Alois Jirásek

The Czech writer, Alois Jirásek (1851–1930), was the country’s most popular and successful historical novelist in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Between 1918 and 1930, he was nominated several times for the Nobel Prize for Literature.

While many of his novels might be viewed today as historically inaccurate or overly nationalistic, Jirásek’s impact on the founding of the nation is undeniable. Of all the important characters active in Bohemia in 1918, Jirásek was arguably the most influential cultural figure in the rise of Czechoslovakia from the ashes of the Habsburg Empire.

In a letter on the occasion of Jirásek’s 70th birthday, President T. G. Masaryk wrote: “Učil jste lid čísti, přemýšleti a uvažovati, to znamená připravovati cestu k svobodě…” (‘You taught the people to read, to think and to reflect, that is, to prepare the path to freedom…’).

Born in the East Bohemian town of Hronov, Jirásek’s father was a baker, his grandfather a peasant farmer. After studying at Charles University, Jirásek became a history teacher, first in Litomyšl and then in Prague. His first published works of historical fiction recounted patriotic struggles of students and peasants in Habsburg Bohemia.

Jirásek’s most famous work is probably Staré pověsti české (‘Old Czech Legends’), which retells the mythical origins of the Czech people — Libuše, Přemysl and the founding myths. Jirásek also devoted considerable attention to the Hussite period with works like Mezi proudy and Proti všem, portraying Jan Hus and the Hussite wars as struggles for justice and national dignity.

He wrote about the ‘Dark Age’ after the Battle of White Mountain (1620), when the Habsburgs crushed the Bohemian estates and re-Catholicized the kingdom. Jirásek’s work supplied the nation with a continuous heroic narrative: ancient Slavic roots fostering moral courage in the Hussite revolution, leading ultimately to tragic defeat at White Mountain. Long oppression followed, but always with the lingering hope of eventual rebirth. By the early 20th century, Jirásek’s works were required reading in schools, profoundly shaping how generations of Czechs understood themselves.

Jirásek’s novel Temno (‘Darkness’) was serialized in a magazine between 1912 and 1915. Set in early 18th century Bohemia, the adventure story essentially portrays forced re-Catholicization and Habsburg control as spiritual and cultural suffocation. When the work was finally published in book form, in April 1915, it sold out within three weeks. The novel was widely read by Czech soldiers serving on the frontlines, helping instill a sense of patriotic belief in a better future for the nation. The Austro-Hungarian authorities reacted by issuing a ban on the purchase of Temno for school libraries.

Alois Jirásek was one of the first signatories of the Manifesto of Czech Writers, addressed in May 1917 to the Czech deputies in the Riechstat in Vienna. It called on the deputies to announce their support for Czech self-determination, or resign. This was the first domestic public declaration effectively calling for independence for Czechoslovakia made during World War I.

On 28 October 1918, having spent decades depicting Czech history as a cycle of oppression and rebirth, Alois Jirásek stood beneath the statue of St Wenceslas and joined in the reading of the declaration of Czechoslovak independence. By adding his influential voice to the call for self-determination, Jirásek helped the nation feel that independence was not merely an accident of war, but was historically and morally inevitable.

After 1918, Jirásek fully embraced the fledgling Czechoslovak state, serving as a Senator in the National Assembly until 1925. He continued to write historical novels until his death. Perhaps fittingly, Jirásek’s final work had as its central character, Jiří of Poděbrady, the last king of Bohemia from a native Czech family.

Alois Jirásek died in Prague on 12 March 1930 at the age of 78. He was given a national funeral, attended by President Masaryk. His ashes were laid to rest in a simple family tomb in the Hronov cemetery.

He is not totally forgotten. Jirásek appears at number 48, in the list of 100 Greatest Czechs (a poll conducted by Czech TV in 2005).