This thesis focuses on the prosaic writing of Jaroslav Vrchlický. In the first part it monitors an extension of the reception in these novels (it analyzes their editions with the help of the database Caslin). It also observes character of the period reception from the first publication of the corresponding titles up to the year 1918 (there is a support of the database Retrobi and Lexikon české literatury). The second part of the thesis analyzes the Vrchlický's novels according to methods of naratology and literary thematology. The third part of this writing focuses on a genre and a themed characteristic of the Vrchlický's novels in the context of that period.

The thesis describes the evolution and variances in the motive of crime and punishment throughout prosaic and dramatic works of František Langer. After an introductory reflection on crime and punishment the thesis deals with an analysis of Doskojevskij's novel "Crime and Punishment" which had a large impact on Langer's conception of these terms. It also outlines an image of crime and punishment in Czech literature at the turn of the 19th and 20th century, which might have influenced Langer. The first part also tries to clarify how these motives were evolved in author's incipient work. It follows up prose collections "Gold Venus" and "Dreamers and Murderers". The second part is focused on the refined and often very complicated form of crime and punishment in Langer's dramas "Saint Wenceslas", "Periphery", "Camel through Eye of a Needle", "Reversal of Ferdyš Pištora", "Angels among us" and "Seventy-two" and tries to grasp and characterize it.