Best European languages for reading novels

[William Camden]

He did, but Kafka's father was bilingual and came from a rural Jewish family in Bohemia in which Czech was spoken. When his father moved to Prague, he favoured German as part of getting ahead. When the Empire folded, he removed one r from his name ("Herrmann") because he wanted to make it less German-seeming in the newly-proclaimed Czechoslovakia.
Although the evidence is a little sparse, Prague German was often considered artificial, pompous and bureaucratic. Actual biographies of Kafka suggest the language picture of the Kafka family was a little more complex than being German speakers. When the Empire collapsed in 1918, quite a lot of Kafka's German-speaking colleagues were fired. Kafka was not. It helped that he could speak Czech.
There were anti-Semitic riots in Prague, especially as the Empire collapsed, since many Czechs associated Jews with the Hapsburg Empire. It is reported that the shop of Kafka's father was spared, on the grounds that he was assumed to be a Czech.

[Cavesa]

Kafka simply wrote in his native language, that is all. The area had always been quite diverse, until the 20th century, there were several native languages being used. German was the prefered language of the rich for half a millenium, yes. And it became the prefered language over Latin in education, by na order from Vienna, in the 18th (or even 17th?) century, which actually lead to big protests at the university. Latin had been a way to level the ground for everyone, when it came to higher education. Czech had its own literature since 13th century, but there were a few centuries of almost nothing, until the 19th century with Palacký and company. I generally think that exhumation of the Czech language and nation in the 19th century was a huge mistake we are paying for till today. Historically, economically, culturally.

I don't get much the people saying: "Ah Czech literature, Kafka and Kundera", while neither of them is actually a Czech writer. If they were, they wouldn't probably get so well known abroad . It looks as if we didn't have any writers of our own. We've got others, for example Čapek certainly is world class quality (after all, he was nominated for the Nobel prize for literature). But those two are not Czech writers, just influenced by their roots in the region.

But that doesn't mean anything for the main question of this thread. And I insist that it is important to look at individual genres, when asking for interesting literature. Without that, we will have the same answers perpetuated ad nauseam and no value out of it, no need to discuss it at all. Of course that if you take the Czech literature as a whole and compare it to the Spanish literature as a whole, the Czech will come out of the comparison as total garbage. And I'll be the first one to point it out, I am certainly not proud of my second rate country. But if you take sci-fi, you'll find out the Czech literature may actually give you more authors, and of very good quality. And for many readers, this is more important than the overall literature over the course of history.

It doesn't matter whether literature in certain languages is just a matter of the last century or two. After all, most readers aren't after classics.

What Jiwon and I were talking about a few posts ago, that actually applies to European languages and literatures well too. The fact that just a few languages are widely translated doesn't mean anything. And I find it weird that on a forum dedicated to discovering other languages and cultures (including literatures), there are people with the attitude "small literatures are crap, just look at the numbers".

edited a wrongly writen name.

[William Camden]

One of my favourite novels, perhaps my favourite of all, is Jaroslav Hašek's The Good Soldier Švejk. I have read it in several languages - English, German, Turkish - and even learned some Czech from tackling the book in the original language. What struck me was Czech's relative similarity to Polish, but that's a digression. It is probably also the most translated Czech novel. The mostly Slavic names and place names that deter some people from reading the book are no problem for me - some of my ancestors came from the Polish/Ukrainian/Jewish backwater in which the last chapters of the novel are set (Hašek died before he could finish the novel). Joseph Heller said he would not have written Catch -22 if he had not read Hašek's novel first.

[Theodisce]

I generally think that exhumation of the Czech language and nation in the 19th century was a huge mistake we are paying for till today. Historically, economically, culturally.

I'm personally very enthusiastic about the national revival and quite sure that the dissolution of the Czech nation in the German sea would have been an unparalleled lost to the European culture as such. While I can see your point, I am happy that I had the opportunity to learn Czech- a Slavic language with a rich literary tradition and not just a local variety of Austrian German. Since my school years I have been amazed that Czechs managed to develop their own variant of western culture very early, at least when compared to Poles. Besides, assimilation can be very damaging to the psyche of the assimilated community as well as to its creative potential (are there any recognized Belorussian authors writing in Russian? I doubt it seriously.)

In some recent books on literary history I can discern attempts at including German writing authors from historical Bohemia and Moravia into the Czech literary narrative. I would opt for "as well... as" as opposed to "either... or".

[tarvos]

The truth is that if you want to know about the literature of a geographically smaller area, you've just got to dig a little bit deeper, because there's less of a market. Not everyone in Manaus is going to care about the writings of Mr Nguyen in Vietnamese. Neither will Mr Kobayashi always be interested in the works of Schellini in Lugano, Switzerland. But since Czech is the language of an entire nation of speakers, there should be enough to keep you busy for a lifetime.

[lichtrausch]

Besides, assimilation can be very damaging to the psyche of the assimilated community as well as to its creative potential (are there any recognized Belorussian authors writing in Russian? I doubt it seriously.)

To play devil's advocate, Ireland's creative potential does not appear to have suffered. Irish writers have produced some of the most celebrated English-language works. And it just so happens that last year's Nobel prize in literature went to Svetlana Alexievich, a Belorussian author writing in Russian.

[Theodisce]

Besides, assimilation can be very damaging to the psyche of the assimilated community as well as to its creative potential (are there any recognized Belorussian authors writing in Russian? I doubt it seriously.)

To play devil's advocate, Ireland's creative potential does not appear to have suffered. Irish writers have produced some of the most celebrated English-language works. And it just so happens that last year's Nobel prize in literature went to Svetlana Alexievich, a Belorussian author writing in Russian.

True, how could it have escaped me! I wanted to wait till a Russian audiobook version of Alexievich appears, then forgot about her and that's the result . Well, seems like there is evidence working against me.

[IronMike]

One of my favourite novels, perhaps my favourite of all, is Jaroslav Hašek's The Good Soldier Švejk.

Love love love that novel.

It's also available in Esperanto, btw!

[tarvos]

Then it's going on my Czech reading list.

[Cavesa]

It was on my obligatory reading list at highschool. I really hated it after a few chapters and left it. I suppose it is one of the books I opened at the wrong age. Just as I had hated Shakespeare at 12 (I loved A.Dumas, J.Verne, A.Christie at that age) and absolutely loved some of his plays at 16.

I think the south-eastern european countries may be a treasure grove. I've read just one or two books from that area so far. I liked them (the obligatory reading list coincided with my tastes). But I haven't tried more. Clare's Croatian log is very inspirative and I think the whole penninsula's culture doesn't get the deserved attention. Those countries are a great example of what we were talking about with Jiwon (I hope I write it correctly this time). Bad PR. There are many people, with so much to draw from. Breathtaking nature, rich history, lots of pain and tragedy to deal with and teach about, surely lots of imagination too. Yet, authors from there not that common in bookstores abroad. The shelf of the balcan literature in my favourite bookshop in France is very small. Unlike the shelves belonging to the scandinavians. I need to dig more in this direction. And one day learn a language from that area. And visit, to know it much closer than from photoes or movies.

Anyone has experience with these literatures? What can be found there?