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

by Jaroslav Hasek (Author), Josef Lada (Illustrator), Cecil Parrott (Translator, Introduction) "'And so they've killed our Ferdinand,'1 said the charwoman to Mr Svejk, who had left military service years before, after having been finally certified by..." (more)
Key Phrases: garrison gaol, humbly report, gist infantry regiment, Lieutenant Dub, Cadet Biegler, Lieutenant Lukás (more...)
4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
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Editorial Reviews

Product Description
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.

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

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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: 7.6 x 5 x 1.4 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #69,925 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

    #2 in  Books > Literature & Fiction > Foreign Language Fiction > More Languages > Czech
    #2 in  Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Slavic

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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
'And so they've killed our Ferdinand,'1 said the charwoman to Mr Svejk, who had left military service years before, after having been finally certified by an army medical board as an imbecile, and now lived by selling dogs - ugly, mongrel monstrosities whose pedigrees he forged. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
garrison gaol, humbly report, gist infantry regiment, gist regiment, staff carriage, staff warder, mess portions, regimental office, gendarmerie sergeant, tubby one, gendarmerie station, battalion historian, pious chaplain, old sapper, march battalion, lanky one, field altar, night billets, regimental report, bloody mule, march company, battalion office, stern gentleman, ith company, pork feast
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Lieutenant Dub, Cadet Biegler, Lieutenant Lukás, Lieutenant Lukáá, Captain Ságner, Captain Signer, Colonel Schröder, Lieutenant Lukág, General Fink, Major Wenzl, Otto Katz, Jesus Mary, Major Wolf, Emperor Franz Joseph, Virgin Mary, Platoon Sergeant Fuchs, Ministry of War, Tyrawa Woloska, Captain Tayrle, Josef Svejk, Lupkovskÿ Pass, The Sins of the Fathers, Charles Square, Holy Mass, Jesus Christ
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The Good Soldier Svejk: and His Fortunes in the World War (Penguin Classics)
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Customer Reviews

13 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
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30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Probably My Favorite Book, January 11, 2001
By Stephen M. Kerwick (Wichita, KS United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Good Soldier Svejk (Everyman's Library) (Hardcover)
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.
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24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Two Best Novels of World War I, November 27, 1999
This review is from: The Good Soldier Svejk (Everyman's Library) (Hardcover)
Both of the best books on the First World War were written by the losing side...ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT and THE GOOD SOLDIER SCHWEIK tell the same story, but from different viewpoints. Schweik is a wise fool whose main goal is to avoid the greater foolishness around him. Hasek was a modern day Cervantes and this modern day Don Quixote interacts with a gallery of hilarious characters and their stories. I only regret that Hasek died before the book could be finished. Josef Lada's illustrations are a wonderful addition to the book, and it's a pleasure getting Cecil Parrott's translation in hardcover. Note: The earlier translations are not the complete book.
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17 of 18 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
This review is from: The Good Soldier Svejk (Everyman's Library) (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.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't worry! Be happy!
Svejk is one of the greatest creations of world literature of all times. He deserves to be mentioned next to Don Qixote and Robinson Crusoe. Read more
Published 1 month ago by H. Schneider

3.0 out of 5 stars Warning about this edition. I want to give more stars!
This is a difficult review because I love the stories and the translation is good overall, However: It seems like the Czech oaths and swears have been bawdlerized, although in the... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Cuvtixo

1.0 out of 5 stars The print is tiny--be forewarned.
I will have to seek another edition of this classic, which comes highly recommended by friends. The print in this edition is so tiny (6 pt.? Read more
Published 4 months ago by Wm. Craig Rice

5.0 out of 5 stars Hasek and Abe Lincoln
There's no getting around the fact that this book is funny and long, the latter characteristic often working might and main to detract from the former. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Seth Davidson

4.0 out of 5 stars witty writing
I have to say that reading this book reminded me of my own service in the Greek army and all the moments of hilarity. Witty humour though it shows its age. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Vassilis Michalitsis

3.0 out of 5 stars Humor on different levels
The good soldier Svejk is one of those books labelled as "literature" that has to be read with an understanding of its context to be fully understood. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Naor Wallach

5.0 out of 5 stars the good soldier svejk
This is an hilarious novel that was a forerunner to catch 22. We have the Good Soldier Svejk for WWI, Catch 22 for WWII, and to a lesser extent Forrest Gump for Viatnam... Read more
Published on May 22, 2007 by Donald M. Lewis

4.0 out of 5 stars Picaresque antiwar classic
This is a beautiful and inexpensive edition, with the original cartoonish illustrations. The translation is lively and the book can be hilarious, but I bogged down about halfway... Read more
Published on November 3, 2006 by M. J. Sweet

3.0 out of 5 stars Spun Our Serial Runs On and On
OK, I'll admit up front that I only made it through 450 of this 800 page monster. As I was reading this, I saw the pile of unread books mounting alarmingly, and as I had more or... Read more
Published on August 30, 1999 by A. Ross

5.0 out of 5 stars Vivat Hasek, Viva Svejk!
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... Read more
Published on March 1, 1999

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