Karel Čapek’s *Letters from England* (1925) — The Public Domain Review

In the end, he longs for Prague and the Continent, which is “noisier, less disciplined, dirtier, more rabid, craftier, more passionate, more convivial, more amorous, hedonistic, vivacious, coarse, garrulous, unruly and somehow less perfect.” Čapek’s perspective is that of a patriotic citizen of the new Czechoslovak republic. All the time on his travels, he is weighing the qualities of what he sees for potential transplantation to his homeland. This is surely why he is so acute on Britain’s freedoms (walking on the grass) and constraints (those policemen) as well as its odd self-repression.