Jan Neruda

January ( Nepomuk ) Neruda ( born July 9, 1834 in Prague; † August 22, 1891 in Prague) was a Czech journalist and writer of international stature.

Life

Neruda was born in Prague's Lesser Town in the steeply rising Spornergasse No. 233 in the house to the two suns as the son of a small trader. To his mother is not known. The road was later renamed after him in Nerudova. There, Jan Neruda spent intermittently almost his entire life. Although coming from a humble background, he graduated since 1845 a secondary school and studied for a semester at the philosophical Fakultär the Charles University, Prague, worked for a time as a teacher and in daily newspapers. From 1856 he was a member of the German-language daily messengers from Bohemia, from 1865 to 1891 editor of the newspaper Národní listy significant liberal Czech, later with images of the home ( Obrazy domova ) and time ( Cas ). He was co-founder of the literary magazines Besedy Kvety and Lumir and poetry series Poeticke. Since the late fifties of the 19th century he stood in the center of Czech cultural life, but fell in the 1880s, seriously ill, increasingly in isolation and economic hardship.

Jan Neruda wrote in his lifetime over 2000 feature articles, published poems, plays, travelogues, art reviews, sympathized with the artist group Májovci, felt the task of the Czech National Revival connected and appreciated the novels of his contemporaries, Jules Verne. In 1871 he was described by some unspecified institutions as traitors to the nation, left Prague and traveled through other countries in the monarchy of Austria - Hungary, came to Vienna and Graz and was in Germany, France, Hungary, Italy, Greece and Egypt, as his travelogues can be found from this period, which represent an interesting testimony about his life and contemporary society.

Jan Neruda never married, but devoted his first childhood sweetheart Anna Holinová many of his love poems. Another love was the married name writer Karolina Svetla, which he described as an ideal woman. His third his beloved wife, to whom he dedicated several of his publications, was Terezie Macháčková Marie (1847-1863), daughter of the official and politician Josef Machacek, who died after a short acquaintance. At the age of 50, he is said to have fallen in love with a young girl named Bozena.

As Neruda time felt misunderstood his life, a negative attitude towards his fellow man, which was reinforced by a serious illness he developed. He had alcohol problems and lived all his life in economically straitened circumstances.

Poverty is a recurring motif in all publications of Jan Neruda. Nostalgic glorifying elements alternate in this case on with the feeling of oppression, alienation and liveliness Begrabenseins. From the 1860s he published several anti-Jewish texts, and in the ( to Richard Wagner's essay Judaism in Music ajar ) publication The fear of the Jews ( per strach židovský ) ( 1869) imputed Neruda the Jews a basis of their alleged affinity for money dangerous, the whole world threatening power, urged the people to strive (especially economically ) close unite against this " threat " and advocated a " emancipation away from Judaism ."

The Chilean Neftali Ricardo Reyes Nobel Prize for Literature Basualto should have chosen a legend by the last name of his pseudonym Pablo Neruda inspired by the Czech writer Jan Neruda; recent research after he honored with the choice of the pseudonym originally from Brno violinist Wilhelmine Neruda, sister of the musician Franz Xaver Neruda ( 1843-1915 ).

By Jan Neruda a special kind of realism in the Czech-speaking literature of the 19th century was introduced. His confident journalistic commitment he expressed - thoroughly modern and universal - with the words:

"It is especially necessary that we learn to understand the people that we study their needs, your joys and sorrows, so we need, for example, in the main, true stories from the lives, images of people of all classes, collections truthful examples a non imaginary and real experience. "

Works ( Overview )

• Neruda wrote poems, travel books, ballads, novels, art criticism, but also without success plays. As collected texts, most recently published by the Institute for Czech Literature and Literary Studies of the Charles University in Prague in 49 volumes, 1950 ff in bookshops not available.

• Cemetery flowers. Poems in Czech, 1858.

• As a journalist Jan Neruda is also referred to as the inventor of the Bohemian- Czech feuilleton. In 1863 he brought from Paris the book Five Weeks in a Balloon by Jules Verne. He should have kept it for a share values ​​curiosity and translated it under the pseudonym J. Drn.

• Pictures of Old Prague, Czech: Arabesky. 1864 German 1883/84, current issue: stories from the old Prague, Reclam, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 978-3-15-008770-1, translated by Josef Miihlberger and Hans gardener.

• Kleinseitner stories, Czech: Povídky Malostranské 1877, German in 1885; current edition translated by Franz Jurenka, Vitalis, Furth im Wald 2005, ISBN 978-3-89919-016-8. With an afterword by Hugo Rokyta and illustrations by Karel Hruska. The Lesser Town stories are Jan Neruda's best-known publication. He drew on the basis of his memories a picture of the Lesser Town before the Slavs Congress and the Prague Pentecostal uprising from 2 to June 19, 1848, he has lived as a 14- year-old, describes the life of petty bourgeoisie among the palaces and courtyards, portrays humorous whose characteristics, criticizes the local life of feudalism and provides insight into the early Pan-Slavism.

• Gimpfliche and shameful jokes, in Czech, 1877.

• Cosmic songs in Czech, stimulated by reading the writer Jules Verne, 1878.

• Good Friday songs in Czech, 1896.

• The dogs of Constantinople Opel: Travel photos, DVA Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-421-05254-4, translated by Christa Roth Meier.

Some of his books contain illustrations by Adolf Kaspar.