EN
The present paper deals with the specific poetics of literary critical writings which were the novels published in popular periodicals and they are completely forgotten. We attempt to make the production of early Czech popular journalism clearer by looking into the first Czech popular daily Pražský ilustrovaný kurýr and by analysing the women´s novel Chudá holka (The Poor Girl by Václav Čech, Pražský ilustrovaný kurýr 1895). The editors did not mean to produce a special women´s readership, but they wanted also to include men. The novel had a social dimension, it used the issue of a „foundling“ to criticize social prejudice towards illegitimate children. However, it eventually results in confirming the social system. The opposition between the „popular“ and „elite“ production, yet not clearly defined, can be typically seen in Václav Čech´s relations to „high“ literature.