The Suffering of Prince Sternenhoch

The Suffering of Prince Sternenhoch is an expressionist novel by Ladislav Klíma, published in May 1928, a month after the author' s death. Klíma himself described it as a " grotesque little novel" and it is evident from the text that he was greatly influenced by the subjectively idealistic philosophy of George Berkeley, as well as the radical individualism of Arthur Schopenhauer and especially Friedrich Nietzsche. It is undoubtedly the author' s most famous literary work, which has also received acclaim abroad.

It is largely a fictional diary of the also fictional Prince Sternenhoch, one of the leading nobles of the German Empire sometime in the early twentieth century. The protagonist, or more precisely the anti-hero, describes his relationship with his wife Helga, whom he both admires and hates (he himself later calls her Demona in the manuscript). When describing their life together, the author does not shy away from obscenity bordering on perversion. Helga humiliates her husband in every way, even commits murder, and also cultivates masochism and sadism.

When she finds a lover a little later and plans to run away with him, it is the last straw for Sternenhoch. The jealous prince decides to put a stop to his wife' s lust in a brutal way. But that' s when the real suffering begins for him.