Karel Václav Rais


Rais, Karel Václav

 

Born Jan. 4, 1859, in Lázně Bělohrad; died July 8, 1926, in Prague. Czech writer.

Rais graduated from a teachers’ institute in Jičm in 1877. He began publishing in the 1880’s. The main theme of his work is Czech village life (the collections Výminkáři, 1891, and Among People and Půlpáni, 1898). His novellas Neglected Patriots (1893) and Sunset (1896) depicted the cultural and educational work of rural schoolteachers and the lower clergy during the period of national revival. The novel About a Ruined Shoemaker (1920) dealt with national oppression and the hard life of the Podkrkonoši mountaineers. Rais developed the realistic tradition in Czech literature.

WORKS

Vybrané spisy, vols. 1–8,10. Prague, 1959–65.
In Russian translation:
V cheshshoi shkole. Kazan, 1899.
“Grekh Kaliby.” Russkii vestnik, 1905, nos. 6–8.

REFERENCE

Ocherki istorii cheshskoi literatury XIX-XX vv. Moscow, 1963.