Pivot's "Ideal Library": Central European literatures

1. The chronicle of Travnik (The Bosnian chronicle)—Ivo Andrić

2. Meteor—Karel Čapek

3. The forbidden forest—Mircea Eliade

4. Ferdydurke—Witold Gombrowicz

5. The good soldier Svejk—Jaroslav Hasek

6. The Captive mind—Czesław Miłosz

7. School at the frontier—Géza Ottlik

8. The Street of Crocodiles—Bruno Schulz

9. Migrations—Miloš Crnjanski

10. L'Adieu à l'automne—S. I. Witkiewicz

11. The magician’s garden and other stories—Géza Csáth

12. En tierra inhumana—Josef Czapski

13. Histoires—Vladimír Holan

14. Too loud a silence—Bohumil Hrabal

15. Les demoiselles de Wilko—Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz

16. Anthology of Polish poetry—Constantin Jelenski

17. The hourglass—Danilo Kiš

18. A Minor Apocalypse: A Novel—Tadeusz Konwicki

19. The joke—Milan Kundera

20. Saulus—Miklós Mészöly

21. Pan Tadeusz—Adam Mickiewicz

22. Le ciel en flammes—Jan Parandowski

23. Les Fenêtres d'or et autres récits—Adolf Rudnicki

24. Sonnets de Prague—Jaroslav Seifert

25. My century—Aleksander Wat

26. This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen—Tadeusz Borowski

27. A Warsaw Diary: 1978-1981—Kazimierz Brandys

28.Zapomenuté světlo (Forgotten light)—Jakub Deml

29. Indirecte—Péter Esterházy

30. Audience Vernissage Petition—Vaclav Havel

31. A World Apart: Imprisonment in a Soviet Labor Camp During World War II—Gustaw Herling-Grudziński

32. Sentinelle de nuit—Gyula Illyes

33. Doruntine—Ismail Kadare

34. Teatr Śmierci : teksty z lat 1975-1984 (Theatre of death)—Tadeusz Kantor

35. The hangwoman—Pavel Kohout

36. Ocity svedek: Denik z roku 1949 (Eyewitness)—Jiří Kolář

37. The Case Worker—György Konrád

38. Le Traducteur cleptomane : Et autres histoires—Dezső Kosztolányi

39. The Return of Philip Latinowicz—Miroslav Krleža

40. N.N.—Gyula Krúdy

41. The King of the Two Sicilies—Andrzej Kusniewicz

42. A strange marriage—Kalman Mikszath

43. Valerie and Her Week of Wonders—Vitezslav Nezval

44. Tout près de l'œil—Marian Pankowski

45. Blood from the sky—Piotr Rawicz

46. The peasants—Władysław Stanisław Reymont

47. Le plafond—Pavel Reznicek

48. La bouche pleine de terre (Mouth full of earth)—Branimir Scepanovic

49. Under the yoke—Ivan Vazov

Random remarks:

If anyone needs proof Europeans translate more than Anglos, this list is it (at least a partial proof. But I'm pretty sure the discrepancy will hold out for African , Asian etc. sections).

Not one woman here. I don't think we need to worry that the editors suffered from PC at all. That's one thing I prefer about North America: it's less sexist than Europe. Little mercies and all that.

Not one woman writer out of 49?!

I know so little about Central Europeans. Could you flesh this out some, Lola and Andrew (Andrew, are you around?) and inform us what are good places to begin. Ivo Andric, Cocteau, Kundera, Danilo Kis and Czeslaw Milosz - the latter, his poetry - are the only familiar ones for me.

Who might their female contemporaries be, Lola, Andrew? Certainly there must be some significant female Central European writers out there, no?

Milan Kundera has something to say about Central Europeans, writers and their regions, in The Curtain.

I love Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being and a few others, but I've not read The Joke. Borowski's This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen is devastating.

Well, this list has certainly illuminated a large area of my ignorance. I too would love some more guidance on where to start.

I am overwhelmed here. There is so much to say, I will need days to prepare my lectures LOL. I simply don't have time right now to deal with this seriously.

In the field of Czech literature, which is one of the two where I feel some expertise (the other is Slovak, which is ignored on this list, about which I do have some strong feelings, too) the problems are the same as have been mentioned at length in the American thread: quite frequently it is a minor or less significant work which has been selected. Most of the major authors are here, the only glaring omission jumping out at me immediately is Josef Skvorecky. His The Cowards is an absolutely key work in Czech literature, and I would even say in world literature. I have gone on about it elesewhere, and will again, if need be.

I am sorry, if we were ever told who the good folks are who put this together, I missed it. Somehow I do not think it is the Academie francaise. Is there a time period to which the lists are limited? Genre? What are the criteria for inclusion? Do they discuss them in a preface?

Milosz included for Captive Mind???? How bizarre. He is key but not for that work.

I could go on forever but will leave it for now.

On second thought: anyone interested in Czech literature would be best served by reading first The Good Soldier Svejk and second Skvorecky's The Cowards. Both have been translated into English well and are easily available in inexpensive paperback copies.

I will return with further ruminations later.

Milan Kundera can go fuck himself, as far as I'm concerned. He wrote a book about "the novel" completely ignoring female writers--yes, Austen, Eliot, the Brontes, to begin with, and not to mention any and all non-Europeans. Plus he built a reputation on opposing Communism (oh, right, safely sitting in France), when he himself informed on someone--exactly what he has his hero suffer in "The joke". Funny scum indeed.

Andrew, (what, no comment on Seifert's Prague sonnets?), I think this is a pretty good list, in fact. There's quite a lot on it I haven't read, but know about, from tantalising rumours--like Jakub Deml. Would love to get some of his books. At any rate, I seriously doubt the l'Academie could put together a decent grocery list, let alone a Central European reading list of any interest.

The positive: apart from listing many "unknowns", the list generally went for less well known works by the better-known "unknowns"--by no means inferior to the usual one or two signal titles. And, any list that brings together Nezval, Krudy, Schulz, Rudnicki, Eliade..., is worth looking at twice.

Thanks, Lola,

I was reluctant to wade into self-promotion, but you forced me :-) Yes, I am thrilled to see Seifert on the list, and yes, I am continuing to translate him, and yes, publication of my translations is getting closer.

Do the folks who put the list together talk about their organizing method?

And the "'l'affaire Kundera" is quite murky. Ignoring female authors -- unquestionably wrong-headed and more. Is he guilty of the informing he is accused of? Uncertain, and after I examined all the evidence available, and the arguments from both sides, I think it doubtful.

I had to read the Captive Mind in college. As I remember I liked it but apparently not enough to read anything else by Milosz.

So who are the female writers who got missed? Is there just a dearth of female authors in Central Europe?

Andrew, thanks for suggestions on where to start.

I'm wondering if there might be any other Central European writers who can go fuck themselves.

Is Nicholas Sparks Central European?

LOL Enrique, love it.

Nicholas Sparks obviously has been doing unnatural acts with himself for too long, leading to terminal arrogance and delusions of grandeur. He is a man of all times and all places but only by that extension can he be considered Central European.

Anna, probably the most important Czech female author is Božena Němcová, (1820-1862). I do not believe her work to have been translated into English. She would be perfect for Virago. So do we know an editor there, to whom to suggest her work?

A profile of an important living Slovak writer, and a translation of a short story appears here

http://www.belletrista.com/2009/issue1/features_3.html

Another egregious omission from the list is Arnošt Lustig.

What is considered Central Europe? I would have included Germany, but I don't recognize any names as German.

Missing Nobel prize winners from "Central Europe":
Herta Müller Germany
Elfriede jelinek Austria
Imre Kertész Hungary
Günter Grass Germany
Wisława Szymborska Poland
Odysseas Elytis Greece (poet) 1979 - all the rest below are pre-1988 (when I think this list was made)
Heinrich Böll West Germany
Nelly Sachs Germany
Giorgos Seferis Greece
Hermann Hesse Switzerland
Thomas Mann Germany
Carl Spitteler Switzerland
Gerhart Hauptmann Germany
Paul von Heyse Germany
Rudolf Christoph Eucken Germany
Henryk Sienkiewicz Poland
Theodor Mommsen Germany

Nobels included
Jaroslav Seifert Czechoslovakia
Czesław Miłosz Poland
Ivo Andrić Yugoslavia
Władysław Reymont Poland

I'm almost afraid to mention Peter Handke.

There are Central Europeans that have written in English too. Perhaps emigrating to the U.S. disqualilfies, but Andrei Codrescu and Charles Simic come immediately to my mind. Simic also has translated a lot of Serbian poetry, some of it by women. I highly recommend the horse has six legs: an anthology of serbian poetry.

I will admit having read and enjoyed a few of Milan Kundera's books, whatever his crimes may be. While I don't know if I would canonize him, I would not excommunicate him from the list of authors worth reading.

Is Stanislaw Lem on the list or is he disqaulified as a "genre" author? Unfortunate if so.

More recently you have Jerzy Pilch (who I've not yet read). And Bosnian emigre, Aleksander Hemon.

Semezdin Mehmedinovic looks promising...

http://www.librarything.com/work/16087

Prus' The Doll seems to be an overlooked classic of the literature and worth checking out.