Farewell and a Handkerchief - by Vitě & zslav Nezval (Paperback)

About the Book

The poems of Farewell and a Handkerchief are composed of reflections from Czech poet Vítězslav Nezval's 1933 travels to Vienna, Paris, southern France and Italy. It is a powerful and enduring book of verses by one of the founders of Czech Surrealism and one of the most prolific poets of the twentieth century.

Book Synopsis

Farewell and a Handkerchief-Poems from the Road is a collection that reflects on the month-long travels of Czech poet Vítězslav Nezval through Vienna, Paris, southern France, and Italy. During this journey, on May 9, 1933, Nezval had a chance encounter with two of the surrealist movement's most influential poets-André Breton and Paul Éluard-while sitting at the Cardinal Café on the Grands Boulevards in Paris, a meeting that proved transformative. After returning home, Nezval helped found the Czech Surrealist Group, along with Karel Teige, Jindřich Stýrský, and Toyen. It became the only official group of its kind outside of France.

Review Quotes

Nezval is a modern-day savage who tramples upon the strict canons of truth and beauty. His poetry offers a star the same priviledges of beauty as it would a molding apple left behind on a staircase.
- Milan Kundera, author of The Unbearable Lightess of Being

Kostovski's translation preserves the clarity and simplicity of Nezval's verse...
... A vibrant collection that introduces an Eastern European master to the West.
- Kirkus Review

In Farewell and a Handkerchief Nezval's poetic mind creates an evocative imagery of cities, coutries, people, social reality of the rich and the poor. the good and the bad (aproaching Nazism)in a stream of hamonic rhyming.
- Karen von Kunes, Yale University

Nezval was one of the great masters of true poetry of the twetieth century. He was great like Apollinaire, Jesenin, Mayakovsky and Éluard.
- Nazim Hikmet, Turkish poet, author of Life's Good Brother

About the Author

Vítězslav Nezval was one of the most prolific writers of the twentieth-century avant-garde. He was a leading founder of the Czech movement Devětsil (Nine Forces), a group that included individuals such as Nobel laureate Jaroslav Seifert, which evolved into the Czech Surrealist Group. He was born in 1900 in Biskoupky, a small town in southern Moravia. His works in English include The Absolute Gravedigger (Twisted Spoon Press, 2016), Prague with Fingers of Rain (Bloodaxe Books Ltd., 2009), Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Twisted Spoon Press, 2005), and Antilyrik and Other Poems (Green Integer, 2001). He died in 1958.