{"product_id":"i-served-the-king-of-england-paperback","title":"I Served the King of England - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eBohumil Hrabal\u003c\/b\u003e (Author), \u003cb\u003ePaul Wilson\u003c\/b\u003e (Translator)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFirst published in 1971 in a typewritten edition, then finally printed in book form in 1989, \u003cem\u003eI Served the King of England\u003c\/em\u003e is \"an extraordinary and subtly tragicomic novel\" (\u003cem\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/em\u003e), telling the tale of Ditie, a hugely ambitious but simple waiter in a deluxe Prague hotel in the years before World War II. Ditie is called upon to serve not the King of England, but Haile Selassie. It is one of the great moments in his life. Eventually, he falls in love with a Nazi woman athlete as the Germans are invading Czechoslovakia. After the war, through the sale of valuable stamps confiscated from the Jews, he reaches the heights of his ambition, building a hotel. He becomes a millionaire, but with the institution of communism, he loses everything and is sent to inspect mountain roads. Living in dreary circumstances, Ditie comes to terms with the inevitability of his death, and with his place in history.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eFront Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eA comic, picaresque novel set against the backdrop of twentieth-century Czech history, about the rise and fall of an ambitious busboy in Prague.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eBack Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eIsolated and impoverished, Ditie comes to a greater understanding of good and evil, and of his place in the vortex of history.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 256\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.65 x 7.96 x 6.58 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e May 31, 2007\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51757714997536,"sku":"9780811216876","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/fd239dfaf333afb6005d421369a587f0.webp?v=1780109812","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/i-served-the-king-of-england-paperback","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}