Draft:Felix Téver

Anna Lauermannová-Mikšová, née Anna Anselma Miksche (December 15, 1852 Prague-Staré Město^[1] – June 16, 1932 Prague^[2]), known under her pen name Felix Téver, was Czech writer and socialite whose salon drew people from the leading literary and political circles of late 19th-century and early 20th-century Prague.

Life

She was born as the younger daughter of the famous and wealthy Prague physician and obstetrician Mikuláš Miksche (1799–1874), and his wife Anna, née Lukeschová (1815–1898).[3] She had a sister Albína Miksche, married Dlabačová (1842–1899).

Her childhood was not happy. Her mother suffered from a mental illness. ^[3] She studied girl’s college and learned German, French and Italian. She attended art classes led by Amálie Mánesová, sister of famous painter Josef Mánes where she met her life-long frind Marie Riegerová, daughter of the head of Czech politics, František Ladislav Rieger.

In 1875 she married Josef Lauermann. He soon developed a serious mental illness. He pursued his wife with fits of jealousy and physical attacks. The birth of daughter Olga in 1880 did not help. She described her appalling experiences from her marriage in an autobiographical novel, Strange History (Podivná historie): Carlo (a character inspired by her husband) he raved all night, he didn't let me sleep..., he tortured me with questions. I was already so tired from the previous sleepless nights that I fell asleep even with his lamentations - he poured water on me to wake me up. … Sometimes I wish more passionately for you to have a blind eye, to have a deadly sight, an annoying sight. Hate and contempt run through my veins instead of blood."^[4]

Literary salon

František Ladislav Rieger came up with the idea of ​​a literary salon. According to Lauermann's recollections, he said: “You have a bad mouth, but you have what the French call politesse du bon coeur, And you also have a lot of space, so hopefully it will work out.”^[5] The women of Rieger's family (wife and daughters) were rather introverted and did not seek out company. Rieger saw the literary salon as an important tool for the development of the Czech cultural community, at the same time he often entrusted important posts to people from his surroundings in the hope that he would retain his influence.

Lauermann was the first woman to open a Czech literary salon. She was talkative and sociable, liked people, but also social gossip, and agreed to open her house to Czech writers and intellectuals. She liked to surround herself with scholars and valued creative people.

In 1885 she fell ill with lung disease. She was forced to close the salon (for more then ten years) and went abroad with her mother, daughter Olga and nanny for several years. She first lived in Montreux, Switzerland, but after a bad experience with a Swiss doctor who predicted she would die, she traveled to Nice, France. Rome in particular became her favorite city. She opened her Roman home to Czech travelers and organized patriotic evenings for them. In Rome, she became close to architect František Pokorný, who for several years led the restoration work on the building of the Austro-Hungarian Embassy in the Palazzo di Venezia. Pokorny was her admirer for many years.

After her returning to Prague, she separated from her husband. This made her socially unacceptable for many Czech patriots. In 1890s her stigma diminished and she re-opened her salon and Czech cultural elite was meeting there until 1920s. Lauermann was friends with a number of leading writers, such as Julius Zeyer, Gabriela Preissová, Jiří Karásek ze Lvovic, Karel Čapek Otakar Theer, and many others.

Private life

Lauermann achieved marital separation. Her husband agreed, and from 1888 she lived apart from him (it was not an actual divorce, only a separation). After her separation, she remained single until the end of her life. Lauermann could not remarry because she was still legally married. By pronouncing a separation, the marriage continued, although the spouses didn’t live together. The marriage legally ended only with the death of Josef Lauermann in 1905. For Czech society, however, Lauermann had the stigma of a "slightly deformed woman" (“trochu předělaná ženská”) for several years.^[6]

Lauermann maintained a number of other platonic romantic relationships, often simultaneously and with varying degrees of emotional intimacy (none of them were sexually consumed. After her bitter conjugal experience, she despised sexuality).

Her strongest romance with historian Jaroslav Goll took place between 1897 and 1913. Their emotional involvement was mutual, although they were meeting only at social gatherings and exchanged letters, but with long breaks it lasted over fifteen years. Goll was flirting with Lauermann while his wife Amely Goll, a pianist, played the piano at the parties he accompanied her to. Goll's wife became eventually very jealous of Lauermann, and Lauermann remarked of her: "at one time she took away from me everything that my heart held dear."^[7]

One of her most dedicated suitors was director of the National Theatre František Šubert. He visited her salon in 1884 and in 1887 visited her in Rome. He proposed to her several times, but she refused. She despised his numerous love affairs that the director had with actresses and dancers of the troupe and believed that Šubert was "somewhat devoted to carnal pleasures and she, in her strict ethics, would perhaps be uncomfortable for him"^[8] Lauermann called him Don Juan and “erotic”. In the same time, she took him for a decent respectable gentleman. She claimed that women were seducing him, that he, though in a position of power, was controlled by them. ^[9] She wrote in her diary: "Perhaps - perhaps - perhaps Gabriela Preissová is right with her somewhat crude interpretation: "He got them all, but because he didn't get her, he loves me.“^[10] It is difficult to determine whether Šubert‘s interest in Lauermann was merely erotic or more serious.

However, she defended him in public and supported him even against critics of his sexual morality. She despised women who refused him sexual obedience, such as the actress Maria Pospischil.^[11] At the same time, Lauermann had been a victim of violence caused by her husband, and also, for example, by friend's father František Ladislav Rieger (her diary entry from June 1, 1891: "Then he took my hand, pulled me into the room and spoke in a flattering voice - Well girl , take care of me a little - I'm so abandoned now (after the death of Rieger's wife) - and what would it do to you if you took care of me a little, took care of me a little, eh? And he wanted to press me again - I felt a tremendous revulsion against the old man. What are men, what is their love for us, when this 73-year-old man, whose wife he lived with for 40 years, is barely beginning to rot, is longing again for - what really?”)^[12]

She also felt a very strong spiritual relationship with the poet and playwright Julius Zeyer.

She died in Prague in 1932.

Literary work

She was also a writer, using pen name Felix Téver, inspired by her happy time in Rome, at the Tiber river (Tevere in Italian). She wrote realistic short stories and novels about rich Prague bourgeoisie. She often addressed women's issues. ^[13]

Her most important literary legacy are her private diaries, which Lauermann kept for thirty years. She recorded her feelings, drafts of her literary works, social gossip and events from her surroundings. The diaries were partially published, some important passages, however, stay only in manuscript.