Don Pablo, don Pedro a Božena Benešová
Don Pablo, Don Pedro and Božena Benešová

On the Eightieth Anniversary of the Author’s Death

Summary/Abstract: This article discusses the short novel Don Pablo, don Pedro a Věra Lukášová (D.P., D.P., and V.L.), the last and most popular work of the Czech prose writer Božena Benešová (1873–1936). It also discusses the magazine Eva, in which the novel appeared in instalments. Eva, published twice a month from 1928 to 1943, was intended for the educated modern woman, and in interwar Czechoslovakia it advocated a new way of life, the essence of which was positive thinking and activity. Though Benešová was of diferent generation from the people who started up the magazine, her work expressed the same attitude towards life: the need to show courage in adversity and to part ways with the prejudices and conventions of the years before the First World War. On the other hand, the conception of the child hero in Benešová’s work follows on from the pre-1914 discovery of the child as a character in Czech literature, particularly in the works of Růžena Svobodová (1868–1920) and Benešová herself. Unlike the pre-1914 iction, all of which have grim endings, this last story of Benešová’s is optimistic, and in that sense its well with the conception of Eva.

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