Magic Prague

Magic Prague is a difficult book - I've read it three times now and the process went like this: 1. I first read it before I'd ever visited Prague, and found it tedious and generally hard work. 2.
I then read it after about two months in Prague, and it made more sense - its obscurities and the dense style still made it difficult, though. 3. Finally, after a year of living in Prague, I read it again, and the whole thing makes sense. Czech history, and Czech modernism in particular, are very rich subjects. Ripellino isn't attempting an objective, academic analysis - it's clearly a response to August 1968, a quasi-mystical critique of the supposedly rational, scientific
communist ideology then in power (and seemingly eternal too.)
Peter Demetz, author of Prague in Black and Gold, is very critical of Ripellono's subjective approach.

It's an erudite book, of course, but knowing The Trial just isn't enough to enjoy it - Czech literary history (Neruda,
Hasek, Kafka) is important, but much more detailed knowledge
is required - it helps to know the writings of Holan, Teige,
Seifert, Orten, Vancura and others - and to be au fait with
Poetism and Czech surrealism, Werich and Voskovec, the topography and unhappy history of Bohemia from the Battle of White Mountain in 1621. Since then, I've found it an incredibly rich and evocative source of information - you just need to supplement this with diverse reading, looking at Czech art,
getting lost in Prague, and... learning Czech.

Czech modernism, in particular, is as rich and complex as e.g.
German modernism in the 1920s (in a different way, of course.)
As far as I know, there is no guide to this in English, though
Ripellino's book is a good pioneering start. The reason for this, I think, is that the Czech language is quite difficult (seven different inflections depending on the context) - Magic Prague isn't recommended if you're visiting for a couple of weeks over the summer.

Wonderful subject but. . . (2/4 people found this helpful)

I was very pleased to get my hands on this book, having read various intriguing tidbits about Prague elsewhere.It looked good-author clearly passionate about the city, photographs, a reasonable length. But it is very wordy and very allusive indeed, many of the allusions being made to works by obscure Czech authors (I write as someone who is not Czech.)

Though there are alchemists here, and the Golem, and quite a host of mysterious and bizarre phantoms drifting about the corridors and alleyways of a truly tantalizing city, I felt there was too much of. . . almost everything. I will say (charitably?) that the book was first written in Italian and then translated-I know writing styles do vary from culture to culture and not just from individual author to individual author. But I found myself skipping quite a lot, wishing the author would cut to the chase a bit more. I did want something richer and deeper than a guide-book, but this was positively verbose..

Magic Prague (7/11 people found this helpful)

Having lived in Prague for three years, I wanted to read this book in order to confirm to myself that someone else feels there is something mystic about the city.

Cutting through the gobbledygook, it became clear that this was the case, and I only hope that come the day when it may be possible for me to write down my thoughts on that city, I will do so with more fluidity. I regard myself as well read, but this book was very "wordy" and can only assume something was lost in translation !

However, don't despair. If you know Prague, and the Czech people, this is a great book for sparking off those memories of people and places with whom you came into contact.

Magic Prague (10/17 people found this helpful)

I bought this in Prague on a recent visit, and while admiring the author's erudition, I found it a little too rich. He set the mood nicely but there seemed to be too much stuffed into too short a book. At times he seemed to be keener on showing off his vocabulary rather than communicating. I didn't finish it

Angelo Maria Ripellino

Reader Reviews:

Difficult but rewarding book (7/7 people found this helpful)

Wonderful subject but. . . (2/4 people found this helpful)

Magic Prague (7/11 people found this helpful)

Magic Prague (10/17 people found this helpful)

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