"Heavens!"/Biographical
BIOGRAPHICAL.
Alois Vojtěch Šmilovský, the author of the following novel, is considered in his native country (Bohemia) as one of its most successful modern writers of fiction. He was born in the town of Mladá Boleslav, the 24th of January, 1837, of an old wealthy patrician family. After completing the lower classes of the “gymnasium” (grammar school) in his native town, he was sent to the Academical Gymnasium in Prague; and, having gone through the higher forms there, entered the University of Prague, where he devoted himself to the study of i natural history.
In 1860 he became teacher of this branch at the gymnasium of Klatovy, in the south-western part of Bohemia, where he remained, first as supplent, then as real professor, until 1873, when he was transferred in the same capacity to the gymnasium of Litomyšl, in the east of Bohemia. In 1877 he was appointed Government Inspector of National Schools in the districts of Litomyšl and Polička. This laborious office he held until his death, which took place on the 20th of June, 1883.
Even as a student, Šmilovský followed closely the development of Bohemia’s national literature and music; and later on, while attending conscientiously to his public duties as professor, he was at the same time always busy with his pen.
As early as 1859 he published his first original attempt, a short novel, which was followed the year after by an essay entitled, Poet and Musician. Then there was a long pause of ten years, which, however, was filled up with very diligent literary work. From 1871 till his death his name was constantly before the reading public. Every year stories from his pen appeared in various periodicals; a volume of poems came out in 1874; and no less than eleven dramas (four tragedies and seven comedies) were found among his literary remains, besides several librettos for musical composition, and other poetical pieces. Some of his poems found an able composer in his friend L. E. Me̓chura, whose life and position in the Bohemian musical world Šmilovský made the subject of a separate essay in 1871.
His dramas are the least known; only three of them found their way to the stage; the rest have not been even printed yet.
His poems met with a much warmer reception, but the field in which he really excelled was fiction.
No less than twenty-one different tales of various lengths issued from his prolific pen, and were published between 1871 and 1884, the last of them after his death.
Of these, our translation Heavens! (Nebesa) and another story about the time of the awakening of the Bohemian nation, Za ranních červánkŭv (The Morning Dawn), the plot of which is woven round the person of the celebrated grammarian Dobrovský, are considered by many critics to be the best.
All Šmilovský’s novels are founded on real life and character, which he had a particular gift of observing closely. They are nearly all free from the sensational element, though rich enough in original incident. They develop a simple, natural plot, and tend not only to the amusement, but also to the improvement of the reader, without incurring, on the other hand, the reproach of P sententiousness or of moralizing. A warm patriotic is feeling pervades all his works, and an unobtrusive tendency to do good to his compatriots.
His chief power lies in the delineation of character. His stories abound in original figures, not the least interesting among which is Father Cvok in the following story. In the description of such manly, noble-minded, humane men, Šmilovský was particularly successful. Not less so are his aged persons—old-fashioned, blunt, outspoken characters—which he was rather fond of introducing; or again, wavering, though at heart good natured weaklings, like Baron Mundy; or practical men of common sense like Father Ledecký in our story, which he introduces for the sake of contrast. In some of his novels we also meet with characters of the lower serving-class, who exhibit no small degree of racy wit and humour. Downright bad, depraved characters Šmilovský did not like to make use of; they appear but rarely in his works, and when they do, he endeavours to show that even the very worst are not entirely devoid of some good point or other; just as, on the other hand, even it the best are not free from human weakness.
His female characters show less variety on the whole. They may generally be classed under two heads: the truly feminine, gentle, loving woman; and the imperious, cold, calculating natures, more given to reasoning and selfish ambition than to obeying the softer teaching of the heart. Both the Baroness Poc̓ernická and Jenny of this story belong to the last-named species. A good contrast of both kinds is formed by the representatives of the serving-class in this novel—the good-natured old Naninka, and the sharp spinster Regina; and similar characters occur also in Šmilovský’s other works.
His style is simple, and clear, and highly polished, and yet not overdone. He prefers short sentences to long elaborate periods, and spares no trouble in keeping to the genuine idiom of the Bohemian language, the purity of which is chiefly felt on making an attempt to translate it into another tongue. Many of his racy modes of expression are taken from the unalloyed idiom of national proverbs and sayings, and it is often difficult, and indeed almost impossible, to find their exact equivalents in any other language.
Šmilovský’s novels are firmly established in the hearts of his countrymen. May this specimen of them gain the approval of English readers too, and may this first attempt at translating a Bohemian work of fiction into English meet with a friendly reception, and pave the way for many of its successors.
Prague, 1894.