The Good Soldier Svejk: and His Fortunes in the World War (Penguin Classics) [Paperback]

Jaroslav Hasek (Author), Josef Lada (Illustrator), Cecil Parrott (Translator, Introduction)

Book Description

Release date: December 27, 2005 | Series: Penguin Classics

In The Good Soldier Svejk, celebrated Czech writer and anarchist Jaroslav Hasek combined dazzling wordplay and piercing satire in a hilariously subversive depiction of the futility of war.

Good-natured and garrulous, Svejk becomes the Austrian army’s most loyal Czech soldier when he is called up on the outbreak of World War I—although his bumbling attempts to get to the front serve only to prevent him from reaching it. Playing cards and getting drunk, he uses all his cunning and genial subterfuge to deal with the police, clergy, and officers who chivy him toward battle. Cecil Parrott’s vibrant translation conveys the brilliant irreverence of this classic about a hapless Everyman caught in a vast bureaucratic machine.

• Introduction discusses Hasek's turbulent life as an anarchist, communist, and vagrant
• Includes a pronunciation guide to Czech names, three maps, and the original illustrations by Josef Lada
• The unabridged and unbowdlerized translation

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Introduction and translation by Cecil Parrott --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Jaroslav Ha'ek (1883-1923) Besides this book, the writer wrote more than 2,000 short works, short stories, glosses, sketches, mostly under various pen-names.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 784 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (December 27, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140449914
• ISBN-13: 978-0140449914
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 1.3 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #69,272 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

65 of 67 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Probably My Favorite Book January 11, 2001

By Stephen M. Kerwick

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I first read Hasek's masterpiece almost 30 years ago in a shorter and more Bowdlerized translation. The Cecil Parrot edition is, needless to say, far preferable (it even contains a wonderful introduction including a discussion of Czech profanity as compared to that in English) and I've read it again and again since it came out in 1974. Shelby Foote said somewhere that every year he reads Proust as a sort of literary vacation. About ever 2 or 3 years I reread Svejk to cleanse my literary palate and it's always as fresh and as enjoyable as it was the first time. The dialogue, the characters and the situations in Svejk are, stated simply, the funniest I've ever read. Many other books have many merits in this regard, but none has approached Hasek in the sustained hilarity over 500 pages or more. The secret policeman, Bretschneider, Chaplain Katz, Sergeant Major Vanek, Cadet Biegler, Balloun and Lt. Dub are all memorable characters in their own right, but when they interact the result surpasses anything I have ever read for comedy. The episode involving a character with writer's block during his drafting of a prayer to be recited while administering Mr. Kokoska's pharmaceutical powders for cow flatulence is a classic rivalling Aristophanes or Rabelais. [I realize that sentence is confusingly prolix, so please read the book; it will be worth your while.] The term "laugh out loud" is overused and abused these days, but The Good Soldier Svejk will have you disturbing family and friends with repeated guffawing any time you are reading it nearby. I can't give a text any higher recommendation.

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Svejk, or - what's so great about real life December 1, 1997

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

Hasek died before he completed this book, a deep loss to all literature lovers, whether they are aware of it or not. Hasek was known for his excellent memory, which is reflected in SVEJK; for this book is perhaps as close to reality as any historical text can get. It has the haunting sense of reality which made Don Quixote what it is; and yet this book contains many of the most hillarious moments I've ever read. The authentic description of the people of the time, the world war from the simple soldier's viewpoint, and the eternal struggle between the desires of the nations and the wish for good life of the common people - all are represented in SVEJK, in a way no other book has ever been able to acheive. Svejk is a timeless non-hero, whom we cannot but simphatize. Hasek has succeeded in making the little, meaningless and even horrable moments of life of a soldier in the world war a poem of glory to the human spirit and to the simple man. Although Svejk was released from the service "for being an idiot", he is smarter than them all; We can tell who the real idiots are, represented in a way we all felt inside but never put to write. All that is acheived in a text that never once states someone's inner thoughts, like too many books of our time do, which emphesizes even more the great literary talent of Hasek. Although long, this book is read in one breath; And after you finished reading SVEJK, you cannot help but feel that perhaps life are, after all, worth living.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Vivat Hasek, Viva Svejk! March 1, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

Surely one of the funniest novels of all time. As unforgettable, hilarious as Cervantes with all the bawdiness of Rabelais and the toilet humour of Swift, Hasek delivers a knock-out blow against the System, the Powers-That-Be, hypocrisy and military service. I wish I had a friend like Svejk (well, then again...), it would put things in perspective.