Glorious Nemesis - Hardcover

Ladislav Klima

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 8086264394 ISBN 13: 9788086264394

Publisher: Twisted Spoon Press, 2011

Synopsis

Klima's intense inner life and complex mental state is reflected in his peculiar writings. The eccentricity of style and occasional violence found in his prose were intended to convey the deep conflicts attending his thought processes, and this is perhaps best exemplified in the novella Glorious Nemesis. Set in the Tyrol (inspired by Klima's extended stay in Landeck), it is a balladic tale that explores the metaphysics of love and death, crime and reincarnation. Sider, a man of twenty-eight, is confronted by a giant mountain named Stag's Head and an ancient hovel standing under a high, black cliff. Out one day on a hike, he encounters two women who will mark his fate: the elder Errata and the younger Orea, dressed in blue. From this point on Sider is on a quest for the All, the Absolute, and to achieve eternity through divine retribution for the misdeeds of a past life. Willing to risk his entire fortune and sanity, he succumbs to his dreams and hallucinations as Orea, or her doppelganger, becomes for him a representation of the goddess Nemesis, the apotheosis of the Feminine who initiates him into the mysteries of life and death.

Written around 1919 and last revised by Klima in 1926, Glorious Nemesis was published posthumously in 1932. This is the first English translation.

About this title

Review

Ladislav Klíma has been an important "voice calling in the wilderness." His antimetaphysical view of the world was not unique at his time, as Europe was full of followers of Friedrich Nietzsche, both good and bad. Yet Klíma's mix of philosophical essay, fiction, poetry, and drama was unique. Often he was too fervent in proclaiming that the only security lies in the awareness of one's will and of one's absolute freedom. In this way he eliminated the border between truth and fiction, between waking and dreaming, and even between life and death. If the world, from Klíma's perspective, was to be some phantasm or phantom, we would need a new way of articulating it, of creating it anew. At the same time, the main purpose of the world would be inherent in the free and unlimited will, life a game for the free individual. The non-conformist work of Ladislav Klíma has almost always shocked, has often incited scandal, but has hardly ever left us indifferent. One need not accept his view of the world to experience it and enjoy it in all its ambiguity, just as one does the stage. --Václav Havel

Klíma's language is hyperbolic, absolute, and combative because it captures his lifelong battle for his Self and with his Self.
--Emil Hakl

Ladislav Klíma has been an important "voice calling in the wilderness." His antimetaphysical view of the world was not unique at his time, as Europe was full of followers of Friedrich Nietzsche, both good and bad. Yet Klíma's mix of philosophical essay, fiction, poetry, and drama was unique. Often he was too fervent in proclaiming that the only security lies in the awareness of one's will and of one's absolute freedom. In this way he eliminated the border between truth and fiction, between waking and dreaming, and even between life and death. If the world, from Klíma's perspective, was to be some phantasm or phantom, we would need a new way of articulating it, of creating it anew. At the same time, the main purpose of the world would be inherent in the free and unlimited will, life a game for the free individual. The non-conformist work of Ladislav Klíma has almost always shocked, has often incited scandal, but has hardly ever left us indifferent. One need not accept his view of the world to experience it and enjoy it in all its ambiguity, just as one does the stage. --Vaclav Havel

Klíma's language is hyperbolic, absolute, and combative because it captures his lifelong battle for his Self and with his Self.
--Emil Hakl

A beautifully produced book ... fascinating, mysterious and at times a tad alarming. --Supernatural Tales

I feel myself to be walking in the footsteps ... of what Ladislav Klíma wrote and stood for. --Bohumil Hrabal

Next to Klíma, Diogenes in his barrel was a homeowner.
--Karel Capek

Both metaphysically and stylistically intriguing, Glorious Nemesis is a work that belongs alongside those by E.T.A. Hoffmann and his heirs -- Meyrink and Leo Perutz (at their most daring), Kubin, and the like. Curious stuff, and very much of its time, it's nevertheless quite fascinating.
--The Complete Review

Edition details

• Publisher: Twisted Spoon Press
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 8086264394
• ISBN 13: 9788086264394
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Pavel Rut
• Number of pages: 123