Šachová novela je literárnou perlou Zweigovej novelistickej a poviedkovej tvorby. Autor v diele bravúrne rozvíja príbeh, ktorý vyvrcholí konfrontáciou dvoch šachových majstrov počas plavby parníkom z New Yorku do Buenos Aires. Krátko po vyplávaní lode vyzve zopár šachových nadšencov na súboj jedného z prominentných pasažierov, šachového veľmajstra Mirka Czentovica. Prvú partiu vyhrá Czentovic a porazení žiadajú odvetu. Spočiatku je veľmajster v prevahe, vtom sa však k hráčom pripojí nenápadný muž, poradí im niekoľko skvelých ťahov, a partia sa skončí remízou. Kto je tento doktor B., záhadný brilantný šachista? Ako sa súboj skončí?...
Gérard Rudent Poradie kníh (chronologicky)



A Hunger Artist
- 88 stránok
- 4 hodiny čítania
The last book published during Kafka's lifetime, A Hunger Artist (1924) explores many of the themes that were close to him: spiritual poverty, asceticism, futility, and the alienation of the modern artist. He edited the manuscript just before his death, and these four stories are some of his best known and most powerful work, marking his maturity as a writer. In addition to "First Sorrow," "A Little Woman," and "Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse People" is the title story, "A Hunger Artist," which has been called by the critic Heinz Politzer "a perfection, a fatal fulfillment that expresses Kafka's desire for permanence." The three volumes Twisted Spoon Press has published: Contemplation, A Country Doctor, and A Hunger Artist are the collections of stories that Kafka had published during his lifetime. Though each volume has its own distinctive character, they have most often appeared in English in collected editions. They are presented here as separate editions, in new translations by Kevin Blahut, each with its own illustrator from the Prague community.
This collection of new translations brings together the small proportion of Kafka's works that he himself thought worthy of publication. It includes Metamorphosis, his most famous work, an exploration of horrific transformation and alienation; Meditation, a collection of his earlier studies; The Judgement, written in a single night of frenzied creativity; The Stoker, the first chapter of a novel set in America and a fascinating occasional piece, and The Aeroplanes at Brescia, Kafka's eyewitness account of an air display in 1909. Together, these stories reveal the breadth of Kafka's literary vision and the extraordinary imaginative depth of his thought.