Jakub Arbes
1840–1914
Biography
Jakub Arbes was a Czech writer, journalist and thinker, born on 12 June 1840 in Smíchov, a district of Prague that is now part of the city. He studied under the poet Jan Neruda, whom he admired all his life. He began work as a journalist in 1867 and from 1868 to 1877 was chief editor of the National Press. His opposition to the Austro-Hungarian authorities brought him fifteen months in prison at Česká Lípa. After his release he left Prague for Paris and the south of France, where he mixed with Czech and French writers, among them Émile Zola. He died on 8 April 1914.
He is best remembered for the romanetto, a short novel form that he developed in the 1860s and 1870s. His romanettos are mostly set in Central Europe and tend to turn a gothic mystery into a puzzle that logic solves, which is why historians of fiction count them among the forerunners of the modern detective story. Newton's Brain (Newtonův mozek, 1877) is the most influential of them. It follows a schemer who apparently dies at Königgrätz in 1866 and returns with Isaac Newton's brain in his head, and it is often counted as an early influence on H. G. Wells. Arbes also translated much of Edgar Allan Poe into Czech and French. He wrote about the urban working class, promoted ideas close to utopian socialism and set a high value on rational thought.
The site holds Rakontoj. The title is the Esperanto word for “stories” and the book credits Josef Grňa as translator, so the site's copy is probably an Esperanto translation rather than the Czech original. Readers who want Arbes at his most characteristic should look first to the romanettos. A public square in central Prague bears his name.
This biography was written by a language model. The sources below are where to check it; treat details with care.
Books
Rakontoj
by Jakub Arbes (translated by Josef Grňa)
Five stories by the Czech writer Jakub Arbes in Josef Grňa's Esperanto translation, printed in the old x-spelling. Two sketches from Mozart's life, at the Bertramka villa in Prague and in Vienna in 1791, come first, followed by the uncanny tales of a white wedding dress and a…
Summary written by Claude Opus 5.5.