This is a collection of Jan Neruda's intimate, wry, bittersweet stories of life among the inhabitants of the Little Quarter of nineteenth-century Prague. These finely tuned and varied vignettes established Neruda as the quintessential Czech nineteenth-century realist, the Charles Dickens of a Prague becoming ever more aware of itself as a Czech rather than an Austrian city. Prague Tales is a classic by a writer whose influence has been acknowledged by generations of Czech writers, including Ivan Klíma, who contributes an introduction to this new translation.

A dramatic account of life in Czechoslovakia's great capital during the Nazi Protectorate With this successor book to Prague in Black and Gold, his account of more than a thousand years of Central European history, the great scholar Peter Demetz focuses on just six short years—a tormented, tragic, and unforgettable time. He was living in Prague then—a "first-degree half-Jew," according to the Nazis' terrible categories—and here he joins his objective chronicle of the city under German occupation with his personal memories of that period: from the bitter morning of March 15, 1939, when Hitler arrived from Berlin to set his seal on the Nazi takeover of the Czechoslovak government, until the liberation of Bohemia in April 1945, after long seasons of unimaginable suffering and pain. Demetz expertly interweaves a superb account of the German authorities' diplomatic, financial, and military machinations with a brilliant description of Prague's evolving resistance and underground opposition. Along with his private experiences, he offers the heretofore untold history of an effervescent, unstoppable Prague whose urbane heart went on beating despite the deportations, murders, cruelties, and violence: a Prague that kept its German- and Czech-language theaters open, its fabled film studios functioning, its young people in school and at work, and its newspapers on press. This complex, continually surprising book is filled with rare human detail and warmth, the gripping story of a great city meeting the dual challenge of occupation and of war.

For more than eight centuries, the Jews of Prague lived in the Prague ghetto. During that time, Jewish Prague had always been a place of much mystery to outsiders, even to the closest Christian neighbors. Uncover the secrets of this long forgotten world. Learn about how the famous Old-New Synagogue received its name; about the four words that saved the Prague Jews in the Middle Ages; about Rabbi Loew and his Golem who could be brought to life by inserting a magic card into his mouth; about the Candelabra of Jerusalem finding its way to Prague; about hard-working Maisel and his inheritance; about how the faith of Pinkas was tried; about learned Rabbi Rashi's grave; and about much more.

Prague is the most haunted of places. It is a city where magic and mystery can be found at every turn. The thirty-nine supernatural legends in this book, all but one associated with notable tourist attractions, are more than fascinating stories set in Prague. They also capture the city's images and imagination better than any guidebook or history book. This is not a collection of folktales, but only of supernatural legends for which Prague is unsurpassed. The writing is original, and the setting of each tale is described in detail to allow even an armchair traveler a magical tour of this captivating city. The stories also serve as the framework for providing an overview of Czech history and culture as we celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the First Czechoslovak Republic.

The first English translation of two stories from Rilke's earliest prose work.

A gorgeously jacketed hardcover anthology of stories set in Prague, by an international array of brilliant writers. The Golden City of Prague has long been an intellectual center of the western world. The writers collected here range from the early nineteenth century to the present and include both Prague natives and visitors from elsewhere. Here are stories, legends, and scenes from the city’s past and present, from the Jewish fable of the golem, a creature conjured from clay, to tales of German and Soviet invasions. The international array of writers ranges from Franz Kafka to Ivan Klíma to Bruce Chatwin, and includes the award-winning British playwright Tom Stoppard and former American Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, both of whom have Czech roots. Covering the city’s venerable Jewish heritage, the glamour of the belle-époque period, World War II, Communist rule, the Prague Spring, the Velvet Revolution, and beyond, Prague Stories weaves a remarkable selection of fiction and nonfiction into a literary portrait of a fascinating city.