Marketa Lazarová

Although based on a true story of warring brigands and knights, this story reads like a fairy tale. It may be due to the translation. The story was popularized by a film of the same name which is considered a Czechoslovakian classic.

Marketa Lazarova is a young girl taken from her family by a vicious brigand who is the son of a violent bandit leader. Marketa had been dedicated to God so her life plan is drastically altered. There are parallel love stories here where the son and daughter of the bandit leader fall in love with their captives. It is a violent story set in the medieval Bohemia. It was written in 1931. The author who was a communist was captured and tortured by the Gestapo in Prague. When Hitler’s governor in Prague was assassinated, the Nazis murdered 2000 people in reprisal and the author was one of them. Indeed this story could be a metaphor for the violence of the thirties and the lawlessness of the Hitler regime. At times the story and characters seem disjointed, but for lovers of Eastern European literature, this will be a great find.