{"product_id":"valerie-and-her-week-of-wonders","title":"Valerie and Her Week of Wonders","description":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\"I wrote this novel out of a love of the mystique in those ancient tales, superstitions and romances, printed in Gothic script, which used to flit before my eyes and declined to convey to me their content.\" Vít\u003cspan style=\"font-family: 'Calibri',sans-serif;\"\u003eě\u003c\/span\u003ezslav Nezval\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eWritten in 1935 at the height of Czech Surrealism but not published until 1945, \u003cem\u003eValerie and Her Week of Wonders\u003c\/em\u003e is a bizarre erotic fantasy of a young girl's maturation into womanhood on the night of her first menstruation. Referencing Matthew Lewis's \u003cem\u003eThe Monk\u003c\/em\u003e, Marquis de Sade's \u003cem\u003eJustine\u003c\/em\u003e, K. H. Macha's \u003cem\u003eMay\u003c\/em\u003e, F. W. Murnau's film \u003cem\u003eNosferatu\u003c\/em\u003e, Nezval employs the language of the pulp serial novel to fashion a lyrical, menacing dream of sexual awakening involving a vampire with an insatiable appetite for chicken blood, changelings, lecherous priests and a malicious grandmother desiring her lost youth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003ePart fairy tale, part Gothic horror, \u003cem\u003eValerie and Her Week of Wonders\u003c\/em\u003e is a meditation on youth and age, sexuality and death, an androgynous merging of brother with sister, an exploration of the grotesque with the shifting registers of language, mood, and genre that were a hallmark of the Czech avant-garde. The 1970 film version is considered one of the outstanding achievements of Czech new-wave cinema.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThis edition is translated from the Czech by David Short, with afterword by Guiseppe Dierna and with original illustrations illustrated by Kamil Lhoták.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Vítězslav Nezval","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54510571684179,"sku":"9788086264196","price":11.75,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1071\/6997\/2563\/files\/9788086264196.jpg?v=1786050026","url":"https:\/\/www.vanitaspress.co.uk\/products\/valerie-and-her-week-of-wonders","provider":"Vanitas Press","version":"1.0","type":"link"}