The Grandmother (Němcová)
The Grandmother (Czech : Babička ) is a novel by Božena Němcová from 1855. The work is the best-selling classic of Czech literature to date .
plot
The novel has little action and consists of episodes. At the beginning, the grandmother comes to a Bohemian country estate to help her daughter, a servant of Princess Zaháňská, with looking after the children and with housework. Soon the old woman is widely known for her good nature and wisdom. The grandmother raises her grandsons Barunka, Vilém, Jan and Adélka, answers their questions and tells them stories, including about her encounter with Emperor Joseph II. Only hints of the protagonist's earlier life are revealed.
The contrasting figure to the shining light of the grandmother is the mute Viktorka who lives in the forest and sings about her dead child at a weir. The grandmother warns the children to have respect for the mad woman's fate. One day Viktorka is struck by lightning.
The story ends with the death and burial of the grandmother.
The author used real models for the setting and the characters in the novel. Němcová was the daughter of a maid and spent her youth with her grandmother at Ratibořice Castle . Němcová incorporated features of Duchess Wilhelmine of Sagan into the figure of the princess . The template for Viktorka was Viktorka Židová, who died in 1868 and for whom a symbolic grave was erected in Červený Kostelec .
effect
To date, Babička has been published more than 350 times in Czech and translated into around 40 languages. Jan Ohéral made the first translation into German in 1858. Translations by Antonín Smital (1885), Kamil Eben (1924), Hanna and Peter Demetz (1959), Günther Jarosch (1962) and Josef Mühlberger (1981) followed, among others. Filip Rězak translated the work into Upper Sorbian for the first time , Jan Urban Jarník into Romanian in 1885, and Rudolf Jan Slabý into Catalan and Spanish.
The first film adaptation by Thea Červenková dates back to 1921. František Čáp filmed the work in 1940, Antonín Moskalyk in 1971, with Libuše Šafránková in the role of Barunka.
Jaroslav Seifert wrote the poem Píseň o Viktorce (1950) about the character of Viktorka.
The natural monument Babiččino údolí ("Grandmother's Valley") around Ratibořice Castle has been named after the novel since 1952.
Current Issues
- The Grandmother ( Babička ), with illustrations by Karel Hruška (translated from the original 1855 edition with corrections by B. Němcová in the 1862 edition by Kamill Eben), Vitalis , Mitterfels 2009, ISBN 978-3-89919 -095-3 .
- Grandmother. Pictures from rural life (Translated by Josef Mühlberger ). dtv 13453, Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-423-13453-8 (with an afterword on the life and work of the author as well as notes on the film Through this night I don't see a single star ).
web links
- Literature and other media by and about Babička in the Catalog of the National Library of the Czech Republic
- Original text – 1920 edition, digitized by Moravian National Library
itemizations
- ↑ a b Božena Němcová's "Babička" turns 150 – Radio Praha on August 28, 2005
- ↑ Viktorčin hrob – Municipality Červený Kostelec
- ↑ Překlady Babičky do cizích jazyků - Božena Němcová Museum in Česká Skalice