Julius Zeyer
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Julius Zeyer (April 26, 1841, Prague – January 29, 1901, Prague) was a Czech prose writer, poet, and playwright.
Zeyer was born into a German-French family and learned the Czech language from his nanny. He was expected to take over the family's factory but instead decided to learn carpentering. Attempts to study high school and university were unsuccessful. During his life he frequently traveled in Europe and the Orient. After 1877 he moved to Vodňany, where he spent over a decade with literary work. Afterwards, he returned to Prague.
[edit] Works
Zeyer's prose and poems are restless, nostalgic, mystical, depressive, and usually end tragically.
Zeyer's epic poems celebrated the glorious past of ancients, compared to the bleak presence. He took inspiration from the Czech, Russian, Irish, and French history. His novels describe persons trying to live a better life under the romantic ideals and people who find peace only at the moment of death. His semi-autobiographical novel Jan Maria Plojhar (1880) deals with the tragic nature of an artist. Zeyer's dramatic works were written in a similar style.
