JAN NERUDA _(1839-1891) is one of the foremost figures of Bohemian
literature. He has tried his skill at every sort of writing, but it is
as poet that he is greatest, although it is not easy to pass stable
judgment upon such a many-sided, changing accomplishment._
_He belongs to a certain period of Bohemian renaissance which is
sometimes spoken of as the movement of the sixties, a movement fruitful
and far reaching. He may be said to have introduced into his tongue the
feuilleton, the arabesque and the short story of form and finish._
_In verse the work which he initiated so brilliantly has been carried on
by Yaroslav Vrchlický and Svatopluk Čech, who are both world poets not
much below the level of Pushkin and Mickiewicz._
_Among the most famous of his verse productions are “Cosmic Songs,”
“Ballades and Romances,” “Simple Motives.” In addition he has published
“Flowers From a Graveyard,” “Parisian Pictures,” “Brief and Briefer
Studies,” “Francesca of Rimini” (a play), and two comedies. We include
two of his short stories of contemporary life._