Ray's Reviews > The Good Soldier Å vejk and his Fortunes in the World War
The Good Soldier Å vejk and his Fortunes in the World War
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I bought this in 1980 as a treat for finishing my A levels. I was attracted by the garish bright yellow cover and the cartoonish character on the front.
It took me into a new world, portraying the kaleidoscope of the Austo Hungarian empire through the lense of the only loyal Czech private in the whole army. Sadly Svejk is a hopeless idiot, and his part in the war is of no use to Franz Joseph.
A rambling, irreverent, irreligious and bawdy mess of a book - the author wrote the book in installments for a newspaper so had every incentive to spin it out - nontheless it is a glorious paean to the pointlessness of war. The various nationalities of the AH Empire spent more time fighting each other than they ever did the Russians.
According to Wikipedia this was also partly the inspiration for Catch 22. God bless you Mr Hasek.
If you are in Prague one of the inns mentioned in the book is still there - U Kalicha in Na Bojisti st. A bit touristy but worth a visit, and good for a beer. Been there, got the beer mat.
Jaroslav Hasek was a bit of a character too. If you get the chance read The Bad Bohemian by Cecil Parrott, which sets out the life of this anarchistic rabble rouser. In my favourite passage, he helped set up a political party called the Party for Moderate Progress Within the Bounds of The Law, partly as a surreal response to onerous political restrictions, but also partly for cheap beer. We need more of this in our world.
It took me into a new world, portraying the kaleidoscope of the Austo Hungarian empire through the lense of the only loyal Czech private in the whole army. Sadly Svejk is a hopeless idiot, and his part in the war is of no use to Franz Joseph.
A rambling, irreverent, irreligious and bawdy mess of a book - the author wrote the book in installments for a newspaper so had every incentive to spin it out - nontheless it is a glorious paean to the pointlessness of war. The various nationalities of the AH Empire spent more time fighting each other than they ever did the Russians.
According to Wikipedia this was also partly the inspiration for Catch 22. God bless you Mr Hasek.
If you are in Prague one of the inns mentioned in the book is still there - U Kalicha in Na Bojisti st. A bit touristy but worth a visit, and good for a beer. Been there, got the beer mat.
Jaroslav Hasek was a bit of a character too. If you get the chance read The Bad Bohemian by Cecil Parrott, which sets out the life of this anarchistic rabble rouser. In my favourite passage, he helped set up a political party called the Party for Moderate Progress Within the Bounds of The Law, partly as a surreal response to onerous political restrictions, but also partly for cheap beer. We need more of this in our world.
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Quotes Ray Liked

“When Å vejk subsequently described life in the lunatic asylum, he did so in exceptionally eulogistic terms: 'I really don't know why those loonies get so angry when they're kept there. You can crawl naked on the floor, howl like a jackal, rage and bite. If anyone did this anywhere on the promenade people would be astonished, but there it's the most common or garden thing to do. There's a freedom there which not even Socialists have ever dreamed of.”
― The Good Soldier Å vejk
― The Good Soldier Å vejk

“Jesus Christ was innocent too,' said Svejk, 'and all the same they crucified him. No one anywhere has ever worried about a man being innocent. Maul halten und weiter dienen ['Grin and bear it and get on with the job'] - as they used to tell us in the army. That's the best and finest thing of all.”
― The Good Soldier Å vejk
― The Good Soldier Å vejk

“The famous field altar came from the Jewish firm of Moritz Mahler in Vienna, which manufactured all kinds of accessories for mass as well as religious objects like rosaries and images of saints.
The altar was made up of three parts, lberally provided with sham gilt like the whole glory of the Holy Church.
It was not possible without considerable ingenuity to detect what the pictures painted on these three parts actually represented. What was certain was that it was an altar which could have been used equally well by heathens in Zambesi or by the Shamans of the Buriats and Mongols.
Painted in screaming colors it appeared from a distance like a coloured chart intended for colour-blind railway workers. One figure stood out prominently - a naked man with a halo and a body which was turning green, like the parson's nose of a goose which has begun to rot and is already stinking. No one was doing anything to this saint. On the contrary, he had on both sides of him two winged creatures which were supposed to represent angels. But anyone looking at them had the impression that this holy naked man was shrieking with horror at the company around him, for the angels looked like fairy-tale monsters and were a cross between a winged wild cat and the beast of the apocalypse.
Opposite this was a picture which was meant to represent the Holy Trinity. By and large the painter had been unable to ruin the dove. He had painted a kind of bird which could equally well have been a pigeon or a White Wyandotte. God the Father looked like a bandit from the Wild West served up to the public in an American film thriller.
The Son of God on the other hand was a gay young man with a handsome stomach draped in something like bathing drawers. Altogether he looked a sporting type. The cross which he had in his hand he held as elegantly as if it had been a tennis racquet.
Seen from afar however all these details ran into each other and gave the impression of a train going into a station.”
― The Good Soldier Å vejk
The altar was made up of three parts, lberally provided with sham gilt like the whole glory of the Holy Church.
It was not possible without considerable ingenuity to detect what the pictures painted on these three parts actually represented. What was certain was that it was an altar which could have been used equally well by heathens in Zambesi or by the Shamans of the Buriats and Mongols.
Painted in screaming colors it appeared from a distance like a coloured chart intended for colour-blind railway workers. One figure stood out prominently - a naked man with a halo and a body which was turning green, like the parson's nose of a goose which has begun to rot and is already stinking. No one was doing anything to this saint. On the contrary, he had on both sides of him two winged creatures which were supposed to represent angels. But anyone looking at them had the impression that this holy naked man was shrieking with horror at the company around him, for the angels looked like fairy-tale monsters and were a cross between a winged wild cat and the beast of the apocalypse.
Opposite this was a picture which was meant to represent the Holy Trinity. By and large the painter had been unable to ruin the dove. He had painted a kind of bird which could equally well have been a pigeon or a White Wyandotte. God the Father looked like a bandit from the Wild West served up to the public in an American film thriller.
The Son of God on the other hand was a gay young man with a handsome stomach draped in something like bathing drawers. Altogether he looked a sporting type. The cross which he had in his hand he held as elegantly as if it had been a tennis racquet.
Seen from afar however all these details ran into each other and gave the impression of a train going into a station.”
― The Good Soldier Å vejk

“The lieutenant’s fooling around again with the telegraph girl at the station,â€� said the corporal, after he had gone. “He’s been running after her for a fortnight and he’s always frightfully furious when he comes from the telegraph office and he says about her: “She’s a whore. She won’t sleep with me!”
― The Good Soldier Å vejk
― The Good Soldier Å vejk
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Thank you for your kind words. I would be very interested to have your take on this book. It is one of my favourites.
I have spent a lifetime accumulating useless information, to be able to regurgitate some of it is delightful


If I am honest I bought the book because it had a striking cover - I was a callow and shallow youth.
On the general point whilst I don't doubt that some of the nuance was lost in translation or flew over my head there was still much that I could relate to and enjoy.
Incompetence and pointless military campaigns are the same the world over. Overbearing superiors are something that most of us have suffered at some time in our lives.
I have read and enjoyed other Czech writers such as Kundera, Hrabal and Skvorecky. Are there any others you would recommend that are available in translation?

sorry, I wanted to reply and but distracted and then forgot. Frankly, I have no idea what was translated and what not, as I can read originals. But I have found some good lists. Out of the names listed, I would say Capek, Havel, Kafka (only if you are into weird paranoid depression), Klima and Viewegh might be of interest:

sorry, I wanted to reply..."
Thanks for this, it is very kind of you. I have read Capek, a little Klima and Kafka (I was a morose teenager so his books fitted my mood perfectly).
Havel as far as I could see is mainly a playwright, I will look out for Viewegh though.

Havel as far as I could see is mainly a playwright, I will look out for Viewegh though.."
you don't know how much I understand, as a teenager I loved Remarque and Sartre, which says it all, I guess.
Viewegh is very popular contemporary author, there was also a movie made based on his Brining Up Girls in Bohemia. have fun :)