The Good Soldier Svejk (1922)

This book is in 4 volumes, and really my rating is 5 stars for volume 1, 1 star for volume 2, and I didn't even start reading volumes 3 and 4. The first volume would make a lovely (and already fairly long) stand-alone novel, in which Hašek uses Svejk as a sort of universal "wise fool" character to show up the stupidity of everyone else around him, imperialism, reverence for royalty, patriotism and war. It's lightly written, but often quite cutting, and for a few hundred pages it's a delightful read. The trouble is, by the end of volume 1 it's already starting to get repetitive, so volume 2 became a real slog, and ultimately I lost patience with Svejk's monologues and gave up. ( )

This book is in 4 volumes, and really my rating is 5 stars for volume 1, 1 star for volume 2, and I didn't even start reading volumes 3 and 4. The first volume would make a lovely (and already fairly long) stand-alone novel, in which Hašek uses Svejk as a sort of universal "wise fool" character to show up the stupidity of everyone else around him, imperialism, reverence for royalty, patriotism and war. It's lightly written, but often quite cutting, and for a few hundred pages it's a delightful read. The trouble is, by the end of volume 1 it's already starting to get repetitive, so volume 2 became a real slog, and ultimately I lost patience with Svejk's monologues and gave up. ( )

An engaging and incredibly funny look at the dying hours of the Austria-Hungary monarchy, this classic of European 20th century literature tells the tale of the Czech private Švejk, who is desperately trying to get to the front-line to defend the emperor and the motherland, only to be always thwarted by some unfortunate event at the last minute.

This book is particularly interesting to the people living in the area of the former monarchy, as it is also an examination of the lives of our recent ancestors and the relations between the monarchy's nations of the time.

Read in Slovene under the title Dobri vojak Švejk. ( )

Это прямо таки энциклопедия людской глупости, подлости и скотства.

Книга, как и её герои — неоднозначна. Сложно и не всегда возможно оценить не только описываемых людей в целом, но и даже их отдельные поступки. У меня даже сначала был дискомфорт и желание бросить чтение, но потом пришло понимание, что жизнь многогранна и никто не знает, какие финты она завтра выкинет.

Настоятельно рекомендую после прочтения книги ознакомиться с биографией Гашека — так впечатление от книги будет ещё полнее.
( )

This is quite a tome. It is really four books in one or three and a half, as the author expired before the final book was completed. This is my first reading of a Czech author. I understand that the Austro-Hungarian Empire was held back by the Russians and later the Italians, otherwise the Anglo-French and their allies may have been in some mighty trouble during the Great War. Švejk puts an interesting spin on the peoples and cultures of this part of the conflict and, as an ex-soldier, I couldn't help but chuckle at the timeless idiocies of the military life, and Švejk's nonchalant way of handling such banal annoyances as "greatcoats on, greatcoats off", making "lists of lists", and nonsensical statistics about serving soldiers. While the work is part comedy, it is also satirical. In my mind's eye the comical events were reinforced by the cartoon drawings of Švejk and his antics. These cartoon characters tended to dance in front of real war footage, so a Laurel and Hardy figure had me laughing with embarrassment while at the same time I felt like I shouldn't be laughing. The effect is brilliant. There are so many stories within stories, and Švejk reminds me of the many characters I crossed paths with during my time in the army. One constantly came to mind as I read The Good Soldier Švejk: a soldier who could recite word for word any Monty Python movie ever made. At times, you had to tell him to just shut up, but it was hard to dislike him. Švejk is this same person. Tragic comedy is how I would describe this work. Brilliant. ( )