Others' Paradise - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 8090125751 ISBN 13: 9788090125759

Inhaltsangabe

Towards the end of his life Leppin wrote: Prague remains my deepest experience. Its conflict, its mystery, its rat-catchers beauty have ever provided my poetic efforts with new inspiration and meaning. Others Paradise represents one of the most intense expressions of this experience. Beginning with the highly imagistic The Doors of Life, the eight stories contained in this volume detail the contours of the lives and visions of a collection of Prague inhabitants, from a prostitute bound to the decay of the old Jewish quarter, to a man caught in the memory of a lost love, and a shoemaker whose knowledge of the world has been constricted to the view from the window of his cellar workroom. Amidst their differing circumstances what these characters share is an intense desire for lasting human contact and the fated disappointment of all such aspirations. Binding their personal histories, woven into their most intimate details, is Prague itself, the city whose nature, mythical and yet all-too-real, gives shape and force to their desires while simultaneously determining their frustrations.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Paul Leppin was born in Prague on November 27, 1878, the second son of a failed clockmaker and a former teacher. Forced by the economic difficulties of his family to forgo a university education, he entered the civil service upon graduation from Gymnasium, working as an accountant for the Postal Service until his release due to reasons of physical disability. It was here that he witnessed firsthand the life-numbing existence of his contemporaries. Beginning with the appearance of his first novel, The Doors of Life, in 1901, his poetry, prose, and criticism appeared regularly in Prague and Germany over the next thirty years. Leppin was also one of the few German writers to have close contacts with the Czech literary community, translating Czech poetry and writing articles on Czech literature and art for German periodicals. As a leading figure of a young generation of Prague German writers, calling themselves "Jung-Prag" and centered around the two literary periodicals he edited, Frhling and Wir, Leppin sought to combat the conservatism and provincialism of the citys established culture. Although many German writers eventually left Prague, Leppin could not live elsewhere and remained in the city after the formation of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918, writing novels, plays (performed at the Neues Deutsches Theatre), stories, and poems Prague always forming a strong influence. He became Secretary of the Protective Union of German Writers in the Czechoslovak Republic that had been founded by Oskar Baum and Johannes Urzidil. Leppins contribution to the citys literatue and culture was recognized both in 1934, when he was awarded the Schiller Memorial Prize, and in 1938, on the occasion of his 60th birthday, when he received the Czechoslovak Ministry of Culture Award for Writers. In the same year two volumes of his Prague Rhapsody appeared, marking the end of his publishing activity. In 1939 he was detained by the Gestapo after the German occupation of the city and, after his release, suffered a stroke from which he never fully recovered. He died in Prague of syphilis on April 10, 1945 largely unknown and forgotten.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 8090125751
• ISBN 13: 9788090125759
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar