Name: I Served the King of England
ISBN: 9780811216876

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I Served the King of England

Bohumil Hrabal

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First published in 1971 in a typewritten edition, then finally printed in book form in 1989, I Served the King of England is "an extraordinary and subtly tragicomic novel" (The New York Times), telling the tale of Ditie, a hugely ambitious but simple waiter in a deluxe Prague hotel in the years before World War II. Ditie is called upon to serve not the King of England, but Haile Selassie. It is one of the great moments in his life. Eventually, he falls in love with a Nazi woman athlete as the Germans are invading Czechoslovakia. After the war, through the sale of valuable stamps confiscated from the Jews, he reaches the heights of his ambition, building a hotel. He becomes a millionaire, but with the institution of communism, he loses everything and is sent to inspect mountain roads. Living in dreary circumstances, Ditie comes to terms with the inevitability of his death, and with his place in history.

Book Details

Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation
Publish Date: May 31st, 2007
Pages: 256
Language: English
Edition: undefined - undefined
Dimensions: 7.96in - 6.58in - 0.65in - 0.60lb
EAN: 9780811216876
Categories: • Historical - 20th Century - World War II & Holocaust• Literary• Classics

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About the Author

Wilson, Paul: - Paul Wilson lives in Canada and has translated works by Vaclav Haval, Bohumil Hrabal, Ivan Kilma, and Josef Skvorecky.

Hrabal, Bohumil: - Bohumil Hrabal (1914-1997) was born in Moravia. He is the author of such classics as Closely Watched Trains (made into an Academy-Award winning film by Jiri Menzel), The Death of Mr. Baltisberger, I Served the King of England, and Too Loud a Solitude.

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Book Cover for: Too Loud a Solitude, Bohumil Hrabal

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Book Cover for: Mr. Kafka: And Other Tales from the Time of the Cult, Bohumil Hrabal

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Book Cover for: Why I Write?: The Early Prose from 1945 to 1952, Bohumil Hrabal

Book Cover for: Total Fears: Selected Letters to Dubenka, Bohumil Hrabal

Book Cover for: In-House Weddings, Bohumil Hrabal

Book Cover for: Pirouettes on a Postage Stamp: An Interview-Novel with Questions Asked and Answers Recorded by László Szigeti, Bohumil Hrabal

What people are saying

The Boston Globe

2 years

"It’s about a bellhop in Prague and follows his fortunes through the 20th century. Hrabal got his start as a realist poet so the novel is filled with all these arresting images. It’s probably the book that I’ve reread the most."

– Anthony Marra is a fiction writer.

Math teacher. I write. Nonfiction editor @LitroMagazine, Most Dangerous Thing in America podcast (it's about books: https://t.co/LRzIlsdmWX). Basketball enthusiast.

On the US side we @LitroMagazine have a piece that made me think of Bohumil Hrabal's "I Served the King of England." Those are big shoes but I think you'll like it: https://t.co/TCvEpVxzeZ

Dad, husband, reader, music geek, movie nerd, Montanan, NE DC Canine Knucklehead Ward co-founder, @cspan director of editorial operations

Bohumil Hrabal’s I Served the King of England has been on my to-read list for years, so, of course, I’m reading Too Loud a Solitude. The to-read list must never shrink. https://t.co/HmW3wRRQ4R

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Praise for this book

One of the most authentic incarnations of magical Prague, an incredible union of earthy humor and baroque imagination.--Milan Kundera

This is one of Central Europe's great hotel novels, witty and deep, set in Prague, and the city's provincial clones. The pomp of hotel lobbies and restaurants serves as a backdrop to portray the smallness of a person caught up in the maelstrom of history, forced to scramble, bear losses, make bad judgement calls, and strike Faustian bargains.-- "Calvert Journal"

A comic novel of great inventiveness...charming, wise, and sad--and an unexpectedly good laugh.-- "Philadelphia Inquirer"

A joyful, picaresque story, which begins with Baron Munchausen-like adventures and ends in tears and solitude.--James Wood "The London Review of Books"

An extraordinary and subtly tragicomic novel.-- "The New York Times"

What people are saying

The Boston Globe

2 years

– Anthony Marra is a fiction writer.

Math teacher. I write. Nonfiction editor @LitroMagazine, Most Dangerous Thing in America podcast (it's about books: https://t.co/LRzIlsdmWX). Basketball enthusiast.

On the US side we @LitroMagazine have a piece that made me think of Bohumil Hrabal's "I Served the King of England." Those are big shoes but I think you'll like it: https://t.co/TCvEpVxzeZ

twitter.com

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