Philosopher, novelist, essayist, eccentric, no other Czech author has had a greater impact on underground culture than Ladislav Kl -ma (1878-1928). Mentor to artists as varied as Bohumil Hrabal and the Plastic People of the Universe, Kl -ma €(TM)s philosophy was radically subjectivist, and he felt it should be lived rather than merely spoken or written about. With Nietzsche as his paragon, he embarked upon a lifelong pursuit to become God, or Absolute Will, elucidating this quest in many letters, aphorisms, and essays. Yet among Kl -ma's fictional texts, the apotheosis of his philosophy is The Sufferings of Prince Sternenhoch, his most acclaimed novel. Ostensibly a series of journal entries, the tale chronicles the descent into madness of Prince Sternenhoch, the German Empire €(TM)s foremost aristocrat and favorite of Kaiser €œWilly. € Having become the €œlowliest worm € at the hands of his estranged wife, Helga, the Queen of Hells, Sternenhoch eventually attains an ultimate state of bliss and salvation through the most grotesque perversions. Kl -ma explores here the paradoxical nature of pure spirituality with a humor that is as darkly comical as it is obscene. This volume also includes his notorious text €œMy Autobiography. €