Bohumil Hrabal (March 28, 1914, Brno - February 3, 1997, Prague) was a famous Czech writer. March 28 is the 87th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (88th in leap years). ... 1914 (MCMXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... // Geography Brno (help· info) (-Czech, German: Brünn) is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, located in the southeast part of the country, at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers. ... February 3 is the 34th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Prague (Czech: Praha (IPA: ), see also other names) is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. ...

Bohumil Hrabal painted among his beloved cats on the "Hrabal Wall" in Prague

Hrabal's portraits on Postrizinske beers

Hrabal's grave

Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1984x1488, 693 KB) Czech writer Bohumil Hrabal among his beloved cats. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1984x1488, 693 KB) Czech writer Bohumil Hrabal among his beloved cats. ... Trinomial name Felis silvestris catus (Linnaeus, 1758) The cat, also called the domestic cat or house cat, is a small carnivorous mammal of the subspecies Felis silvestris catus. ... Prague (Czech: Praha (IPA: ), see also other names) is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Hrabale. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Hrabale. ... Hrabals portraits on Postrizinske beers Postrizinske - a brand of beer produced by the Nymburk Brewery. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (722x1021, 207 KB) Summary Bohumil Hrabals tomb in the village of Hradištko near Nymburk Author:Mohylek 19:11, 1 January 2006 (UTC) Licensing File links The following pages link to this file: Bohumil Hrabal ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (722x1021, 207 KB) Summary Bohumil Hrabals tomb in the village of Hradištko near Nymburk Author:Mohylek 19:11, 1 January 2006 (UTC) Licensing File links The following pages link to this file: Bohumil Hrabal ...

Life and work

Born in Brno-Židenice, Moravia, raised in Nymburk brewery as the manager's step-son, Hrabal received a Law degree from Prague's Charles University, and lived in the city from the late 1940s on. He worked as a manual laborer alongside Vladimír Boudník in the Kladno ironworks in the 1950s, which inspired the "hyper-realist" texts he was writing then. His best known novel was Closely Watched Trains (1965) (Ostře sledované vlaky), which was made into a film by Czech director Jiří Menzel. Moravia in relation to the current kraje of the Czech Republic Moravia (Czech and Slovak: Morava, German: ( ), Hungarian: Morvaország, Polish: Morawy) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic. ... Nymburk is a city in Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. ... Law (from the late Old English lagu of probable North Germanic origin) in politics and jurisprudence, is a set of rules or norms of conduct which mandate, forbid or permit specified relationships among people and organizations, intended to provide methods for ensuring the impartial treatment of such people, and provide... The Charles University of Prague (also simply University of Prague; Czech: Univerzita Karlova; Latin: Universitas Carolina) is the oldest and most prestigious Czech university and among the oldest universities in Europe, being founded in 1340s (for the exact year, see below). ... // Events and trends World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: immense human suffering, fierce indoctrination, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons such as the atomic bomb. ... Vladimír Boudník (b. ... The 1950s were a decade that spanned the years 1950 through 1959, although some sources say from 1951 through 1960. ... Film refers to the celluloid media on which movies are printed. ... Jiří Menzel (born February 23rd, 1938), is a Czech film director, theatre director, actor, and scriptwriter. ...

Several of his works were not published in Czechoslovakia due to objections of the authorities, including The Little Town Where Time Stood Still (Městečko, kde se zastavil čas) and I Served the King of England (Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále).

He died when he fell from a fifth floor hospital where he was apparently trying to feed pigeons. It was noted that Hrabal lived on the fifth floor of his apartment building and that suicides by leaping from a fifth-floor window figured in more than one of his books.

He wrote with an expressive, highly visual style, often using long run-on sentences; in fact his work Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age (1964) (Taneční hodiny pro starší a pokročilé) is just one long sentence. Many of Hrabal's characters are portrayed as "wise fools" - simpletons with occasional or inadvertent profound thoughts - who are also given to coarse humour, lewdness, and a determination to survive and enjoy oneself despite harsh circumstances. Political quandaries and their concomitant moral ambiguities are also a recurrent theme.

Along with Jaroslav Hašek and Karel Čapek - who like him were imaginative and very funny satirists - he is considered one of the greatest Czech writers of the 20th century. His works have been translated into 27 languages. Jaroslav HaÅ¡ek Jaroslav HaÅ¡ek ( ) (IPA: ) (April 30, 1883 – January 3, 1923) was a Czech humorist and satirist who became well-known mainly for his world-famous novel The Good Soldier Å vejk, an unfinished collection of farcical incidents about a soldier in World War I, which has been translated... Karel ÄŒapek (pronounced ; IPA: ) (January 9, 1890 - December 25, 1938) was one of the most important Czech writers of the 20th century. ...

Quotations

• It's interesting how young poets think of death while old fogies think of girls. -- Bohumil Hrabal in Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age

• Bohumil Hrabal embodies as no other the fascinating Prague. He couples people's humor to baroque imagination. -- Milan Kundera.

• To spend our days betting on three-legged horses with beautiful names -- Bohumil Hrabal - Unsourced Quote in the album "Open Season" by the UK band British Sea Power

Prague (Czech: Praha (IPA: ), see also other names) is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. ... Milan Kundera Milan Kundera (born April 1, 1929 in Brno, Czechoslovakia) is a Franco-Czech writer. ... This article or section is missing references or citation of sources. ...

Selected bibliography

In English

• Closely Watched Trains, translated by Edith Pargeter with a foreword by Josef Škvorecký Evanston, Ill: Northwestern University Press, 1995
• Cutting It Short; The Little Town Where Time Stood Still, London: Abacus, 1993
• Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age, New York: Harcourt Brace, 1995
• The Death of Mr Baltisberger, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1975
• Closely Observed Trains: A Film by Jiří Menzel and Bohumil Hrabal, London: Lorrimer Publishing Ltd, 1971
• Closely Watched Trains: A Film, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1971
• I Served the King of England, translated by Paul Wilson New York: Vintage International, 1990
• Too Loud a Solitude, translated by Michael Henry Heim San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1990
• Total Fears: Letters to Dubenka, translated by James Naughton Prague: Twisted Spoon Press, 1998

In Czech (first editions)

• Ztracená ulička, Nymburk: Hrádek 1948
• Perlička na dne, Prague: CS 1963.
• Pábitelé, Prague: MF 1964.
• Taneční hodiny pro starší a pokročilé, Prague: CS 1964.
• Ostře sledované vlaky, Prague: CS 1965.
• Inzerát na dům, ve kterém už nechci bydlet. Prague¨: MF 1965.
• Morytáty a legendy, Prague: CS 1968.
• Domácí úkoly, Úvahy a rozhovory. Prague: MF 1970.
• Poupata, Prague: MF 1970, conficated and burnt by communist regime
• Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále, Prague: Petlice 1971 (Anti-communist secret publishing house)
• Něžný barbar, Prague: Petlice 1973 (Anti-communist secret publishing house); Exile edition: Index, Koeln, 1981.
• Postřižiny, Prague: Petlice 1974 (Anti-communist secret publishing house)
• Městečko, kde se zastavil čas, Prague: Petlice 1974 (Anti-communist secret publishing house); Exile Edition: Comenius, Innsbruck, 1978.
• Příliš hlučná samota, Prague: Ceska expedice 1977 (Anti-communist secret publishing house); Exile edition: Index, Koeln, 1980.
• Slavnosti sněženek, Prague: CS 1978.
• Krasosmutnění, Prague: CS 1979.
• Harlekýnovy milióny, Prague: CS 1981.
• Kluby poezie, Prague: MF 1981.
• Domácí úkoly z pilnosti, Prague: MF 1982.
• Život bez smokingu, Prague: CS 1986.
• Svatby v dome, Prague: Prazska imaginace 1986 (Anti-communist secret publishing house); Exile edition: 68’Publishers, Toronto, 1987.
• Vita nuova, Prague: Prazska imaginace 1986 (Anti-communist secret publishing house); Exile edition: 68’Publishers, Toronto, 1987.
• Proluky, Prague: Petlice 1986 (Anti-communist secret publishing house) Exile edition: 68’Publishers, Toronto, 1986.
• Kličky na kapesníku, Prague: Prazska imaginace 1987 (Anti-communist secret publishing house)
• Listopadový uragán, Prague: Tvorba 1990.
• Ponorné říčky, Prague: Prazska imaginace 1991.
• Růžový kavalír, Prague: Prazska imaginace 1991.
• Aurora na mělčině, Prague: Prazska imaginace 1992.
• Večerníčky pro Cassia, Pražská imaginace, Prague 1993.
• Atomová mašina značky Perkeo sc, Prace, 1991
• Bambino di Praga; Barvotisky; Krásná Poldi Praha: Československý spisovatel, 1990
• Básnění Praha: Pražská imaginace, 1991
• Bibliografie dodatky rejstříky Praha: Pražská imaginace, 1997
• Buďte tak hodná, vytáhnete rolety: výbor z milostné korespondence Praha: Triton, 1999
• Chcete vidět Zlatou Prahu?: výbor z povídek Praha: Mladá fronta, 1989
• Já si vzpomínám jen a jen na slunečné dny Nymburk: S Klos, 1998

Complete works edition in 19 volumes was published in 90ties by Pražská imaginace.

External links

• Bohumil Hrabal - the Close Watcher of Trains - a biography and study, with many excerpts.
• London Review of Books article on Hrabal by James Wood
• Entry on IMDb