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Una hermosa tristeza
"Bohumil Hrabal, el gran narrador checo-único por su gracia verbal, su vitalismo, su talento para la caricatura, su mirada tierna y a la vez brutal sobre toda criatura viviente-, teje una novela hecha de relatos breves que funcionan con autonomía. En ellos recupera escenas de infancia y traza perfiles alucinados de los habitantes de Nymburk, la ciudad se cierne la tormenta sobre Checoslovaquia.
Nunc antes traducida al castellano, Una hermosa tristeza es una de sus obras más logradas".
Nunc antes traducida al castellano, Una hermosa tristeza es una de sus obras más logradas".
204 pages, Paperback
Published May 1, 2023
2 people want to read
About the author
Bohumil Hrabal
186 books1,321 followersBorn in Brno-Židenice, Moravia, he lived briefly in Polná, but was raised in the Nymburk brewery as the manager's stepson.
Hrabal received a Law degree from Prague's Charles University, and lived in the city from the late 1940s on.
He worked as a manual laborer alongside Vladimír Boudník in the Kladno ironworks in the 1950s, an experience which inspired the "hyper-realist" texts he was writing at the time.
His best known novels were Closely Watched Trains (1965) and I Served the King of England. In 1965 he bought a cottage in Kersko, which he used to visit till the end of his life, and where he kept cats ("kočenky").
He was a great storyteller; his popular pub was At the Golden Tiger (U zlatého tygra) on Husova Street in Prague, where he met the Czech President Václav Havel, the American President Bill Clinton and the then-US ambassador to the UN Madeleine Albright on January 11th, 1994.
Several of his works were not published in Czechoslovakia due to the objections of the authorities, including The Little Town Where Time Stood Still (Městečko, kde se zastavil čas) and I Served the King of England (Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále).
He died when he fell from a fifth floor hospital where he was apparently trying to feed pigeons. It was noted that Hrabal lived on the fifth floor of his apartment building and that suicides by leaping from a fifth-floor window were mentioned in several of his books.
He was buried in a family grave in the cemetery in Hradištko. In the same grave his mother "Maryška", step father "Francin", uncle "Pepin", wife "Pipsi" and brother "Slávek" were buried.
He wrote with an expressive, highly visual style, often using long sentences; in fact his work Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age (1964) (Taneční hodiny pro starší a pokročilé) is made up of just one sentence. Many of Hrabal's characters are portrayed as "wise fools" - simpletons with occasional or inadvertent profound thoughts - who are also given to coarse humour, lewdness, and a determination to survive and enjoy oneself despite harsh circumstances. Political quandaries and their concomitant moral ambiguities are also a recurrent theme.
Along with Jaroslav Hašek, Karel Čapek, and Milan Kundera - who were also imaginative and amusing satirists - he is considered one of the greatest Czech writers of the 20th century. His works have been translated into 27 languages.
Hrabal received a Law degree from Prague's Charles University, and lived in the city from the late 1940s on.
He worked as a manual laborer alongside Vladimír Boudník in the Kladno ironworks in the 1950s, an experience which inspired the "hyper-realist" texts he was writing at the time.
His best known novels were Closely Watched Trains (1965) and I Served the King of England. In 1965 he bought a cottage in Kersko, which he used to visit till the end of his life, and where he kept cats ("kočenky").
He was a great storyteller; his popular pub was At the Golden Tiger (U zlatého tygra) on Husova Street in Prague, where he met the Czech President Václav Havel, the American President Bill Clinton and the then-US ambassador to the UN Madeleine Albright on January 11th, 1994.
Several of his works were not published in Czechoslovakia due to the objections of the authorities, including The Little Town Where Time Stood Still (Městečko, kde se zastavil čas) and I Served the King of England (Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále).
He died when he fell from a fifth floor hospital where he was apparently trying to feed pigeons. It was noted that Hrabal lived on the fifth floor of his apartment building and that suicides by leaping from a fifth-floor window were mentioned in several of his books.
He was buried in a family grave in the cemetery in Hradištko. In the same grave his mother "Maryška", step father "Francin", uncle "Pepin", wife "Pipsi" and brother "Slávek" were buried.
He wrote with an expressive, highly visual style, often using long sentences; in fact his work Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age (1964) (Taneční hodiny pro starší a pokročilé) is made up of just one sentence. Many of Hrabal's characters are portrayed as "wise fools" - simpletons with occasional or inadvertent profound thoughts - who are also given to coarse humour, lewdness, and a determination to survive and enjoy oneself despite harsh circumstances. Political quandaries and their concomitant moral ambiguities are also a recurrent theme.
Along with Jaroslav Hašek, Karel Čapek, and Milan Kundera - who were also imaginative and amusing satirists - he is considered one of the greatest Czech writers of the 20th century. His works have been translated into 27 languages.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 19, 2024
Una hermosa tristeza de Bohumil Hrabal es una novela compuesta por 23capítulos cortos que podrían funcionar perfectamente como relatos “independientes” en cierto sentido, ya que cada uno nos narra una historia con principio y fin.
A lo largo de la novela acompañamos a un joven de edad y nombre desconocidos, aunque por lo que va contando podría tratarse de un joven de unos 12-14 años que vive en una casa junto a sus padres, cerca de la fábrica de cerveza donde su padre es el gerente. Por la típica foto de Hrabal con su camiseta de rayas marineras, me ha gustado, y ha sido fácil,nimaginarme al propio Hrabal de niño como protagonista de estas aventuras.
Son pequeñas historias de la vida en su ciudad, de la cotidianidad, de su familia, del trabajo y de la visión del mundo de este joven inconformista. Es un libro lleno de ternura, inocencia, salpicado de humor y un pequeño toque de “sordidez”. Como el hecho de robar al cura dinero para tatuarse un barco y ser engañado para acabar con una sirena desnuda, o su ocurrencia de querer ser desempleado de mayor. A nuestro joven le acompañan personajes muy interesantes, marcados por relaciones complejas, como sus padres, el tío Pepín, el cura, el tabernero. etc.
El título de la obra está relacionado con uno de los capítulos en el que muere el alcalde y del tiempo que debe darse uno para estar triste, serenamente triste, despreocupadamente.
Desde hace años, Bohumil Hrabal es uno de mis autores preferidos, pero esta obra, se ha situado a la cabeza de mis imprescindibles del autor y de mis favoritos de todos los tiempos. Por lo que sólo me queda animaros a leer a Hrabal.
A lo largo de la novela acompañamos a un joven de edad y nombre desconocidos, aunque por lo que va contando podría tratarse de un joven de unos 12-14 años que vive en una casa junto a sus padres, cerca de la fábrica de cerveza donde su padre es el gerente. Por la típica foto de Hrabal con su camiseta de rayas marineras, me ha gustado, y ha sido fácil,nimaginarme al propio Hrabal de niño como protagonista de estas aventuras.
Son pequeñas historias de la vida en su ciudad, de la cotidianidad, de su familia, del trabajo y de la visión del mundo de este joven inconformista. Es un libro lleno de ternura, inocencia, salpicado de humor y un pequeño toque de “sordidez”. Como el hecho de robar al cura dinero para tatuarse un barco y ser engañado para acabar con una sirena desnuda, o su ocurrencia de querer ser desempleado de mayor. A nuestro joven le acompañan personajes muy interesantes, marcados por relaciones complejas, como sus padres, el tío Pepín, el cura, el tabernero. etc.
El título de la obra está relacionado con uno de los capítulos en el que muere el alcalde y del tiempo que debe darse uno para estar triste, serenamente triste, despreocupadamente.
Desde hace años, Bohumil Hrabal es uno de mis autores preferidos, pero esta obra, se ha situado a la cabeza de mis imprescindibles del autor y de mis favoritos de todos los tiempos. Por lo que sólo me queda animaros a leer a Hrabal.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews