Jaroslav Durych

Jaroslav Durych (2 December 1886 – 7 April 1962) was a Czech prose writer, poet, playwright, journalist, and military surgeon.

Durych was born in Hradec Králové. His major prose masterworks are Bloudění (1929), a novel from the time of the Thirty Years' War (English translation with titleThe Descent of the Idol appeared in New York in 1936) and Služebníci neužiteční of which only a first part could be published in Czechoslovakia because after the 1948 Communist putsch, Durych was silenced (full ed. in 4 vols. Rome, 1969).

Durych's Catholic views were often at odds with those of the prevailing intellectual forces in the first Czechoslovak Republic, notably his positive evaluation of the internal developments in Bohemia and baroque culture that followed the Battle of White Mountain. Durych felt that the loss suffered there by Friedrich von Pfalz (Frederick V, Elector Palatine) saved Bohemia from becoming a part of Germany.

Durych died in Prague.