Vyhľadávanie
Can one make millions of people happy quickly, without love, and often against their will? Light is shed on these questions in Anton Hykisch’s new historical novel, set in the declining years of the 18th century, on the eve of the French Revolution. This is a free continuation of his successful novel Love the Queen (Milujte kráľovnú). The Emperor Joseph II had been waiting for years for the death of his mother Maria Teresa. Immediately after her demise he began impatiently making a reality of his dream of just government. In feverish, self-destroying work he sought to forget his own personal misfortune and insufficiency of love. The novel uncovers the painful private life of the young ruler, up to the point of his premature and tragic end. The decade of Joseph II’s rule is also the beginning of the Slovaks’ national awakening. On the pages of this book we encounter Jozef Ignác Bajza and his torments during the writing of the first Slovak novel. We are acquainted with life in old Bratislava/Pressburg, where Anton Bernolák and his friends created the first Slovak grammar in a seminar at the castle. This gripping novel allows us to look into the lives of European rulers, the highest church dignitaries, and poor village priests. We will make our way to little-known corners of the far-flung Habsburg monarchy. Hykisch’s new novel is a book about passion for power, a chronicle of the destinies of people who rejected the everyday and sought to change the life round about them.
