Page:Czechoslovak stories.pdf/115



love of out-of-doors, due to his country birth and bringing up, breathes through each of Svoboda’s stories even when they concern themselves with the life of the effete and those whose interests are far from those of nature. Svoboda’s technical education in the substantial realities of every-day life prepared him for a position as official in the city bank in Prague, where he remained until 1911, but it did not crush out of him appreciation and love for all that nature gives so generously.

Mr. Svoboda has been almost equally active along three lines of literary expression:—as a poet, as a dramatist and as a novelist and short-story writer.

His early activities were in the line of poetical production, the first fruits being his “Básně” (Poems) of 1883–85. More keen and far deeper are his later collections—“Nálady z Minulých Let” (Moods of Former Years), 1890, and “Květy Z Mých Lučin” (Blossoms from My Meadows), 1891. Other books of lyrics and epics have followed since that time.

As a dramatist, few modern writers excel him in realism, verisimilitude and character delineation.