The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek

But he created a new genre, and in Švejk, a new hero one who was able to point up the grotesqueries of his world in a manner that is still as pertinent today – and, importantly, still as funny. He laughed where empty despair might have been a more rational response was a prankster, anarchist, Communist and joker was irresponsible and drank to excess. Jaroslav Hašek was a natural satirist, a man with no sense of belonging but a keen awareness of the absurdity of the times in which he lived. ’ – that he joined the enemy by mistake, missed his train, lost his way, issued the officers with the wrong cipher book (part 1 of Ludwig Ganghofer’s The Sins of the Fathers instead of part 2), and so on. Horovitch’s multi-voiced, multi-accented reading of the hotchpotch of characters is brilliant: dotty major-generals, hard-drinking priests, lecherous officers and, of course, the good soldier himself, beginning every exchange with ‘Beg to report, sir. Hašek, born in Bohemia in 1883, based the irrepressible Švejk’s career in the first world war on his own rackety life. Joseph Heller based his hero Yossarian on Švejk. It’s anti-war, anti-establishment, anti-religion and – praise indeed – even funnier than Catch-22. Titles by Jaroslav Hašek Titles by Jaroslav Hašek The Good Soldier Švejk (abridged) ReviewsĮvery harassed negotiator, every beleaguered political wife and anyone given to ever-increasing moments of melancholy at the way things are should keep a copy of Hašek’s classic ‘don’t let the bastards get you down’ novel to hand.

The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek