Elizabeth Vando

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Bohemia, 1723. A century after the defeat of the Protestant estates, the Habsburg monarchy has restored Catholic rule—but the old faith has not disappeared.

In Prague, on country estates, and in villages near the Saxon border, men and women still gather in secret, hide forbidden books, and pass their beliefs from one generation to the next. Discovery can mean interrogation, imprisonment, exile, or worse. At Skalka, a small château in eastern Bohemia, suspicion enters everyday life as officials, priests, servants, and families are drawn into a widening struggle between conscience and obedience.

Against this historical background, Alois Jirásek follows people divided by religion, loyalty, fear, and love. Some conform in order to survive. Others risk everything to preserve what they believe. As surveillance tightens and escape becomes more dangerous, private choices take on consequences far beyond any single household.

First published in Czech as Temno, Darkness is one of Jirásek’s major historical novels: a powerful account of religious persecution, cultural suppression, and the endurance of memory.