The Good Soldier Svejk and His Fortunes in the World War (Penguin modern classics) by Jaroslav Hasek (1974-05-03)

Jaroslav Hašek

Literature & Fiction

Penguin

"Sir Cecil Parrot, the widely acclaimed translator of Svejk, has gathered together a collection of Hasek's best stories and sketches to stand--for the first time--beside the great novel. Here, once again, in five stories, is Hasek's immortal soldier who has endeared himself to readers the world over: Svejk, the good-hearted conscript, enmeshed in red tape, who does everything wrong and is still more than a match for the officers who have to deal with him. Here too are stories that confirm Hasek's reputation as a brilliant satirist; delightfully funny stories of irrational bureaucracy in an age of world war, revolution, and Bolshevism; and nostalgically mellow stories of the everyday comedy of life in the old, ramshackle Austro-Hungarian Empire--the irreverent humour, fears, hopes and escapades. Readers will be happy to discover that in The Red Commisar Hasek's originality and wit live on beside new and unexpected facets of his craft."

The Red Commissar: Including Further Adventures of the Good Soldier Svejk and Other Stories

World Literature

The Dial Press

Red Commissar

William Heinemann

Translates the iconoclastic Czech's classic satire depicting the adventures of a soldier during the First World War.

The Good Soldier Svejk and His Fortunes in the World War

Genre Fiction

Thomas Y. Crowell Company

The Good Soldier Schweik

British & Irish

Amereon Limited

This is the last volume of the The Fateful Adventures Of The Good Soldier Svejk During The World War containing Book Three and Book Four. Jaroslav Hasek planned to write six books but passed away before completing Book Four. That is why the book is considered unfinished. Yet, it can be argued the author, under pressure from his deteriorating health, indeed completed his thoughts and "closed the books" on the book that made him famous quite well.The Good Soldier Švejk, is a truly great satire (perhaps the greatest of them all) on the most central feature of social life in the past century and a half (at least) in most modern industrialized countries--the ubiquitous presence of huge, labyrinthine bureaucratic structures ostensibly set in place to make modern society more efficient, equal, and fair, but, in fact, reducing life for those who have to deal with them to what often amounts to an incomprehensible and out-of-control game whose major players never tire of announcing in noble-sounding prose and stirring poetry the importance of the structure and its alleged purpose but who, in their daily practice, show no signs of any significant humanity in dealing with subordinates or those whom the bureaucracy is supposed to serve. That target is something we all understand (because we have to deal with it, no matter where we live), and thus the impact of this satire extends well beyond the particular social and political realities of the world it depicts. - Ian Johnston, Malaspina University-College, Nanaimo, BC.

Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier Svejk During The World War, Book(s) Three & Four

Humor & Satire

AuthorHouse

Some writers so capture the soul and spirit of a people that they are identified with them forever after. In England, it was Charles Dickens, in the United States, it was Mark Twain. For the Slavic nations, and to some extent for all Central Europeans, it is the Czech writer, Jaroslav Hasek. 
Hasek's most important work was centered around a Czech soldier's experiences in World War One. It's actual title is The Fateful Adventures of The Good Soldier Svejk during the World War, but it is known by tens of millions of Central Europeans as simply, The Good Soldier Svejk. This monumental, humorous work is acknowledged as ". . . one of the greatest masterpieces of satirical writing" by no less a standard and exalted reference than the Encyclopedia Britannica. 
The book's central character is a quintessential, working-class citizen-soldier, often abused by the fates and the forces of the Austrian empire. In both civilian and military life, Svejk lives by his wits. His chief ploy is to appear witless to those in authority. In fact, he is fond of pointing out that he has been certified to be an imbecile by an official military medical commission. Consequently, he reasons, he cannot be held responsible for his sometimes questionable actions because he's a certified nitwit! 
Yet, Svejk is not a coward, nor is he indolent. He is drafted back into the army as cannon fodder to die for an Emperor he despises. His method of subverting the Austrian Empire is to carry out his orders to an absurd conclusion. His is an inspired resistance. He holds the foreign authorities, and their Czech fellow travelers, accountable for their ridiculous platitudes and pseudo-patriotic blather.

The Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier Svejk During the World War, Book One

1stBooks

Die Abenteuer Des Braven Soldaten Schwejk 1

Reference

Foreign Language Study & Reference

Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag GmbH

The Good Soldier Svejk (Chinese Edition)

Beijing United Publishing co., LTD

Osudy Dobrého Vojáka Švejka Za Světové Války

Baronet Publishers

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Books by Jaroslav Hašek