Closely Observed Trains (novella)
| Author | Bohumil Hrabal |
|---|---|
| Original title | Ostře sledované vlaky |
| Translator | Edith Pargeter |
| Language | Czech |
| Publisher | Československý spisovatel |
Publication date | 1965 |
| Publication place | Czechoslovakia |
Published in English | 1968 |
| Pages | 99 |
Closely Observed Trains (Czech: Ostře sledované vlaky), also published as A Close Watch on the Trains and Closely Watched Trains,[1] is a 1965 novella by the Czech writer Bohumil Hrabal.
Plot
Set in German-occupied Czechoslovakia toward the end of World War II, the story is about a 22-year-old signalman apprentice at a small railroad station who struggles with sexual anxiety and becomes involved with the wartime resistance.[2]
Reception
Closely Observed Trains is Hrabal's most famous work. The scholar Robert Porter writes that "the substance of the work is to be found outside the realms of conventional narrative realism" and describes it as "not so much a war story as a comic exploration of an individual's existential anguish".[2]
Adaptation
The story was adapted into a 1966 Czechoslovak film with the same name, directed by Jiří Menzel. The film is one of the most famous examples of the Czechoslovak New Wave and received the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.[3]
References
- ^ Pelán, Jiří (2019). Bohumil Hrabal: A Full-length Portrait. Prague: Karolinum Press. p. 28. ISBN 978-80-246-3909-3.
- ^ a b Porter, Robert (2014). An Introduction to Twentieth-Century Czech Fiction: Comedies of Defiance. Sussex Academic Press. pp. 65–72. ISBN 978-1-902210-81-0.
- ^ Pulver, Andrew (1 May 2004). "Track record". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 May 2025.