‘There Are No Coloured Butterflies – Even Simple Large Whites Are Rare...’ Cover Image

„A není barevných motýlů – i ti prostí bělásci jsou vzácní…“
‘There Are No Coloured Butterflies – Even Simple Large Whites Are Rare...’

A Selection of Letters between Petr Bezruč and Jan Vrba, Father and Son, from 1913 to 1956

Contributor(s): Jiřina Fojtíková (Editor)
Subject(s): Museology & Heritage Studies, Archiving, Czech Literature
Published by: Památník národního písemnictví
Keywords: Petr Bezruč;Vladimír Vašek;Jan Vrba;Jan Vrba Jr;Beskid Mountains;Chod region;nature;

Summary/Abstract: This selection of letters between the two writers, Petr Bezruč (born Vladimír Vašek, 1867‒1958) and Jan Vrba (1889‒1961) and also Jan Vrba Jr, comprises 25 letters from a set of preserved correspondence from 1913 to 1956. Mainly by considering Bezruč’s response as a reader of Vrba, who regularly sent Bezruč his works by post, this essay considers the forest as reflected in Vrba’s fiction and talks. Using this thematization, the forest is continuously and sensitively described as a world subjected to the eternal cycle of natural changes, with much detail of flora and fauna, which are, however, vanishing here and there. What the ordinary reader of Bezruč’s and Vrba’s works or the ordinary tourist overlooks while walking through the forest becomes the central topic of the two observers in these letters, each of whom was, moreover, educated in the natural sciences. This private correspondence can thus reasonably be seen in part as a running commentary on their literary works.

  • Issue Year: 2019
  • Issue No: 51
  • Page Range: 114-161
  • Page Count: 48
  • Language: Czech