Prague in Black and Gold: Scenes from the Life of a European City

by Peter Demetz

  Gershom Schotem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (New York, 1941), a classical study.

  ———, Kabbalah (New York, 1974), from the sources.

  ———, “Prague and Rehovot. A Tale of Two Golems,” in Commentary, 41 (1966), 62—65, a timely reminder of the golem and cybernetics.

  Byron L Sherwin, Mystical Theology and Social Dissent: The Life and Work of Judah Loew of Prague (Rutherford, N.J., 1982), sober and well-written analysis.

  Sippurim: Geschichten aus dem alten Prag, ed. by Peter Demetz (Frankfurt, 1994) - lnsel Taschenbuch 1519; rationalist stories about Rabbi Loew, pp. 44-47 and 100—10.

  Picaresque Prague

  Journal de ma vie Memoirs du Maréchal de Bassompierre (première édition, conforme au manuscrit original publiée avec fragments inédits), M. de Chantérac (ed.), (Paris, 1870), 4 vols., here particularly vol. 1, pp. 132—44.

  “Hermann Christoph Graf von Russwurm,” in Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, 30 (Berlin, 2nd ed. 1970), 12-19.

  Pierre Bergeron, Jacques Esprinchard, and François Bassompierre, Tí francouzští kavalíi v rudolfinské Praze, preface by Eliška Fuíková and notes by Josef Jánaek (Prague, 1989).

  Egon Erwin Kisch, “Zwei Kavaliere exzedieren,” in Bodo Uhse and Gisela Kisch (eds.), Gesammelte Werke in Einzelausgaben 2:2 (Berlin and Weimar, 1969), 104-16, readable, as usual.

  Niklas Ulenhart, Sonderbare Geschichte von Isaak Winckelfelder und Jobst von der Schneidt, newly edited by Gutta Veidl (Munich, 1941)

  The Revolt of 1618 and the Battle of the White Mountain

  Bohdan Chudoba, Španlé na Bilé Hoe (Prague, 1945); the author died in exile.

  Ernst Denis, La Bohème depuis la Montagne-Blanche (Paris, 1903), a pro-Czech classic.

  Anton Gindely, Friedrich V. von der Pfalz (Prague, 1884), still usable

  Josef Janáek, Ženy eské renesance (Prague, 1977), on the women of the Bohemian seventeenth century, including Polyxena of Pernštejn (Lobkovic).

  Josef Peka, Bílá Hora (Prague, 1921), important study.

  Josef Petrá, Staromstské exekuce (Prague, 1971), narrative account of 1621 executions

  Josef V. Polišenký, Ticetiletá válka a eský národ (Prague, 1960).

  Josephine Rose, The Winter Queen: The Story of Elizabeth Stuart (New York, 1979).

  Hans Sturmberger, Georg Erasmus von Tschernembl (Graz and Cologne, 1953).

  ———, Aufstand in Böhmen (Vienna, 1959); both important monographs.

  Josef Forbelský, Jan Royt, and Mojmír Horyna, Pražké Jezulátko (Prague, 1992).

  Zdenk Kalista, Tvá baroka (Prague, 1982); a conservative point of view.

  ———, Ctihodná Maria Elekta Ježíšova: Po stopách španlské mystiky v eském baroku (Rome, 1975); pioneering study.

  Václav Vilém Stch, Barockskulptur in Böhmen (Prague, 1959).

  Karl Maria Swoboda (ed.), Barock in Böhmen (Munich, 1964).

  6. MOZART IN PRAGUE

  Gli Italiani a Praga

  Italians have shown surprisingly little systematic interest in the community life of their compatriots in Prague between 1550 and 1900, but many details can be found in Pavel Preiss, Italští umlci v Praze (Prague, 1986), a masterful study of Italian artists in Prague and their lives. Also: Josef Janáek, “Italové v pedblohorské Praze,” in Pražský historický sbornik, 16 (1983), 77-118, on economic relationships.

  Ettore LaGatto, Civiltà italiana nel mondo (Rome, 1939), chapter on Bohemia.

  Enrico Marpurgo, Gli artisti italiani in Austria (Rome, 1937), vol. 1.

  Karel Smrha, “Vlaššti stavitelé v Praze a jejich druzi,” Umni, 24 (1974), 159—84.

  A Third-Rate Place/The Age of Reforms

  R. J. W. Evans, “The Hapsburg Monarchy and Bohemia,” in Mark Greengrass (ed.), Conquest and Coalescence: The Shaping of the State in Early Modern Europe (London, 1991), pp. 134-54.

  Eila Hassenpflug-Elzholz, Böhmen und die böhmischen Stände in der Zeit des bürgerlichen Zentralismus (Vienna, 1982) - Veröffentlichungen des Collegium Carolinum, vol. 30.

  Charles Ingrao, The Habsburg Monarchy 1618-1815 (Cambridge, 1994), excellent.

  Zdenka Pelikánová-Nová, “Lidnatost Prahy v 18. und v prvni ásti 19. století,” Pražký sborník historický, 68 (1967), 5—43.

  Oswald Redlich, Das Werden einer Grossmacht: Österreich von 1700-1740 (Vienna, 4th ed. 1962), fundamental analysis.

  Alfred von Arneth, Geschichte Maria Theresias (Vienna, 1863-79), 10 vols., older standard and reference work.

  Edward Crankshaw, Maria Theresa (New York, 1970).

  Jana Janusová, Maria Teresie: Legendy a skutenost (Ostrava, 1991), judicious analysis.

  Arnošt Klima, Manufakturní období v echách (Prague, 1955).

  Carlile Aylmer Macartney, Maria Theresa and the House of Austria (Mystic, Conn., 1969)

  Gustav Otruba, Die Wirtschaftspolitik Maria Theresias (Vienna, 1963).

  Karl A. Roider, Jr. (ed.), Maria Theresa (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1973), good introduction, with excerpts from important monographs.

  Derek Beales, Joseph II (Cambridge, 1987), vol. 1: In the Shadow of Maria Theresa, best analysis in English.

  T. C. W. Blanning, Joseph II (London and New York, 1994), excellent introduction.

  François Fejtö, Un Habsbourg révolutionnaire: Joseph II/Portrait d’un despot éclairé (Paris, 1953).

  Hans Magenschab, Joseph II, Revolutionär von Gottes Gnaden (Graz and Cologne, 2nd ed. 1980), important on religious questions.

  Saul Padover, The Revolutionary Emperor Joseph the Second (Hamden, Ct. 2nd ed. 1967).

  Fritz Valjavec, Der Josephinismus (Brunn, 1944), standard analysis.

  Fduard Winter, Der Josefinismus. Die Geschichte des österreichischen Reformkatholizismus (Berlin, 2nd ed. 1962), written from the point of view of an enlightened Catholic.

  Vladimir Lipscher, “Jüdische Gemeinden in den böhmischen Ländern zur Zeit des landesfürstlichen Absolutismus,” Eila Hassenpflug-Elzholz, “Toleranzedikt und Emanzipation,” and Anna M. Drabek, “Die Juden in den böhmischen Ländern zur Zeit des landesfürstlichen Absolutismus,” in Ferdinand Seibt (ed.), Die Juden in den böhmischen Ländern (Munich, 1938), pp. 73-86 (Lipscher), pp. 144—60 (Hassenpflug-Elzholz), and pp. 123-44 (Drabek).

  Ruth Kestenberg-Gladstein, Neuere Geschichte der Juden in den böhinischen Ländern 1780-1830 (Tübingen, 1969), fundamental study from the archival sources, unfortunately not continued into the later period.

  Josef Prokeš, Úední antisemitismus a pražské ghetto v dob poblohorské (Prague, 1929).

  Divadlo v Kotcích: 1739-1783 (Prague, 1992), instructive studies by various hands.

  Derek Beales, Mozart and the Hapsburgs (Stanton Lecture, University of Reading, 1993).

  Volkmar Braunbehrens, Mozart: Ein Lebensbild (Munich, 1994), useful introduction.

  ———, Malignant Maestro: The Real Story of Antonio Salieri, trans. by Eveline S. Kanes (New York, 1992), to counteract the movie.

  Sheila Hodges, Lorenzo da Ponte: The Life and Times of Mozart’s Librettist (New York, 1985).

  Rudolf von Procházka. Mozart in Prag (Prague, 1892), written by an amateur collector and admirer, a wonderful treasury of contemporary anecdotes and reports, revised and enlarged by Paul Nettl, Mozart in Böhmen (Prague, 1938).

  Jan Vondráek, Djiny eského divadla: doba obrozenecká 1771-1824 (Prague, 1956).

  Eduard Mörike, Mozart auf der Reise nach Prag, ed. by Karl Pörnbacher (Stuttgart, 1976) - UB 8153, includes documents and commentary. English version by Walter and Catherine Alison Philips, Mozart on His Way to Prague (New York, 1947).

  Jaroslav Seifert, Mozart v Praze/Mozart in Prague, bilingual edition, with translations from the Czech by Paul Jagavich and Tom O’Grady (Iowa City, 1985).

  7. 1848 AND THE COUNTERREVOLUTION

  The Travelers

  Miroslav Ivanov, Dùvrná zpráva o Karlu Hynku Máchovi (Prague, 1977), impressive biographical reevaluation.

  Ruth Kestenberg-Gladste
in, Neuere Geschichte de Juden in den böhmischen Ländern 1780-1830 (Tübingen, 1969), here especially pp. 115—309.

  Ernst Nittner, “Volk, Nation und Vaterland in der Sozialethik Bernard Bolzanos,” in Ferdinand Seibt (ed.), Die böhmischen Länder zwischen Ost und West (Munich and Vienna, 1983), pp. 149-74 [Festschrift Karl Bosl].

  Albert Pražák, eské obrození (Prague, 1948), valuable.

  Hans Raupach, Der tschechische Frühnationalismus (Darmstadt, 2nd ed. 1969).

  Walter Schamschula, Die Anfänge der tschechischen Erneuerung und das deutsche Geistesleben (Munich, 1973), distinguished study, excellent bibliography.

  Vincy Schwarz (ed.), Msto vidím veliké: Cizinci v Praze (Prague, 1940), admirable collection of what foreign travelers ever said about Prague (the editor was killed by the Gestapo).

  Johannes Urzidil, Goethe in Böhmen (Zurich and Stuttgart, 2nd ed. 1962), inexhaustible on Goetheana and the cultural problems of Bohemia.

  Eduard Winter, Die Sozial- und Ethnoethik Bernard Bolzanos (Vienna, 1977).

  Karel Hynek Macha, Máj. Necenzurovaný denfk z roku 1835 (Paris, 1986).

  K. H. Mácha, “May,” trans. by William E. Harkins in Cross-Currents: A Yearbook of Central European Culture, 6 (1987), 479-504.

  1844-48

  Václav ejchan, Bakunin v Praze (Prague, 1928).

  Karel Kazbunda, eské hnuti roku 1848 (Prague, 1929), fundamental study.

  Arnošt Klima, eši a Nmci v revoluci 1848-49 (Prague, 2nd ed. 1994).

  Hans Kohn, Pan-Slavism: Its History and Ideology (New York, 2nd ed. 1960).

  Karel Kosfk, eští radikální demokraté (Prague, 1958).

  Arnošt Kraus, “Böhmisch nebo tschechisch,” Naše Doba, 24 (1916-17), 341-48, 429-36, 521-28, 601-8, revealing history of the terms “Bohemian” and “Czech.”

  Oldrich Mahler and Miroslav Broft, Události pražské v ervnu 1848 (Prague, 1989), a chronicle, richly illustrated.

  Hermann Münch, Böhmische Tragödie (Braunschweig, 1949), illuminating views of a German conservative.

  Lawrence Orten, The Prague Slav Congress of 1848 (Boulder, Colo., 1978).

  Josef V. Polišenský, Aristocrats and the Crowds in the Revolutionary Year 1848 (Albany, 1980) an American edition of a Czech monograph (1975).

  Stanley Z. Peck, The Czech Revolution of 1848 (Chapel Hill, 1964), informative and judicious.

  ———, “The Czech Working Class in 1848,” Canadian Slavonic Papers, 9 (1967), 60—73.

  Otto Urban, Die tschechische Gesellschaft 1848-1918 (Vienna, 1994), 2 vols., detailed and learned, Czech original 1992.

  Karel Havlíek

  Karel Havlíek Borovský, Dílo (Prague, 1986), 2 vols. Convenient edition by Jiff Koejík and Alexander Stich.

  Milena Beránková, Karl Havlíek Borovský (Prague, 1980).

  Manfred Jähnichen, Zwischen Diffamierung und Widerhall: Tschechische Poesie im deutschen Spiegelbild 1815-1867 (Berlin, 1967).

  Jií Morava, C. k. disident Karel Havlíek (Prague, 1991), bravely demythologizing, from a study of the police records.

  T. G. Masaryk, Karel Havlíek (Prague, 1875), portrait of a moderate national liberal.

  Siegfried Kapper

  Siegfried Kapper’s writings, whether in German or in Czech, have never been collected or selectively reedited.

  Natalia Bergerová (ed.), Na križovaíce kultur. Historie eskoslovenských židù (Prague, 1992), excellent individual contributions.

  Oskar Donath, “Siegfried Kapper,” in Jahrbuch der Gesellschaft für Geschichte der Juden in der tschechoslowakischen Republik, 6 (1939), 323-442, by the father of all Kapper research.

  Fw ( - František Weiner), “První pokus o esko-židovské hnutf: Siegfried Kapper,” in Kalendá (Prague, 1989), samizdat.

  Hillel J. Kieval, The Making of Czech Jewry: National Conflict and Jewish Society in Bohemia 1870-1918 (New York and Oxford, 1988), best historical-sociological analysis.

  ———, “The social vision of Bohemian Jews: Intellectuals and community in the 1840s,” in Jonathan Frankel /Steven J. Zipperstein (eds.), Assimilation and community: The Jews in nineteenth-century Europe (Cambridge, 1992), 246—83

  Božena Nmcová

  Božena Nmcová, Granny, trans. by Edith Pargeter (Westport, Conn., 1977).

  ———, Die Grossmutter, trans. by Peter and Hana Demetz (Zurich, 6th ed. 1993).

  Václav erný, Knížka o Babice (Toronto, 2nd ed. 1982).

  Alexander Guski (ed.), Zur Poetik und Rezeption von Božena Nmcovás “Babika” (Berlin, 1991).

  Georg J. Morava, Sehnsucht meiner Seele: Božena Nmcová, Dichterin/Ein Frauenschicksal in Alt-Osterreich (Innsbruck, 1995), excellent new biography.

  Helena Sobková, Tajemství Barunky Panklové (Prague, 1992), genealogical speculations.

  Václav Tille, Božena Nmcová (Prague, 1969), older standard biography.

  8. T. G. MASARYK’S PRAGUE

  A Modernized City

  G. B. Cohen, The Politics of Ethnic Survival: Germans in Prague 1861-1914 (Princeton, 1981), important sociological study, from the city records.

  Norman Cohn, Warrant for Genocide: The Myth of the Jewish World Conspiracy and the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” (New York, 1967).

  Elfriede Ledig, Paul Wegener’s Golem-Filme im Kontext fantastischer Literatur (Munich, 1989).

  Pražská asanace, by various contributors (Prague, 1993) — Acta Musei Pragensis, vol. 93, with extensive summaries in English and German.

  Jeffrey L. Sammons, “The Literary Origins of the ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion,’” A Jewish Journal at Yale, 2/1 (Fall 1984), 8-12.

  Rudolf M. Wlaschek, Juden in Böhmen (Munich, 1990) - Veröffentlichungen des Collegium Carolinum, vol. 66.

  Francis Marion Crawford, The Witch of Prague (London, 3rd ed. 1892).

  George Eliot, The Lifted Veil (London, 1985), with a new afterword by Beryl Gray.

  Wilhelm Raabe, “Hollunderblüte,” in Sämtliche Werke, ed. Karl Hoppe (Freiburg, 1951-), 9/1, 85— 120.

  Sir John Retcliffe (- Hermann Goedsche), Biarritz (historisch-politischer Roman in acht Bänden) (Berlin, 1868, 2nd ed. 1876).

  Peter Demetz, “Die Legende vom magischen Prag,” Transit, 7 (1994), 142—62, reprinted in Peter Demetz, Böhmische Sonne/Mährischer Mond: Essays und Erinnerungen (Vienna, 1996), pp. 143—67.

  Republican Prague

  Karl Bosl (ed.), Die erste tschechoslowakische Republik als multinationaler Parteienstaat (Munich, 1979).

  J. W. Bruegel, Czechoslovakia Before Munich (Cambridge, 1973), brittle analysis of national problems and British appeasement policies.

  Václav Cada, 28 ijna 1918: Skutenost, sny, iluse (Prague, 1988), popular reading, with an official slant.

  Jörg K. Hoensch, Geschichte der Tschechoslowakei (Stuttgart, 1992), the best recent German story of the republic.

  Egon Hostovský, “The Czech-Jewish Movement,” in The Jews of Czechoslovakia, 2 (New York, 1971), 148—54, written by the prominent novelist.

  Victor S. Mamatey and Radomír Luža (eds.), A History of Czechoslovakia: 1918-1945 (Princeton, 1973), by various hands, important and instructive.

  Ferdinand Peroutka, Budování státu (Prague, 1933-36), 4 vols. in 5, admirably ironic and sharp analysis by a distinguished writer and essayist.

  Miloslav Rechcígl, Jr. (ed.), Czechoslovakia—Past and Present (London, 1969).

  Emil Strauss, Die Entstehung der tschechoslowakischen Republik (Prague, 1934), by a German Social Democrat who died in a concentration camp.

  Zdenk Zeman, The Break-up of the Habsburg Empire (Oxford, 1963).

  T. G. Masaryk

  Karl Capek (ed.), Masaryk Tells His Story (London, 1951); the earlier German editions is Masaryk erzählt sein Leben (Prague, 1936)

  Jan Herben, T G. Masaryk (Prague, 1926-27), 3 vols., takes the story of Masaryk’s life up to 1921. Roland J. Hoffmann, T. G. Masaryk und die tschechische Frage (Munich, 1988).

  Jií Kovtun, Tajemná vražda: Pípad Leopolda Hilsnera (Pra
gue, 1994), careful report on Hilsner trial.

  Charlotta G. Masaryková, Listy do vzení (Prague, 1948), Masaryk’s wife writes to her daughter imprisoned by the Austrian authorities (letters originally in German).

  T. G. Masaryk and the Jews: A Collection of Essays, trans. by Benjamin R. Epstein (New York, 1941), contributions by Max Brod, Felix Weltsch, Oskar Donath, and others.

  Zdenk Nejedlý, T. G. Masaryk (Prague, 1930-37), 5 vols., detailed biography up to 1885.

  Jaroslav Opat, Fi/ozof a politik T G. Masaryk: 1882-1893 (Prague, 1990), a study of ideas.

  Paul Selver, Masaryk: A Biography (London, 1949), eminently readable.

  Zdenk Zeman, The Masaryks (London, 1976), on the entire family.

  The Cultures of Republican Prague

  Jaromír Krejcar, L’architecture contemporaine en Tchéchos/ovaquie (Prague, 1928), by Milena Jesenká’s second husband.

  Vladimír Šlapeta, Praha 1900-1978: Prùvodce po moderní architektue (Prague, 1978).

  Alexander Vegesack (ed.), Czech Cubism: 1910-1925 (New York, 1992), richly documented.

  Gustav Janouch, Jaroslav Hašek (Bern, 1966), to be read with caution.

  Cecil Perrot, The Bad Bohemian (London, 1978), best book in English, written by former British Ambassador to Prague.

  Jaroslav Krížek, Jaroslav Hašek v revoluním Rusku (Prague, 1957), full story of Hašek, the adventurous Bolshevik.

  Radko Pytlík, Jaroslav Hašek a dobrý voják Švejk (Prague, 1983).

  Markéta Brousek, Der Poetismus: die Lehrjahre der tschechischen Avantgarde und ihrer marxistischen Kritiker (Munich, 1975).