Patrik Ouředník’s novel imagines one of the most striking phenomena of the nineteenth century: the founding of “free” settlements in North and South America by Europeans aspiring to a “brighter tomorrow.” These literally hundreds of utopian experiments had one trait in common-the rejection of both social and political revolution as advocated by communists, as well as by socialist and social Catholic reformers. The book, to be published in the fall in Prague and Paris simultaneously, has three parts and two narrators. In the following excerpt from part one, the narrator writes his “profession of faith” in 1902, forty-seven years after the events described in parts two and three of the account.
Information in French here.
Information about the original Czech edition
Other selected published translations (6)
Die Gunst der Stunde, 1855 German
Instante propicio, 1855 Spanish
Dogodna chwila, 1855 Polish
The Opportune Moment, 1855 English
Istante propizio, 1855 Italian