Angelo Maria Ripellino (1923–1978)

MAGIC PRAGUE

TRANSLATED BY DAVID NEWTON MARINELLI
EDITED BY MICHAEL HENRY HEIM

This book attempts to go beyond the tourist cliché of
Prague as the 'golden city' to bring out all the mystery
ambiguity, gloom, lethargy and hidden fascination of
the city on the VItava. Ripellino slips into the style of
melodrama and ghost stories as he writes of the time
of Rudolf II, the alchemists, the Jewish Quarter, the
Golem, the pubs, the funereal malevolence of its
architecture, of Holan and Kafka, of Meyrink and the
Czech Dadaists. With this dense cast of characters
Ripellino brings out the sorcery of the Bohemian
capital in a compelling mixture of fact and fiction. This
vast fresco of Prague life provides much more than a
literary and cultural history of the city; it is both a
celebration and a requiem.

'The city of the VItava, capital of old Bohemia, is as
much a state of mind as a physical location. It was the
centre of magic in the Renaissance, the very alembic of
Europe, and still retains its reputation for mystery and
rank intrigue... This is a superb, haunting, clotted,
mad masterpiece. It is not an easy read, but it is a
rewarding one. As I close the book, the magic city
sinks back into its ancient dreaming, and I recall a
beautiful line from a poem by Jaroslav Seifert, quoted
by Ripellino: "The shadow enters darkness and man
enters earth.""
John Banville, Observer… (más)