Famous people

Prague never ever lets you go... this dear little mother has sharp claws.

A Prague-born German-speaking writer of prose, Kafka is recognized as an icon of dark existentialist literature. His most renowned novel is "Der Prozess" (1914; "The Trial"). Just like his other novels, "Das Schloss" (1926; "The Castle") and "Der Verschollene" (1927; retitled "Amerika"), this one is unfinished and its main theme is the solitude of the man living in the 20th century. Besides novels, Kafka authored short stories including "Das Urteil" (1912; "The Judgment"), "In der Strafkolonie" (1914; "In the Penal Colony"), "Die Verwandlung" (1915; "The Metamorphosis") and "Ein Hungerkünstler" (1924; "A Hunger Artist"). Among his other famous works is the one titled "Letter to My Father" (1919).

He was one of the greatest composers to ever walk the face of the earth, rivalled only by Mozart. Today, almost two hundred years after his death, his divine symphonies, sonatas and string quartets are as timely as ever and they are still performed by orchestras around the world. Beethoven's most famous compositions are his symphonies which include the "Third Symphony" (the "Eroica Symphony"), the "Fifth Symphony" and the "Sixth Symphony" (the "Pastorale Symphony").  The "Ode to Joy" from his "Ninth Symphony" was written at the time when the composer was totally deaf. He also composed a large body of piano music (the melancholic "Moonlight Sonata" or the passionate "Bagatelle in G Minor") and only one opera, "Fidelio."

One of the outstanding Czech writers of the 20th century, alongside such authors as Jaroslav Hasek and Karel Capek, and conceivably the most significant in the post-war era, Hrabal is mostly popular for his short stories written under the influence of surrealism and psychoanalysis. "A Close Watch on Trains" (1965) earned him the widest recognition. The motion picture based on this tale won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film of 1967. Other stories by Hrabal also served as a source of inspirative ideas for the Czech ":new wave" filmamkers of the 1960s. His first book of short stories, "Perlicka na dne” („A little Pearl at the Bottom”) came out in 1963 and was followed by, among others, "Tanecni hodiny pro starsi a pokrocile" (1964; "Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age") and "Mestecko ve kterem se zastavil cas” (1978; "The Little Town Where Time Stood Still").

"Prague is like a woman: tender and hard, capricious and deep as a well in which you can recognize your real face."

By many Seifert is thought to be the embodiment of the Czechoslovakian poet. His poetry is still read and admired in his homeland. In 1984 his autobiography "Vsecky Krasy Sveta" (1981; "All the Beauty of the World") brought him the Nobel Prize for Litearature and thus he became the first Czech to win this honour. Over the span of his lifetime Seifert published more than 30 volumes of poems. Among the notable are: "Mesto v Slach" (1921), "Sama Laska" (1923), "Svatebni Cesta" (1925), "Slavik Zpiva Spatne" (1926; "The Nightingale Sings Badly"), "Jablko z Klina" (1933), "Ruce Venusiny" (1936), "Zhasnete Svetla" (1938; "Put Out the Lights") as well as "Morovy Sloup" (1977; "The Plague Column").

"[Prague] is a miserable city of subordinate existences."

As a lyric poet of modern Germany, Rilke takes a foremost place. His first tome of poems, "Leben und Lieder", published in 1894 when he was 19, was followed by many more, including "Das Buch der Bilder" (1902; "The Book of Images"), "Das Stunded Buch" (1905; "The Book of Hours"), "Duineser Elegien" (1923; "Duino Elegies"), "Die Sonette an Orpheus" (1923; "Sonnets to Orpheus") as well as "Neue Gedichte" (1907-08; "New Poems"). Though mainly a poet, Rilke wrote some important prose works as well. These are "Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornet Christopher Rilke" (1906; "The Tale of the Love and Death of Cornet Christopher Rilke") and "Die Aufcechnungem des Malte Laurids Brigge" (1910; "The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brige").