The Good Soldier Švejk
1921–1923 novel by Jaroslav Hašek From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
1921–1923 novel by Jaroslav Hašek From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Good Soldier Švejk[lower-alpha 1] (pronounced [ˈʃvɛjk]) is an unfinished satirical dark comedy novel by Czech writer Jaroslav Hašek, published in 1921–1923, about a good-humored, simple-minded, middle-aged man who appears to be enthusiastic to serve Austria-Hungary in World War I.
Cover of an early German-language edition | |
| Author | Jaroslav Hašek |
|---|---|
| Original title | Osudy dobrého vojáka Švejka za světové války |
| Translator | Paul Selver, Cecil Parrott, Zdeněk "Zenny" K. Sadloň |
| Cover artist | Josef Lada |
| Language | Czech |
| Genre | Satire, black comedy |
| Set in | Central and Eastern Europe, 1914–15 |
| Publisher | Book 1: A. Sauer and V. Čermák
Book 2: Jaroslav Hašek (distributor A. Synek) Books 3 & 4: Jaroslav Hašek's Estate (distributor A. Synek) |
Publication date | 1921–1923 |
| Publication place | Czechoslovakia |
Published in English | 1930 (Selver), 1973 (Parrott), 2000 (Sadlon) |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover, Paperback) & Amazon Kindle |
| Pages | 228 |
| 891.8635 | |
Original text | Osudy dobrého vojáka Švejka za světové války at Czech Wikisource |
The Good Soldier Švejk is the abbreviated title; the original Czech title of the work is Osudy dobrého vojáka Švejka za světové války, literally The Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier Švejk During the World War. The book is the most translated novel of Czech literature, having been translated into over 50 languages.
Hašek originally intended Švejk to cover a total of six volumes, but had completed only three (and started on the fourth) upon his death from heart failure on January 3, 1923.
The novel as a whole was originally illustrated (after Hašek's death) by Josef Lada and more recently by Czech illustrator Petr Urban.[1]
The volumes are:
Following Hašek's death, journalist Karel Vaněk was asked by the publisher Adolf Synek to complete the unfinished novel. Vaněk finished the fourth book in 1923 and in the same year also released the fifth and the sixth volumes, titled Švejk in Captivity (Švejk v zajetí) and Švejk in Revolution (Švejk v revoluci). Novels were published until 1949. In 1991 volumes 5 and 6 were again released as Švejk in Russian Captivity and Revolution (Švejk v Ruském zajetí a v revoluci), in two volumes or combined.[2]
 | This section possibly contains original research. (July 2021) |
The novel is set during World War I in Austria-Hungary, a multi-ethnic empire full of long-standing ethnic tensions. Fifteen million people died in the war, one million of them Austro-Hungarian soldiers, including around 140,000 who were Czechs. Hašek participated in this conflict and examined it in The Good Soldier Švejk.
Many of the situations and characters seem to have been inspired, at least in part, by Hašek's service in the 91st Infantry Regiment of the Austro-Hungarian Army. The novel also deals with broader anti-war themes: essentially a series of absurdly comic episodes, it explores the pointlessness and futility of conflict in general and of military discipline, Austrian military discipline in particular. Many of its characters, especially the Czechs, are participating in a conflict they do not understand on behalf of an empire to which they have no loyalty.
The character of Josef Švejk is a development of this theme. Through (possibly feigned) idiocy or incompetence, he repeatedly manages to frustrate military authority and expose its stupidity in a form of passive resistance: the reader is left unclear, however, as to whether Švejk is genuinely incompetent, or acting quite deliberately with dumb insolence. These absurd events reach a climax when Švejk, wearing a Russian uniform, is mistakenly taken prisoner by his own side.
In addition to satirising Habsburg authority, Hašek repeatedly sets out corruption and hypocrisy attributed to priests of the Catholic Church.
The story begins in Prague with news of the assassination in Sarajevo that precipitates World War I.
Švejk displays such enthusiasm about faithfully serving the Austrian Emperor in battle that no one can decide whether he is merely an imbecile or is craftily undermining the war effort. He is arrested by a member of the state police, Bretschneider, after making some politically insensitive remarks, and is sent to prison. After being certified insane he is transferred to a madhouse, before being ejected.
Švejk gets his charwoman to wheel him (he claims to be suffering from rheumatism) to the recruitment offices in Prague, where his apparent zeal causes a minor sensation. He is transferred to a hospital for malingerers because of his rheumatism. He finally joins the army as batman to army chaplain Otto Katz. Katz was well able to avoid being sent to the front, managing to have a soft military job in Prague. However, Katz loses Švejk in a bet over a game of cards to Senior Lieutenant Lukáš, whose batman he then becomes — which would eventually lead him to the front.
Lukáš is posted with his march battalion to barracks in České Budějovice, in Southern Bohemia, preparatory to being sent to the front. After missing all the trains to Budějovice, Švejk embarks on a long anabasis on foot around Southern Bohemia in a vain attempt to find Budějovice, before being arrested as a possible spy and deserter (a charge he strenuously denies) and escorted to his regiment.
The regiment is soon transferred to Bruck an der Leitha, a town on the border between Austria and Hungary. Here, where relations between the two nationalities are somewhat sensitive, Švejk is again arrested, this time for causing an affray involving a respectable Hungarian citizen and engaging in a street fight. He is also promoted to company orderly.
The unit embarks on a long train journey towards Galicia and the Eastern Front. Close to the front line, Švejk is taken prisoner by his own side as a suspected Russian deserter, after arriving at a lake and trying on an abandoned Russian uniform. Narrowly avoiding execution, he manages to rejoin his unit. The unfinished novel breaks off abruptly before Švejk has a chance to be involved in any combat or enter the trenches, though it appears Hašek may have conceived that the characters would have continued the war in a POW camp, much as he himself had done.
The book includes numerous anecdotes told by Švejk (often either to deflect the attentions of an authority figure or to insult them in a concealed manner) which are not directly related to the plot.
The characters of The Good Soldier Švejk are generally either used as the butt of Hašek's absurdist humour or represent fairly broad social and ethnic stereotypes found in the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the time. People are often distinguished by the dialect and register of Czech or German they speak, a quality that does not translate easily. Many German- and Polish-speaking characters, for example, are shown as speaking comedically broken or heavily accented Czech, while many Czechs speak broken German; much use is also made of slang expressions.
Some characters are to varying degrees based on real people who served with the Imperial and Royal 91st Infantry Regiment, in which Hašek served as a one-year volunteer. (Much research has been conducted into this issue and the results are part of the catalog of all 585 people, both real and fictitious, that appear in the novel.)
A number of literary critics consider The Good Soldier Švejk to be one of the first anti-war novels, predating Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front. Joseph Heller said that if he had not read The Good Soldier Švejk, he would never have written his novel Catch-22.[5][6][7]
Sue Arnold, writing in The Guardian, stated "Every 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 Hasek's classic 'don't let the bastards get you down' novel to hand. It's anti-war, anti-establishment, anti-religion and - praise indeed - even funnier than Catch-22."[8]
The seeming idiocy and suspected subversion of Švejk has entered the Czech language in the form of words such as švejkovina ("švejking"), švejkovat ("to švejk"), švejkárna (situational and systemic absurdity), etc.[9] The name has also entered the English dictionary, in the form of Schweik, "A person likened to the character of Schweik, pictured as an unlucky and simple-minded but resourceful little man oppressed by higher authorities," and the derivative forms to Schweik, Schweikism, and Schweikist.[10]
In the British television documentary Hollywood (1979), a history of American silent films, director Frank Capra claimed the screen character of comedian Harry Langdon, which Capra helped to formulate, was partially inspired by The Good Soldier Švejk.
At Prague's NATO summit in 2002, a man dressed as the Good Soldier and using Svejk's typical crutches to support himself, appeared at an anti-alliance protest, shouting at the top of his voice: "To Baghdad, Mrs Muller, to Baghdad...", showing just how deep the character is etched on the Czech psyche.[11]
Švejk is the subject of films, plays, an opera, a musical, comic books, and statues, even the theme of restaurants in a number of European countries. The novel is also the subject of an unpublished operetta by Peter Gammond. Švejk has many statues and monuments, for example, at Humenné in Slovakia; Przemyśl and Sanok in Poland; St. Petersburg, Omsk, and Bugulma in Russia and Kyiv, Lviv, and Donetsk in Ukraine. In Kraków, there is a plaque on a building where the author was imprisoned for 7 days for vagrancy by the Austrian authorities. There has been speculation that Hašek got the idea for Švejk at that time, based on one of his fellow prisoners in the jail.[12] The first statue of Švejk in the Czech Republic was unveiled in August 2014, in the village of Putim in South Bohemia.[13]
It is the most translated novel of Czech literature (58 languages in 2013).[26] Excerpts from the first chapter, translated into German by Max Brod as Der Brave Soldat Schwejk, were published two days after Hašek's death in the Prague German language paper Prager Tagblatt on January 5, 1923.[27] Following Max Brod's first steps toward a German translation, he introduced the book to Grete Reiner, executive editor of the anti-fascist magazine Deutsche Volkszeitung. Her translation of Švejk into German in 1926 was largely responsible for the speedy dissemination of Švejk's fame across Europe. It was one of the books burned by the National Socialists in 1933. Her translation was said to be one of Bertolt Brecht's favourite books.[28] Reiner was murdered in Auschwitz on 9 March 1944. After the war, many other translations followed and Švejk became the most famous Czech book abroad.
Three English-language translations of Švejk have been published:
The first English translation, by Paul Selver, was heavily abridged, reducing the novel to about two thirds of its original length.[30] Selver's translation also bowdlerized the original text, omitting paragraphs and occasionally pages that may have seemed offensive; despite this he has been praised for preserving some of the tension in the work between Literary and Common Czech.[31] Cecil Parrott, former British ambassador to Czechoslovakia, produced the first unabridged translation of the work. The translation by Sadloň (and Book One collaborator Joyce) is the latest, an American translation by a native Czech speaker.
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