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I Served The King Of England

Featuring an introduction by Adam Thirlwell
By Bohumil Hrabal
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Brief Description
A whirlwind of comic genius and moving poignancy following the rise and fall of one small, outrageous man, from the Czech Republic's master storyteller. 'Our very best writer today' Milan Kundera Ditie is a pint-sized hotel waiter with big dreams. Between pocketing stolen change from unsuspecting... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

A whirlwind of comic genius and moving poignancy following the rise and fall of one small, outrageous man, from the Czech Republic's master storyteller.

'Our very best writer today' Milan Kundera

Ditie is a pint-sized hotel waiter with big dreams. Between pocketing stolen change from unsuspecting customers and reminiscing on nights spent at the local brothel, he fantasises about his immense—and imagined—riches. Then, ludicrously, Ditie's dreams start to become reality.

Yet while his chaotic adventures lead him to ever more glamorous hotels, beyond the sparkling dining halls, the forces of twentieth-century European history march on. A whirlwind of comic genius, a gut-punch of narrative power, this is the story of one small man's rise and fall—or fall and rise—against the shadowy backdrop of Europe's darkest days.

With an introduction by Adam Thirlwell

'An extraordinary and subtly tragicomic novel' New York Times

'Hrabal bounces and floats... with a gusting humour and a hushed tenderness of detail' Julian Barnes

'A joyful, picaresque story, which begins with Baron Munchausen-like adventures and ends in tears and solitude.' James Wood

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781529976472

Publisher: Vintage Publishing

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 16 April 2026

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Vintage Classics

Contributors:

  • Translated by Paul Wilson
  • Introduction by Adam Thirlwell
  • Translated by Paul Wilson
  • Introduction by Adam Thirlwell

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 19.0mm

Width: 129.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 220g

Pages: 288

Collections

Bohumil Hrabal Classic Fiction Classic General Fiction Fiction General Fiction Literary Fiction Penguin Books

About the Author

Bohumil Hrabal (Author) Bohumil Hrabal was born in 1914 in Brno-Zidenice, Moravia. He received a degree in Law from Prague's Charles University, and lived in Prague since the late 1940s. In the 1950s he worked as a manual laborer in the Kladno ironworks, from which he drew inspiration for his \"hyper-realist\" texts he was writing at that time. He won international acclaim for such books as I Served the King of England and Too Loud a Solitude. Hrabal is considered, along with Jaroslav Hasek and Karel Capek, as one of the greatest Czech writers of the 20th century, and perhaps the most important in the post-war period. In February 1997 he flew out of his hospital window never to return. Adam Thirlwell (Introducer) Adam Thirlwell was born in London in 1978. The author of three previous novels, his work has been translated into thirty languages. His essays appear in the New York Review of Books and the London Review of Books, and he is an advisory editor of the Paris Review. His awards include a Somerset Maugham Award and the E. M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters; in 2018 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He has twice been selected by Granta as one of their Best of Young British Novelists.

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