Dílo ještě v 90. letech u nás téměř neznámého Švýcara Roberta Walsera (1878–1956), považovaného za jednoho z nejvýznamnějších autorů německy psané literatury 20. století, je nyní – po několika románech a souborech krátkých próz – představováno českému čtenáři v neobvyklé formě tzv. mikrogramů, jež Walser pořizoval dvoumilimetrovým písmem tužkou a které byly zprvu považovány za nerozluštitelné. Po dešifrování všech nalezených 526 textů napsaných na různých útržcích papírů, k němuž došlo až na sklonku 20. století, vyšlo...

Girlfriends, Ghosts, and Other Stories brings together eighty-one brief texts spanning Robert Walser's career, from pieces conceived amid his early triumphs to later works written at a psychiatric clinic in Bern. Many were published in the feuilleton sections of newspapers during Walser's life; others were jotted down on slips of paper and all but forgotten. They are strung together like consciousness, idiosyncratic and vulnerable, genuine in their irony, wistful in their humor. Some dwell on childish or transient topics--carousels, the latest hairstyles, an ekphrasis of the...

Few writers have ever experienced such a steady rise in their reputation and public profile as Swiss writer Robert Walser (1878-1956) has seen in recent years. As more of his previously little known work has been translated into English, readers have discovered a unique writer whose off-kilter sensibility and innovations in form are perfectly suited to our fragmented, distracted, bewildered era.

This book brings English-language readers work by Walser in yet another form: dramolette. The short plays presented here, inspired by the German theater Walser enjoyed in his youth, while never...