Eva Voldřichová Beránková Libri

Examines European and American literatures from the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, tracing not only the trends common to the whole cultural region but also the differences manifested in particular national literatures. The book is divided into two parts: the first explores the transformation of paradigms in literatur and literacy criticism; the second offers portraits of individual writers, figures and myth from the period broadly understood as the "epoch of symbolism"

Addressing a chance acquaintance in an Amsterdam bar, Jean-Baptiste Clamence remarks that Amsterdam's concentric circles resemble the circles of hell. Clamence, a successful barrister realises the deep-seated hypocrisy of his existence