“Ash Wednesday during a great flood. Can you imagine being born then?” Karolina Světlá entered the world in quite dramatic fashion. Karolina Světlá was born Johana Nepomucena Mužeáková née Rottová in Prague. Her house was located near the river in Poštovská Street, now Karoliny Světlé Street. The priest and her godparents arrived for her baptism by boat.
Karolina Světlá became one of the most significant Czech writers and feminists. In 1865, she and Vojtěch Náprstek founded the American Ladies’ Club. It later became a women’s educational and cultural center. Karolina Světlá wrote the story behind Bedřich Smetana’s opera, The Kiss. Her friend Eliška Krásnohorská wrote the libretto.
In 1871, she and Krásnohorská co-founded the Women’s Czech Production Society. She also served as a long-term managing executive of the Women’s Letters. Karolina Světlá married Petr Mužeák, a piano professor based in the Ještěd Foothills. Her husband’s birthplace later inspired her pen name.
Karolina Světlá and Mužeák lived in Ve Smečkách Street. Later, they lived in the House at the Stone Table until her death. The House at the Stone Table was on the corner of Charles Square and Jedná Street. Now there is a plaque and memorial for her. The House at the Stone Table was later demolished and replaced by another building.
Karolina Světlá’s niece and collaborator was Anežka Čermáková-Sluková. She performed language editing and transcriptions for Karolina Světlá’s literary works. This was when she suffered from acute eye disease. Anežka also ensured the preservation of Karolina Světlá’s estate. She deposited it in the Podještědské muzeum of Český Dub.
You can find a street named after Karolina Světlá in Prague. You can also find them in České Budějovice, Kladno, Třebíč, and elsewhere throughout the Czech Republic. Several busts and monuments have been erected in her honor. One is a bronze on Karlovo náměstí.
Karolina Světlá played an invaluable role in the 19th-century national revival. She recorded local traditions and linguistic peculiarities. She also recorded folk sayings, nursery rhymes, and weather proverbs from the Podještědí area. Her body of work remains an extraordinary accounting of a region. It is famed for its local folk architecture, costumes, and traditions.
Her most important work was 1867’s The Village Novel. It depicts the struggle for equality in a marriage. She wrote a total of eighteen books in Czech. Her 1871 short story “The Kiss” became the source material for the famous opera by Bedřich Smetana. It was called Hubička in 1876.
Karolina Světlá is often historically associated with other women. These women had an immeasurable impact on both Czech letters and the position of women in society. They are Božena Němcová, Teréza Nováková, Magdalena Dobromila Rettigová, Eliška Krásnohorská, and Sofie Podlipská. This small three-story house is associated with Karolina Světlá. It is also known as U Tří králů or U Bílého preclíku. It is originally a Renaissance row house. It was reconstructed in the first quarter of the 18th century in the Baroque style. After World War II, it was adorned with a memorial plaque by the sculptor Marta Jirásková. Karolina Světlá was born here and spent her youth in this house. For most of her adult life, she lived on Ve Smečkách Street. She also lived in the house U Kamenného stolu on Karlovo náměstí, where she eventually passed away.
In her works, Karolina Světlá extensively explored social issues. She wrote about moral values and the position of women in society. She wrote several works set in Prague’s middle-class environment. But her greatest success came from works set in rural settings. She emphasized the rural people and strong, morally upright female characters.