyk's original Czech....

From political novels to surrealist poetry and censored rock and roll, Czech underground culture of the later twentieth century displayed an astonishing, and unheralded, variety. This fascinating exploration of that underground movement--the historical, sociological, and psychological background that gave rise to it; the literature, music, and arts that comprised it; and its more recent incorporation into the mainstream--draws on the voices of scholars and critics who themselves played an integral role in generating it. Featuring the writings of Czech poet Ivan Martin Jirous, philosopher-poet...

A HumorousInsofar as That Is PossibleNovella from the Ghetto. Set in 1943 Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, novella tells the story of Tony, a thirteen-year-old boy who is deported from Prague to the infamous Terezn.

A dreamlike novel that is a classic of dissident literature from Czechoslovakia, in English for the first time; Havel called it "a truly profound and perceptive account."