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Václav Havel

    October 5, 1936 – December 18, 2011

    Václav Havel was a profound thinker whose writings, primarily plays and essays, delve into the absurdity of power and the existential search for truth and freedom. His internationally translated works often expose the insidious mechanisms of oppression, highlighting the resilience of the human spirit and the courage required to resist. Havel's literary output and his commitment to human rights established him as a significant moral voice, advocating for personal integrity and dignity in the face of systemic control. His legacy continues to inspire critical reflection on responsibility and the pursuit of genuine liberty.

    An Uncanny Era
    the Power of the Powerless
    Selected plays : 1963-83
    Open letters. Selected writings 1965-1990
    Living in Truth : Twenty-two essays published on the occasion of the award of the Erasmus Prize to Václav Havel
    To the Castle and Back
    • As writer, dissident, and statesman, Havel played an essential part in the changes that occurred in Central Europe during the last decades of the twentieth century, and became a powerful intellectual and political force for the reestablishment of democratic principles and institutions. Now, in this memoir, he recollects the pivotal experiences and ideas of his remarkable life. Known in his native Prague for his theatrical productions, and imprisoned for his anticommunist views, Havel emerged on the international stage in 1989 as the elected president of Czechoslovakia. He writes with eloquence and candor about his transition from playwright to politician, and the surreal challenges of governing a young democracy. But the scope of his writing extends far beyond the circumstances he faced in his own country. He shares his thoughts on the future of the EU, the reach of the American superpower, and the role of national identity in today's world.--From publisher description.

      To the Castle and Back
    • Spanning twenty-five years, this historic collection of writings shows Vaclav Havel's evolution from a modestly known playwright who had the courage to advise and criticize Czechoslovakia's leaders to a newly elected president whose first address to his fellow citizens begins, "I assume you did not propose me for this office so that I, too, would lie to you." Some of the pieces in Open Letters, such as "Dear Dr. Husak" and the essay "The Power of the Powerless," are by now almost legendary for their influence on a generation of Eastern European dissidents; others, such as some of Havel's prison correspondence and his private letter to Alexander Dubcek, appear in English for the first time. All of them bear the unmistakable imprint of Havel's intellectual rigor, moral conviction, and unassuming eloquence, while standing as important additions to the world's literature of conscience.

      Open letters. Selected writings 1965-1990
    • This collection of plays includes "The Garden Party", "The Memorandum", "The Increased Difficulty of Concentration" and "Mistake".

      Selected plays : 1963-83
    • the Power of the Powerless

      • 176 pages
      • 7 hours of reading
      4.3(276)Add rating

      Václav Havel’s remarkable and rousing essay on the tyranny of apathy, with a new introduction by Timothy Snyder Cowed by life under Communist Party rule, a greengrocer hangs a placard in their shop window: Workers of the world, unite! Is it a sign of the grocer’s unerring ideology? Or a symbol of the lies we perform to protect ourselves? Written in 1978, Václav Havel’s meditation on political dissent – the rituals of its suppression, and the sparks that re-ignite it – would prove the guiding manifesto for uniting Solidarity movements across the Soviet Union. A portrait of activism in the face of falsehood and intimidation, The Power of the Powerless remains a rousing call against the allure of apathy. 'Havel’s diagnosis of political pathologies has a special resonance in the age of Trump' Pankaj Mishra

      the Power of the Powerless
    • An Uncanny Era

      • 252 pages
      • 9 hours of reading
      4.3(16)Add rating

      Collects the conversations between the former president of the Czech Republic and the editor in chief of the largest daily newspaper in Poland, beginning in the 1970s and continuing as they lived through a tumultuous era in Central Europe.

      An Uncanny Era
    • There is no shortage of politicians who make a habit of shooting from the hip, but it is much rarer to find one who speaks from the heart. Vaclav Havel knows no other way to speak, or to write. Both as a dissident and as a playwright it was his sworn purpose for many years to combat evil with nothing but truth. As president of Czechoslovakia, and now of the Czech Republic, he has clung to that habit, refusing to turn over either his conscience or his voice to political handlers and professional speech-writers. Instead he assumes the additional burden - for him, it is a distinct pleasure - of composing all of his oratory. This volume consists of thirty-five of these essays, written between the years 1990 and 1996, that manage to be both profoundly personal and profoundly political. Havel writes of totalitarianism, its miseries and the nonetheless difficult emergence from it. He describes how his country and the other post-communist countries are learning democracy from scratch and are encountering obstacles from inside and out. He marvels at the single technology-driven civilization that envelops the globe, and the challenges this presents to multicultural realities. And he reminds us that - contrary to all appearances - common sense, moderation, responsibility, good taste, feeling, instinct, and conscience are not alien to politics, but are the very key to its long-term success.

      The Art of the Impossible. Politics as Morality in Practice
    • Spanning twenty-five years, this historic collection of writings shows Vaclav Havel's evolution from a modestly known playwright who had the courage to advise and criticize Czechoslovakia's leaders to a newly elected president whose first address to his fellow citizens begins, "I assume you did not propose me for this office so that I, too, would lie to you." Some of the pieces in Open letters, such as "Dear Dr. Husak" and the essay "The Power of the Powerless," are by now almost legendary for their influence on a generation of Eastern European dissidents; others, such as some of Havel's prison correspondence and his private letter to Alexander Dubcek, appear in English for the first time. All of them bear the unmistakable imprint of Havel's intellectual rigor, moral conviction, and unassuming eloquence, while standing as important additions to the world's literature of conscience

      Open letters : selected writings, 1965-1990
    • Open letters : selected prose 1965-1990

      • 415 pages
      • 15 hours of reading

      Vaclav Havel was born in Czechoslovakia in 1936. He is a leading playwright and has long been involved in the human rights movement becoming President of Czechoslovakia in 1989. This selection of his early prose ranges from the early 60s to 1990.

      Open letters : selected prose 1965-1990