The Twelve Little Cakes
book by Dominika Dery
The Twelve Little Cakes (2004) is a memoir by Czech author Dominika Dery. It tells stories from Dery's life that take place from before her conception up until her late childhood, as well as detailing life in an Eastern bloc country. The story includes holidays to Semily in northern Czechoslovakia and to Miedzyzdroje on Poland's Baltic coast.
Dery was born in 1975 in Černošice, a village just outside Prague in then-Czechoslovakia. Her mother Jana had decided to conceive another child after dreaming about a little girl. Dery's parents were dissidents who had taken part in the failed Prague Spring of 1968, causing them to live under suspicion: Jana's parents, who were among the Communist elite, disowned her, Jarda had difficulty finding or keeping a job, and the family always had to be wary of informers. However, the couple managed to raise their two daughters in a loving, even adventurous household despite their troubles. Dery's enrollment and progress in ballet school comes to the fore later in the story, culminating in performances at the Smetana and National Theatre in Prague.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “The Twelve Little Cakes” is book by Dominika Dery. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Twelve, Little and Cakes, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “book by Dominika Dery” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16956026. The first chronological checks are 2004, 1975 and 1968.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “The Twelve Little Cakes”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow The Twelve Little Cakes primary sources, The Twelve Little Cakes archive and Twelve research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Twelve Little Cakes”?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
- Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “The Twelve Little Cakes” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.