Magic Prague

Prague's creative alchemy over the centuries was due largely to the commingling of its three major peoples--Czechs, Germans, Jews--shows Ripellino in this hypnotic, intensely lyrical odyssey. Beginning with Franz Kafka who ``absorbed all Prague's humours and poisons,'' the late Ripellino (1923-1978), who taught Czech language and literature at the University of Rome, delves into Prague's melancholy and irrational darker aspects. We meet paranoid King Rudolf II (1576-1611); his court painter, Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1527-1593), famous for fantastical composite portraits; playwright Karel Capek's robots; the Golem (humanoid automaton) of Jewish legend; and a horde of pilgrims, alchemists, executioners and ghosts. Ripellino presents a vibrant picture of life in Prague's Jewish quarter, which was razed in 1893, and of the gathering of avant-garde poets and painters in the 1920s. Originally published in Italy in 1973, the book is marked by sadness for the events of the Prague Spring: ``My friends have been pressing me to finish this pot-pourri, hoping it will rekindle the memory of a betrayed country without hope.'' (Nov.)