Karel Hynek Mácha - Úsvit spatřený – Dvořák Otomar, Snětivý Josef Pepson (2026)

This Czech-language factual book presents Karel Hynek Mácha as a complex and remarkable person rather than merely the eternally youthful figure with a blissful smile represented by Myslbek’s statue of lovers on Petřín. It explores his changing moods and temper, but also his pragmatic side: an excellent student, an ambitious young lawyer, and a surprisingly practical merchant. Mácha was a gifted poet, prose writer, dramatist, and musician, as well as a skilled painter, confident speaker and actor, and tireless traveller with a sporting spirit. His poem Máj was ahead of its time in the Czech literary context, while his increasing restlessness and tragic, needless death make him a figure who remains compelling two centuries later. Otomar Dvořák and Josef Pepson Snětivý do not provide laborious analyses of every line of Mácha’s literary legacy or a conventional travel book. Instead, they view him as an extraordinary human being, considering both his private life and its social context. Following Mácha through Prague, other towns, and especially the places he visited, the authors also present him as a pioneer of Czech tourism who helped map the country through images and writing. Dvořák describes Mácha’s life from childhood onwards, places it in its historical period, quotes from relevant passages of his work, and pauses over its most interesting moments. In chapters whose titles begin with “Mácha Observed…”, Snětivý follows in Mácha’s footsteps as an eager, fascinated traveller. The book focuses on the years of Mácha’s childhood, adolescence, and emergence into the adult world, approximately from 1810 to 1832.