Marie Busch

“ Indeed, for two centuries, the Czech language had been practically dead and buried. Bohemia suffered perhaps more severely than any other country in the Thirty Years’ War, and after their defeat in the battle of the White Mountain in 1621, the Czech nation as such disappeared from European history. The country became an appendage of Austria; the Czech language was repressed. ”

“ The independence gained by the Czech nation after the Great War has influenced the mental attitude of its literary men, who feel that they are now ranging themselves with the writers of other European countries, and the endeavour to command a wider outlook than their national or local interests has made them turn their attention more specially to the literature of Western countries. ”

“ F. X. Šalda (1868) , who often chooses a milieu other than that of his own country, and Růžena Svobodová (1868–1920) , a woman writer whose thoughtful and individual vision of life brings the volume to an harmonious close. ”