Jaroslav Havlíček

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Jaroslav Havlíček
A portrait of Jaroslav Havlíček
Born	(1896-02-03)3 February 1896 Jilemnice, Austria-Hungary
Died	7 April 1943(1943-04-07) (aged 47) Prague, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
Occupation	Novelist

Jaroslav Havlíček (3 February 1896 – 7 April 1943) was a Czech novelist. He was an exponent of naturalism and psychological novel in Czech literature.

Jaroslav Havlíček was born in a teacher's family in Jilemnice, Liberec Region. He studied gymnasium in Jičín and then courses of commercial economics. Shortly after he entered ČVUT he was drafted to serve in the Austrian army in Kadaň from where he soon went to front (Russia, Italy). After World War I he finished his studies and became an official. He married Marie Krausová, daughter to a Jilemnice soapmaker, in 1921. He is father to Zbyněk Havlíček.

His novels are usually situated to a provincial town with clear signs of Jilemnice at the turn of the 20th century. His masterpiece is a novel called originally Vyprahlé touhy (Thirsty Lusts, 1935) and re-written by the author under the name Petrolejové lampy (Kerosene Lamps, 1944). Most of his novels (Neviditelný/Invisible, Vlčí kůže/Wolf's Skin, Helimadoe) are psychological novels about young men and women and their relationships in extreme conditions.

• [1]Several works by Jaroslav Havlíček available on the website of the Municipal Library in Prague (in Czech)