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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) Hasek, Jaroslav; Lada, Josef and Parrott, Cecil Paperback - 2005

by Hasek, Jaroslav

  • Used
  • very good
  • Paperback

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.
'Brilliant . . . Perhaps the funniest novel ever written.'
George Monbiot

Description

Penguin Classics, 2005-12-27. paperback. Very Good. 5x1x7. Pages are clean with no markings. Ships promptly.
Used - Very Good
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Summary

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

About the author

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