Jan Neruda

Jan Nepomuk Neruda (9 July 1834 – 22 August 1891) was a Czech journalist, writer and poet, one of the most prominent representatives of Czech Realism and a member of "the May school".

In his work Neruda promoted the idea of rebirth of Czech patriotism. He participated in all the central cultural and political struggles of his generation, and gained a reputation as a sensitive critic. Neruda became, with Vítězslav Hálek, the most prominent representative of the new literary trends. Neruda was known for his satirical depiction of the petty bourgeois of Prague. His most popular prose work is Povídky malostranské (1877, Tales of the Lesser Quarter), a collection of short stories, which was translated into English in 1957 by the novelist and mystery writer Ellis Peters. Neruda's stories take the reader to the Lesser Quarter, to its streets and yards, shops, churches, houses, and restaurants. Neruda was an unabashed anti-Semite as his Jewish characters, according to Madeleine Albright in her book, Prague Winter, were almost always portrayed as greedy moneylenders, a view which he seemed to assume would be widely shared.