Fimfárum
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Fimfárum (1960) is a book of adult fairy tales, written by Jan Werich. They are 'artificial' fairy tales standing at the turn between a fairy tale and a folk tale, some have the character of more extensive anecdotes. In some cases, Weirich retold original fairy tales of Czech, Russian, English or Arabic.
Most fairy tales are ridiculed by human vices such as greed, laziness, infidelity, which are grotesquely exaggerated.
As in the Čapek brothers' fairy tales , Werich also has traditional fairy-tale motifs such as supernatural beings (devil, waterman, elves), kings and princesses or the symbolism of number three with the realities of the modern world (cars, scooters, telephones, alcohol clinics).
It is interesting that even negative characters have nice features (devil with a sense of humor, for example).
Verbal humor and mastery of the language play a great importance, the author styles himself as a cheerful folk narrator. The book was illustrated by Jiří Trnka.
Most of the short stories were made into films.
