The city on the Moldau as a liminal space : Prague in Anthony Trollope's Nina Balatka

Abstract

The article discusses Anthony Trollope's representation of the city of Prague in his 1867 novel Nina Balatka, which first appeared anonymously in the Blackwood's Magazine. The novel tells the story of the eponymous protagonist, a Christian woman, who falls in love with a Jewish man. Trollope's choice of Prague as the backdrop for the story of two lovers separated by the great gulf between Christians and Jews seems particularly fitting, because the spatial division of the city by the river Moldau which separates the Christian and the Jewish parts of town reinforces the sense that the two protagonists come from different worlds. Trollope's characters exist in the realistically represented city; yet, iconic Prague locations, described in picturesque detail, are imbued with symbolic significance which underscores the liminal position of the protagonist, who is torn between her Christian faith, and her love of a Jewish man.