Foreign Literature Appraisal

Czech Book - Doba lhaní (The Time of Lying)

This item is a vintage Czech language book featuring a distinctive illustrated dust jacket or softcover. The title displayed at the top in a bold, blocky sans-serif font is 'DOBA LHÁNÍ'. The cover art, executed in a style reminiscent of mid-20th-century realism, depicts an interior domestic scene. A woman in a white nightgown stands looking out a window framed by long red drapes into a dark blue night, while another figure is seen lying in bed reading a book. The color palette is dominated by warm ochre and orange walls contrasted against the cool blues of the night and the deep shadows of the room. The illustration style suggests a production date likely between the 1960s and 1980s, common for European literary publications of that era. Physically, the book appears to be a standard octavo size. Condition issues are visible, including significant corner wear and creasing at the bottom edge, particularly noticeable on the blue band at the base. There is also slight color fading and shelf wear along the vertical edges of the spine. The printing quality shows good saturation, typical of offset lithography used for mass-market paperbacks or library editions from the late 20th century. No specific publisher's logo is immediately visible on the front face, but the typography and art style are characteristic of Czechoslovakian graphic design from the socialist period.