Author Country Czechoslovakia | Original title Valerie a týden divů Language English | |
Genre Surrealist, Gothic, Novel Published 1945 (Czech edition); 2005 (Twisted Spoon Press) (English translation) | ||
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Czech: Valerie a týden divů) is a novel by surrealist Czech writer Vítězslav Nezval, written in 1935 and first published ten years afterward in 1945. The avant-garde experimental novel was written before Nezval's dramatic shift to Socialist Realism and allegiance to Stalin. It was made into a 1970 Czech film directed by Jaromil Jireš, an example of Czech New Wave cinema.
With this novel, Nezval explored the gothic themes and settings of such novels as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818) and M. G. Lewis' The Monk (1796), as well as F. W. Murnau's film Nosferatu (1922; based on Dracula [1897] by Bram Stoker).
The novel has long been available in Czech. The 2005 English edition features the illustrations by Kamil Lhotak that appeared in the original edition.
Dramatization
The 1970 film adaptation Valerie a týden divů, directed by Jaromil Jireš, starred the then 13-year-old Jaroslava Schallerová as Valerie.