The Long Night of the Watchman: Essays by Vaclav Benda, 1977-1989

by Vaclav Benda, F. Flagg Taylor IV (Editor)

The Long Night of the Watchman brings into English translation the writings of the renowned Czech anti-Communist dissident and Catholic thinker Vaclav Benda (1946-1999). An early signatory of Charter 77, the Czechoslovak human rights association, Benda would twice serve as a spokesman. He was a founding member of VONS (the Czech acronym for the Committee to Defend the Unjustly Persecuted) and served a four-year prison sentence for his dissident activities. Benda was a keen analyst of Communist totalitarianism who was heavily involved in many facets of resistance. The writings collected in this volume thus offer a unique perspective on life under a Communist regime. Readers are given eyewitness accounts of crucial, yet little known events such the Christian pilgrimage to Velehrad in 1985. We are also transported back into Benda's workplace as the repercussions of his signing of Charter 77 unfold. And Benda's extended reflections on topics such as the family and totalitarianism and the fate of the Catholicism under Communism display his subtle and exacting mind. The volume is divided into three sections. "Reflections" is comprised of relatively brief texts usually prompted by some event or action, while "Reports and Defenses" is made up of short documents written for a specific purpose and often related to the regular work of Charter 77. The middle section, "Essays and Inquiries," contains Benda's longer pieces of a more philosophical character.

Genres: Essays

352 pages, Hardcover

First published January 25, 2018

Reviews

[Jon Beadle · Rating 5 out of 5]

More than half of this collection is dedicated to responses Benda made to specific laws and article that border on the boring. Yet, there is much to be learned from his writing and the way he chose to fight for the rights of his neighbors. So, why would I give the book 5 stars instead of 3 or 4? Because there are a handful of essays that are the most devastatingly brilliant pieces I have ever read up to this point. His arguments for the Christian renewal of society, the parallel polis, against abortion and divorce, and the solidarity of the Chartists, is so lucid that it demands 5 stars, as a project.