Václav Havel

Vaclav Havel

Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Editor's preface -- Introduction -- 1 The power of the powerless -- 2 Spiritual values, independent initiatives and politics -- 3 Catholicism and politics -- 4 On the question of Chartism -- 5 The human rights movement and social progress -- 6 Prospects for democracy and socialism in eastern Europe -- 7 Chartism and 'real socialism' -- 8 Who really is isolated? -- 9 The alternative community as revolutionary avant-garde -- 10 Thoughts inside a tightly-corked bottle -- 11 On not living in hatred -- Appendix Charter 77 Declaration

Citizens Against the State in Central-eastern Europe

The Power of the Powerless

Odcházení

Zahradní slavnost

Karel Hvížd̕ala

The president of Czechoslovakia discusses his political and theatrical work, and his view of recent events in Eastern Europe

A Conversation with Karel Hvížďala

Disturbing the Peace

Moc bezmocných

The Memorandum is a remarkably witty assault on the madness of "efficiency" peculiar to total bureaucracy. In a large office, and unknown to the Managing Director, a new language called Ptydepe is installed as the official means of inter-office communication.

The Memorandum

When Professor Leopold Nettles writes a book that contains passages unacceptable to the government he faces pressures from the state

A Play in Seven Scenes

Largo Desolato

A Play

Audience

في ذكرى يان باتوتشكا

قوة المستضعفين

نامه‌های سرگشاده

Gathers essays by the Czech playwright, and includes writings by other authors in his honor."

Or Living in Truth

Quyền lực của kẻ không quyền lực tiểu luận chính trị

The Increased Difficulty of Concentration

John Gay

The Czech President Vaclav Havel, a force on behalf of international human rights and his country's most celebrated dissident, first gained prominence as a playwright. During the period when Havel was blacklisted by the Czechoslovakian government for his political activism, productions of his work in and around Prague were regarded as subversive acts. The Beggar's Opera is a free-wheeling, highly politicized adaptation of John Gay's well-known eighteenth-century work of the same name. The play, reminiscent of Havel's earlier Garden Party and The Memorandum, is up to his best satirical standard. Like the Brecht/Weill Threepenny Opera, Havel's play uses an underworld milieu to explore the intermingled themes of love, loyalty, and treachery. Paul Wilson's new English translation of The Beggar's Opera is lively, idiomatic, and sensitive to underlying linguistic and political issues. The Cornell edition contains an Introduction by Peter Steiner that details the November 1, 1976, premiere of the play in the Prague suburb of Horní Pocernice, the reaction of the Czech secret police, and the measures the government took to punish and discredit those involved in the production. Eleven photographs--of the playwright, the actors, the theatre, and the actual performance--enhance the texture of the book.

The Beggar's Opera

Červen 1979 - září 1982

Dopisy Olze

Covers totalitarianism, democracy, the impact of technology, and human rights

Politics as Morality in Practice : Speeches and Writings, 1990-1996

The Art of the Impossible

Reflects on the political, ethical, economic, and cultural complexities of the post-communist era, addressing such issues as the survival of morality in politics, repairing the ravages of communism, and the creation of a new order

Summer Meditations

The former president of the Czech Republic details his odyssey from dissident playwright to politician, and offers his thoughts on communism, the future of the European Union, the role of national identity in today's world, the war in Iraq, and the United

To the Castle and Back

In his most challenging work to date, Czech playwright Vaclav Havel has given the Faust legend a provocative twist. His setting is the Institute, whose mission is to combat the irrational tendencies in society through its scientific work. Personal and professional relationships at this lighthouse of truthful knowledge are a tissue of lies and sycophancy in which all concerned willingly collude. The only tempest in this teapot of careerism is Dr Foustka, who has lately been smitten by metaphysical doubt and is rumored to be dabbling in the black arts. His mentor, the unlikely Mephistopheles of the piece, is a dwarflike old man with smelly feet and a slippery logic that irresistibly appeals to Foustka's intellectual hubris. With great wit and originality Havel follows the familiar outlines of the story to a unique conclusion at a witches' sabbath garden party organized by the Institute's crafty director in the spirit of modern group-costume therapy. For Havel, the rational carried to surreal lengths of irrationality is not a theatrical technique but a fact of life in Czechoslovakia since the Soviet invasion of 1968. Yet in universalizing his tale through the Faust legend, he forcefully reminds us that under conditions of modern bureaucracy neither East nor West holds a monopoly on the sale of souls.

A Play in Ten Scenes

Temptation

Gathered together here for the first time are seven plays that span Havel's career from his early days at the Theater of the Balustrade through the Prague Spring, Charter 77, and the repeated imprisonments that made Havel's name into a rallying cry and propelled him to the leadership of his country. They include The Garden Party, The Increased Difficulty of Concentration, Mistake, the Vanek trilogy of Audience, Unveiling, and Protest, and the first fully corrected English version of The Memorandum--the play that won Havel the Obie for Best Foreign Play in 1968.

The Garden Party and Other Plays

Paul Wilson

Vaclav Havel is one of the most important European writers of our time. In 1979 he was sentenced to four and a half years of hard labour for his involvement in the Czech human rights movement, Charter 77. In prison he was allowed to write to his wife, Olga, once a week. He used the opportunity for profound reflections, on theatre, society and philosophy. These letters form a remarkable document, and a work of lasting value.'From Havel, we learn that the true heroes of our time are those who stay the course.' Bruce Chatwin

Václav Havel

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