Who was the lady Kafka cherished? Christine Estima says we should always know her story

[ad_1] Bookends with Mattea Roach Who was the lady Kafka cherished?

Twelve years in the past, Canadian author Christine Estima was broke and residing in England, when she got here throughout a journalism fellowship named for Milena Jesenská.

Estima had by no means heard of her earlier than, so she began digging — and discovered that Jesenská was a brave journalist, translator and resister of the Nazi regime.

In historical past, nevertheless, Jesenská is most frequently remembered as Franz Kafka's lover.

She translated his work from German to Czech, beginning a passionate correspondence that ultimately led to an affair.

And whereas Kafka's letters to Jesenská are immortalized within the guide Letters to Milena, her responses have by no means been discovered.

"I wished her to not be often known as Kafka's lover," stated Estima on Bookends with Mattea Roach. "I wished him to be often known as hers."

That need sparked Estima's debut novel, Letters to Kafka, which shares Jesenská's story and provides voice to a girl usually overshadowed in historical past.

Estima additionally wrote the quick story assortment The Syrian Girls Benevolent Society. She was longlisted for the CBC Quick Story Prize in 2015.

The Toronto writer joined Roach on Bookends to debate the ability of girls writers and serendipitous moments she had throughout her analysis.

Mattea Roach: What was it about Milena Jesenská's story specifically that you simply discovered so compelling to show right into a novel?

Christine Estima: One of many main issues was that she existed throughout a time the place to be a girl who was additionally making her residing as a author was so ostentatious and so sudden.

She's a Czech girl, married, residing in Vienna on the finish of the Nice Warfare. If you happen to did not die within the Nice Warfare, then the Spanish flu epidemic completed you off. The Austrian-Hungarian Empire has collapsed. There's gas shortages and coal shortages and bread strains and inflation is thru the roof.

Males are getting back from the entrance with swiftly patched up faces and phantom limbs and respectable girls are promoting their our bodies on the road to assist their households. And Milena is like, "You realize what? I'll be an writer." It takes a lot character and a lot moxie.

<img loading="lazy" alt="A black and white photo of a woman with curly brown hair tied back. " srcset="https://i.cbc.ca/1.7632894.1757708701!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/milena-jesenska.jpg?im=Resize%3D300 300w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7632894.1757708701!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/milena-jesenska.jpg?im=Resize%3D460 460w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7632894.1757708701!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/milena-jesenska.jpg?im=Resize%3D620 620w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7632894.1757708701!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/milena-jesenska.jpg?im=Resize%3D780 780w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7632894.1757708701!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/milena-jesenska.jpg?im=Resize%3D1180 1180w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 300px,(max-width: 460px) 460px,(max-width: 620px) 620px,(max-width: 780px) 780px,(max-width: 1180px) 1180px" src="https://i.cbc.ca/1.7632894.1757708701!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/milena-jesenska.jpg?im=" style="aspect-ratio:0.7270486752926679" data-cy="image-img"/> Czech journalist, author, editor and translator Milena Jesenská in 1915. (ALAMY/ARCHIVIO GBB) In your novel, we see the primary time Jesenská and Kafka meet is this opportunity encounter at a restaurant in Prague. There's this instant mutual attraction. What transpires between them and what do you assume drew them collectively?

I believe that Milena considered herself in a approach that wasn't represented in her standing in society. She got here from a very well to do household in Prague. Her father ran an oral surgical procedure and when she determined to get married, it was in opposition to her father's needs as a result of she married a Jewish man and so she needed to run to Vienna.

However whereas she had been residing in Prague, she had rubbed elbows with the intelligentsia and the literate social circles of Czech society and Bohemian society on the time.

<img loading="lazy" alt="A book cover featuring a black-and-white photograph of a woman with dark hair lying on her side, her face in three-quarter profile and her eyes looking up at the viewer. The bottom left corner of a windowpane is visible behind her." srcset="https://i.cbc.ca/1.7632885.1757708548!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/letters-to-kafka-cover.jpg?im=Resize%3D300 300w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7632885.1757708548!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/letters-to-kafka-cover.jpg?im=Resize%3D460 460w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7632885.1757708548!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/letters-to-kafka-cover.jpg?im=Resize%3D620 620w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7632885.1757708548!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/letters-to-kafka-cover.jpg?im=Resize%3D780 780w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7632885.1757708548!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/letters-to-kafka-cover.jpg?im=Resize%3D1180 1180w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 300px,(max-width: 460px) 460px,(max-width: 620px) 620px,(max-width: 780px) 780px,(max-width: 1180px) 1180px" src="https://i.cbc.ca/1.7632885.1757708548!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/letters-to-kafka-cover.jpg?im=" style="aspect-ratio:0.6562847608453838" data-cy="image-img"/> When she moved to Vienna, she was broke. Her husband did not actually share his wages together with her, and so she needed to port baggage on the practice station simply to make ends meet. She was extremely mental, although. Her aunt had additionally been a author for Czech newspapers and magazines.

So I believe she felt like, "I do not should be working right here at this practice station. I deserve to precise my ideas and my emotions and my intelligence within the written phrase."

So when she's in Prague and she or he's at Cafe Arco, which was a well-known cafe within the centre of Prague the place all of the Czech intelligentsia used to hang around, and she or he runs into him, I believe that felt like the place she's alleged to be. Kafka, at this level, he isn't the well-known identify that we all know now, however he's well-known inside Czech and German circles at this level. He is nicely learn sufficient and in order that sort of felt like a gathering of minds.

It was, "Okay, I've met my match, I've met my mental equal." Via that it additionally sparked what turned out to be an erotic and sexual attraction.

<img loading="lazy" alt="Portrait of Austrian-born writer Franz Kafka (1883 - 1924) in a suit with his hair parted down the middle, circa 1915. " srcset="https://i.cbc.ca/1.7634338.1757960886!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/franz-kafka.jpg?im=Resize%3D300 300w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7634338.1757960886!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/franz-kafka.jpg?im=Resize%3D460 460w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7634338.1757960886!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/franz-kafka.jpg?im=Resize%3D620 620w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7634338.1757960886!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/franz-kafka.jpg?im=Resize%3D780 780w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7634338.1757960886!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/franz-kafka.jpg?im=Resize%3D1180 1180w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 300px,(max-width: 460px) 460px,(max-width: 620px) 620px,(max-width: 780px) 780px,(max-width: 1180px) 1180px" src="https://i.cbc.ca/1.7634338.1757960886!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/franz-kafka.jpg?im=" style="aspect-ratio:0.7662337662337663" data-cy="image-img"/> Portrait of Austrian-born author Franz Kafka. (Hulton Archive/Getty Photos) You spent 4 years researching the novel earlier than you even started writing, which included quite a lot of journeys to Vienna and Prague to be within the locations that Milena lived. Are you able to discuss a bit about that course of?

I scoured by way of census data and voter rolls and declassified navy recordsdata. I interviewed considered one of her biographers. I took notes at all the museums. I needed to develop into principally a scholar concerning the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia and in addition who was in command of that. There have been quite a lot of visits to focus camps.

I found some issues in situ that weren't in any textual content I got here throughout. The most important factor was that when Milena was arrested by the Gestapo in 1939, she was arrested at her final deal with which was actually a mere 4 minute stroll from Kafka's grave.

He had been useless for 15 years by the point she was arrested. So once I realized, strolling down that avenue, that he is buried proper there I used to be like that needed to be a alternative. She might have lived wherever in Prague. This was sort of on the outskirts of Prague, so why else would she select to reside close to the brand new Jewish cemetery?

<img loading="lazy" alt="A gravestone with flowers at its feet and stones on top of it." srcset="https://i.cbc.ca/1.7633918.1757942399!/fileImage/httpImage/image.JPG_gen/derivatives/original_1180/kafka-s-grave.JPG?im=Resize%3D300 300w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7633918.1757942399!/fileImage/httpImage/image.JPG_gen/derivatives/original_1180/kafka-s-grave.JPG?im=Resize%3D460 460w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7633918.1757942399!/fileImage/httpImage/image.JPG_gen/derivatives/original_1180/kafka-s-grave.JPG?im=Resize%3D620 620w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7633918.1757942399!/fileImage/httpImage/image.JPG_gen/derivatives/original_1180/kafka-s-grave.JPG?im=Resize%3D780 780w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7633918.1757942399!/fileImage/httpImage/image.JPG_gen/derivatives/original_1180/kafka-s-grave.JPG?im=Resize%3D1180 1180w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 300px,(max-width: 460px) 460px,(max-width: 620px) 620px,(max-width: 780px) 780px,(max-width: 1180px) 1180px" src="https://i.cbc.ca/1.7633918.1757942399!/fileImage/httpImage/image.JPG_gen/derivatives/original_1180/kafka-s-grave.JPG?im=" style="aspect-ratio:0.8027210884353742" data-cy="image-img"/> Kafka's grave within the New Jewish Cemetery in Prague, 4 minutes away from Jesenská's final deal with. (Christine Estima) I do know you additionally travelled again to Vienna for a couple of month throughout the strategy of writing the manuscript and discovered the same, serendipitous connection between your self and Milena. Are you able to speak about that story and what that discovery felt like?

Once I discovered that there was a month-long alternative to deal with sit within the coronary heart of Vienna, I jumped at it. The home was situated on a avenue referred to as Lerchenfelder Straße and Milena and her first husband, Ernst Pollack, lived on the identical avenue. But it surely's a extremely lengthy avenue, so I did not truly assume a lot about it.

However once I arrived on the home, I used to be actually throughout the road from that condominium that she lived in when she was corresponding with Kafka. I used to be tremendous excited.

Whereas I used to be there, I used to be additionally taking care of this canine. So each time I might take the canine for a stroll, I might stroll by Milena's condominium and I would be like, "Hello, Milena."

Then, one time, I used to be strolling by and the entrance door to the condominium block the place she lived was open. And I scooped up the pet canine and I am like, "We're entering into."

Clearly I wasn't capable of enter her condominium, however within the guide, I describe her going up and down the stairwell. I will describe it as a result of I used to be in that stairwell. I do know what it seemed like. And it was simply such a pleasure to be strolling her avenue and to see her neighborhood.

It was simply so thrilling, and I believe that that pleasure about that second in time knowledgeable the work.

This interview has been edited for size and readability. It was produced by Katy Swailes.

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Who was the lady Kafka cherished? Christine Estima says we should always know her story

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