Define Books Supposing I Served the King of England (Sebrané spisy Bohumila Hrabala (SSBH) #7)
| Original Title: | Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále |
| ISBN: | 081121687X (ISBN13: 9780811216876) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Series: | Sebrané spisy Bohumila Hrabala (SSBH) #7 |
| Setting: | Italy Czechoslovakia |
| Literary Awards: | награда "Пловдив" for Художествен превод (2012) |
Bohumil Hrabal
Paperback | Pages: 256 pages Rating: 4.11 | 6794 Users | 495 Reviews
Specify Of Books I Served the King of England (Sebrané spisy Bohumila Hrabala (SSBH) #7)
| Title | : | I Served the King of England (Sebrané spisy Bohumila Hrabala (SSBH) #7) |
| Author | : | Bohumil Hrabal |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Deluxe Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 256 pages |
| Published | : | May 31st 2007 by New Directions (first published 1971) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. European Literature. Czech Literature. Classics. Historical. Historical Fiction. Literature |
Chronicle Conducive To Books I Served the King of England (Sebrané spisy Bohumila Hrabala (SSBH) #7)
In a comic masterpiece following the misadventures of a simple but hugely ambitious waiter in pre-World War II Prague, who rises to wealth only to lose everything with the onset of Communism, Bohumil Hrabal takes us on a tremendously funny and satirical trip through 20th-century Czechoslovakia. First published in 1971 in a typewritten edition, then finally printed in book form in 1989, I Served the King of England is "an extraordinary and subtly tragicomic novel" (The New York Times), telling the tale of Ditie, a hugely ambitious but simple waiter in a deluxe Prague hotel in the years before World War II. Ditie is called upon to serve not the King of England, but Haile Selassie. It is one of the great moments in his life. Eventually, he falls in love with a Nazi woman athlete as the Germans are invading Czechoslovakia. After the war, through the sale of valuable stamps confiscated from the Jews, he reaches the heights of his ambition, building a hotel. He becomes a millionaire, but with the institution of communism, he loses everything and is sent to inspect mountain roads. Living in dreary circumstances, Ditie comes to terms with the inevitability of his death, and with his place in history.Rating Of Books I Served the King of England (Sebrané spisy Bohumila Hrabala (SSBH) #7)
Ratings: 4.11 From 6794 Users | 495 ReviewsCritique Of Books I Served the King of England (Sebrané spisy Bohumila Hrabala (SSBH) #7)
Man's body and spirit are indestructible...he is merely changed or metamorphized- Bohumil Hrabal, I Served the King of England (1971).Hrabal's satirically political, erotically imagined and poignant adventure story follows the rise and fall of a young busboy Ditie (Czech for 'child') who, despite his diminutive stature, possesses big dreams and the determination to become a millionaire to be the equal of everyone else: is influenced by his father's advice to have an aim in life because then he'dCzech writer, Bohumil Hrabal, is a raconteur par excellence. I Served the King of England is a highly entertaining story about how the unbelievable comes true many times over for Ditě. When we first make his acquaintance, he is only age 15 and a busboy at the Grand Prague Hotel. The story follows Ditěs colorful career in the hotel industry from busboy to waiter, to lead waiter and to hotel owner; his sexual exploits; his self-awakening. In essence, it is the story of Ditě, a pint-size man trying
This is a highly regarded mid-century novel by an acclaimed Czech writer that wasn't translated into English until late last century. It tells the story of Ditie, an impoverished youth who starts work selling hot dogs in a train station and works his way up through the service industry as life around him is torn asunder by the second World War.I wasn't quite sure what to make of this novel at first, with its page-long sentences, dearth of female characters and absurdist, fairy-tale undertones.
"But I didn't want to be seen by human eyes anymore, or praised for what I'd doneall of that had left me." (226)I lived in Prague for almost seven years, from the age of nine to fourteen. I was too young at the time to have a sense of Czech literature, of course, but I'm trying to make up for it retrospectively by reading more Czech authors (aside from the more obvious choice of Kundera). This actually goes for the literatures of all the countries in which I've lived; sadly, I only started
Suffice to say that while it's not quite the bulls-eye that Too Loud A Solitude is, it still kept me absolutely riveted. Like with the other Hrabals I've read, it's a microperspective of something much larger, telling the story of life in Czechoslovakia from the 1930s to the communist era from the horizon of a small and rather clueless restaurant worker; he starts as a bus boy and works his way up to manager before everything comes crashing down, and yes, the double meaning of "serve" is very
Really strong stream-of-consciousness novel that plays fast and loose with time and stakes. The first half is especially strong - the action in various hotels is hilarious and well-observed, and Dite is that rare mixture of likeable and abhorrent. The political intersections (both World War II and the rise of Communism) are both interesting and obligatory, but I do think they occasionally slowed down the action and contributed to the general feeling of trailing off that pervaded. The ending,
I think I have grasped this strange tendency of Poles to like Hrabal really much. There is something very intensive in the way he writes and the way he shows some things and he is not really afraid of showing every aspect of someone's life (even if in very grotesque way). So Hrabal kind of becomes an universal language for many people and I would be lying if I said that it did not affect me. In fact, I enjoyed this book, maybe not to the very end (some parts were a bit disturbing for me as well
No comments
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.