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Publikujeme zde texty, které redakci zaslali vedoucí redaktor autorského týmu Dějin nové moderny Vladimír Papoušek a starší z dvojice editorů Jiří Brabec; tyto texty vznikly jako reakce na obsáhlou recenzi knihy publikovanou v časopise Dějiny – teorie – kritika (2010, č. 2).

Za redakci Slova a smyslu
jaw

The roots of the idea of translating Michal Mareš’s little book reach back into the 1970s, when, shortly after being able to add the word andělíčkářka ‘(backstreet) abortionist’ to my Czech vocabulary, I coincidentally happened on a copy of this eponymous ‘concise novel’ in the then well‑known second‑hand bookshop in Dlážděná Street in Prague. The author’s name meant nothing to me and I was actually first drawn to the book by its cover. Added to that, however, this copy carried the author’s autograph and a dedication to a so far unidentified Božena Černá.

A land of misery – in place of an introduction

The sun beats down on the wretched plains of Istria. Here and there some feeble stalks of maize in pockets of earth washed down by the rain. But otherwise just stony, stony, stony ground, in which – Lord knows how – a few scattered cypresses and crippled olive and fig trees have found nourishment.