Karen von Kunes

In Milan Kundera’s Fiction: A Critical Approach to Existential Betrayals, Karen von Kunes traces Kundera’s literary aspirations to a single episode in Czechoslovakia in the Stalinist era. This moment attracted international attention when a 1950 police report was released in 2008. Reporters rushed to judgment, accusing Kundera of denouncing Miroslav Dvorácek to the police, resulting in Dvorácek’s immediate arrest and sentencing to hard labor. von Kunes debunks this shocking charge in a systematic way and argues that Kundera reported a suitcase, not a man. She ties Kundera’s dominant themes of sex, betrayal, and political denouncement to the suitcase, a fatal instrument that can lead to paradoxes and unforeseen and catastrophic coincidences for his characters.

Czech: An Essential Grammar is a practical reference guide to the core structures and features of modern Czech. Presenting a fresh and accessible description of the language, this engaging grammar uses clear, jargon-free explanations and sets out the complexities of Czech in short, readable sections. This new revised edition has been thoroughly updated with examples of current usage, additional morphological explanations and an historical overview of Czech as to why two levels – written and spoken Czech – exist till this day. Suitable for either independent study or for students in schools, colleges, universities and adult classes of all types, key features include: focus on the morphology and syntax of the language clear explanations of grammatical terms full use of authentic examples use of basic twenty-first-century English borrowings detailed contents list and index for easy access to information. With an emphasis on the Czech that native speakers use today, Czech: An Essential Grammar will help students to read, speak and write the language with greater confidence.

Czech: An Essential Grammar is a practical reference guide to the core structures and features of modern Czech. Presenting a fresh and accessible description of the language, this engaging grammar uses clear, jargon-free explanations and sets out the complexities of Czech in short, readable sections. This new revised edition has been thoroughly updated with examples of current usage, additional morphological explanations and an historical overview of Czech as to why two levels – written and spoken Czech – exist till this day. Suitable for either independent study or for students in schools, colleges, universities and adult classes of all types, key features include: focus on the morphology and syntax of the language clear explanations of grammatical terms full use of authentic examples use of basic twenty-first-century English borrowings detailed contents list and index for easy access to information. With an emphasis on the Czech that native speakers use today, Czech: An Essential Grammar will help students to read, speak and write the language with greater confidence.

Milan Kundera is one of the few Czech writers with worldwide readership. Often set within a political context, his novels have appealed to readers for their clarity and originality, intellectual flair, philosophical angles, and mythological metaphors. In Milan Kundera’s Fiction: A Critical Approach to Existential Betrayals, Karen von Kunes traces Kundera’s literary aspirations to a single episode in Czechoslovakia in the Stalinist era. This moment attracted international attention when a 1950 police report was released in 2008. Reporters rushed to judgment, accusing Kundera of denouncing a young man, Miroslav Dvorácek, to the police, resulting in Dvorácek’s immediate arrest and sentencing to hard labor. von Kunes debunks this shocking charge in a systematic and thorough fashion. She argues that Kundera reported a suitcase, not a man. Von Kunes further contends that two sentences in the report provide significant insight into Kundera’s novels and plays. She ties his dominant themes of sex, betrayal, and political denouncement to the suitcase, a fatal instrument that can lead to paradoxes and unforeseen and catastrophic coincidences for his characters.

Features approximately 30,000 entries in Czech - the official language of Czech Republic, with an emphasis on everyday colloquial vocabulary. This book begins with an introduction to Czech culture and a pronunciation guide. It also includes a section on grammar, covering such topics as gender, verb conjugation, and noun and adjective declension.