Prague: A Traveler's Literary Companion (Traveler's Literary Companions) by Paul Wilson

Prague: A Traveler's Literary Companion (Traveler's Literary Companions) Reviews

• 
  William Kirkland

  Prague, as every traveler will tell you, is a wonderful town, full of surprises and visual delights. It is full of improbable and heart catching characters as well, as many Czech writers can introduce you to. Prague: A Traveller’s Literary Companion from Whereabouts Press provides a superb selection. In short readings you can go with Franz Kafka in late night companionship to the Charles Bridge in “Description of a Struggle, or watch on as Bohumil Hrabal‘s “ugly little man” finds himself as a beer waiter and a much sought after lover in the “Hotel Paříž” in the 1940s.
  
  This is one of the strongest of the Whereabouts volumes I’ve read, though all of their fine list are must-carries when on the move. Of the 22 authors included, most will recognize only Kafka’s name, though a few will know Jaroslav Hašek as the author of the not famed enough anti-war novel, The Good Soldier Švejk. In a life lived almost exactly the years of Kafka’s, the two could not have had more opposite temperaments yet both were alive to creating characters caught in conditions not of their own making. His contribution, “A Psychiatric Mystery,” is a tickling account of such a man. Leaning over the Charles Bridge rail to locate the sound of a man he thinks is in trouble he is ‘rescued’ by a passer-by and the police from committing suicide, the reality of which is proven by the fierceness of his resistance to being rescued. - See more at:
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• 
  Pamela

  Notes from 1998:
  Various authors
  
  There are many stories about Prague: legends, tales and folklore. Most take place in other eras - before the communists, many centuries ago. A few are modern post-communist.
  
  One tale of the Old Town Clock - the government poked the clock maker's eyes out in fear that he would make a better clock elsewhere. A year later, on his deathbed, he went into the clock and disabled it so it wouldn't function properly. It took a few hundred years to repair it.
  
  A myth about a sword hidden under a stone in the Charles Bridge. It would come out to defeat the enemy when needed. Very hard times came and no sword. One day Germans had invaded, there was nothing they could do. The sword appeared in front of a group of children. Approached by a solider they hid it in their coats. From then on it was passed on from child to child for safekeeping.
  
  and many others. very good book.
  Organized by areas in Prague.
• 
  Joe

  A collection of short stories by Czech authors past and present and grouped according to various districts of the city. Some good ones, but nothing really outstanding. However, they do evoke a sense of place and sometimes history, which is really the whole point. Good to read during and/or after a visit.
  
• 
  Chloe

  A friend studying in Prague for the year very kindly lent me her copy of this book for my week-long stay in Prague, and I'm glad I read it here, because I wouldn't have enjoyed it in any other city. I think it takes a particular person to enjoy these stories. If you look Kafka and weird stuff like that, I say you should go for it. Otherwise, most of it will probably go over your head.
• 
  Paul Servini

  A collection of stories all based in the city of Prague. It was thrilling to read the stories while, or just after, actually walking streets being described in them. The ideal travel companion. The stories themselves are a mixed bunch with some more interesting than others.
• 
  Evija Priekule

  great
• 
  Jennifer

  I absolutely loved some of these stories.