Marketa Lazarova

Thirteenth-century Bohemia, the petty nobility nothing more than highwaymen, the king has dispatched troops to restore order. At birth, Marketa Lazarová was promised to God, a bride of Christ to live her life in a convent, but she is abducted by one of the Kozlík clan, bandits who are seeking allies to oppose the king. Told in shifting perspectives, mixing archaic language with the modern, the vulgar with the elevated, Vancura's tale is less epic historical novel (the history of his ancestors) than ballad to honor, courage, and love, albeit profane, albeit in the service of banditry. In so doing, he serves a warning to Czechs that they have become too complacent in their bourgeois idyll and might be better served by looking to the ferocity of their forebears (some of whom were more pagan than Christian). Adopting a cinematic approach to draw the reader into the action, to witness it as if it were happening right before one's eyes, Vancura's novel incorporates all the elements of his Poetist affinities from a decade earlier and deserves its place among the crowning achievements of prewar modernism. Originally published in 1931 and unavailable in English until now, Marketa Lazarová has been largely known by Franti¿ek Vlácil's 1967 screen adaptation, which is generally considered the greatest Czech film ever made. The novel was awarded the State Prize for Literature in 1931.