Miss Silver's Past

Miss Silver's Past
Cover of the first Czech edition, with illustration by Karel Laštovka
AuthorJosef Škvorecký
Original titleLvíče
TranslatorPeter Kussi
Cover artistKarel Laštovka[1]
LanguageCzech
GenreSatire, Detective fiction
Set inPrague, early/mid 1960s
PublisherČeskoslovenský spisovatel
Publication date
1969
Publication placeCzechoslovak Socialist Republic
Published in English
1974
Media typePrint: hardback
Pages268
891.86
LC ClassPG5038 .S527

Miss Silver's Past (Czech: Lvíče, "Lion Cub") is a 1969 novel by Czech author Josef Škvorecký.[2][3]

Written between 1963 and 1967 (prior to the Prague Spring), it was published after it.[4]

Plot

Karel Leden works at a publisher's in Communist Czechoslovakia. He meets Lenka Silver, a Jewish woman with a mysterious past.[5]

Reception

Gleb Žekulin wrote that Lvíče "confirmed [Škvorecký] as the leading Czech prose writer of the post-Stalin era."[6] Mavis Gallant also admired Miss Silver's Past.[7]

Kirkus Reviews was scathing, saying "even the apparatchiks' wrangles over how and whether to publish a blockbuster novel are only mechanically amusing. And, in Czech fashion, the byplay of seduction is used to underline the camaraderie of the seducers while the women remain objects, and nothing human ever takes place. Škvorecký's style is trite and trivial."[8]

Adaptation

The film was adapted for Czechoslovak television in 1969, under the title Flirt se slečnou Stříbrnou ("Flirting with Miss Stříbrná").[9]

References

  1. ^ "Kniha: Lvíče - Škvorecký | Antikvariát Knihobot". knihobot.cz.
  2. ^ "Slovník české literatury". www.slovnikceskeliteratury.cz.
  3. ^ Ringen, Stein (July 12, 2017). Citizens, Families, and Reform. Routledge. ISBN 9781351528429 – via Google Books.
  4. ^ Hill, Mike; Wise, Jon (April 19, 2012). The Works of Graham Greene: A Reader's Bibliography and Guide. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781441126504 – via Google Books.
  5. ^ "Škvorecký: Miss Silver's Past | The Modern Novel". www.themodernnovel.org.
  6. ^ Žekulin, Gleb (1980). "Miss Silver's Past the Tragedy of an Intellectual". World Literature Today. 54 (4): 547–551. doi:10.2307/40135317. JSTOR 40135317 – via JSTOR.
  7. ^ "The literary world reacts to Mavis Gallant's death" – via The Globe and Mail.
  8. ^ "Miss Silver's Past" – via www.booktopia.com.au.
  9. ^ "Flirt se slečnou Stříbrnou (1969)".