Customer Reviews

The Good Soldier Schweik and His Fortunes in the Great War

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I must first provide the caveat that this is the only translation of "The Good Soldier Svejk" that I've read, the 1930 translation by Paul Selver. Two small points that may be indicative of what might be considered "missing" about this version is that the title character's name is spelled "Schweik", i.e. the Germanized version of his name, rather than Svejk, even without the Czech diacriticals, which would have been no trouble to spell in "conventional" lettering, in hindsight. Also, even though the short bio at the start mentions that Hasek had "completed" 4 volumes of his intended 6, this paperback can appear confusing in that only 3 books are specifically laid out in the index and in this edition.

By all accounts, the later translation by Cecil Parrott gives a fuller account of the Hasek original, such as including the 4th volume, left incomplete at Hasek's death, as well as being more explicit. The latest translation, by Zenny Sadlon and Emmett Joyce, is actually appearing in 3 separate volumes. In fairness, I should state that at least one writer on "Svejk", Thomas Kovach, actually prefers the Selver translation to the Parrott translation. If you come across the Selver translation and you're interested in the novel, and you keep in mind that you won't be getting a complete English rendition and picture of the novel, feel free to dive in.