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His life would have interested Jack Kerouac. And this. The author is a vagabond turned communist with a sense of humor but really an anarchist who formed "The Party of Moderate and Peaceful Progress Within the Limits of the Law" and then vilefied the Hapsburgs throughout Prague before The Great War. Ha.ha,ha,ha (gasp).especially if you have ever been in the military. The end causes the same torment as Dead Souls. Goodbye to All That. More Rabelais than Cervantes. All Quiet on the Western Front.
Maybe a comparison to Grimmelshausen's Simplizius comes closer to a characterization of the 'good soldier'.This edition is the most recent and seemingly acceptable version in the English language (though one reviewer complains about the small print), but it has attracted only 12 reviews. His attitude is basic philosophical wisdom: don't fight what is stronger than you, try to blend in and, above all, do not try to be a hero.
One of them loses a lot of money. Simplicity, particilularly the mental kind, is wisdom and a survival asset.On the day before a battle, Svejk plays cards with friends.
Svejk is one of the greatest creations of world literature of all times. He is a Czech during the K&K Monarchy of Austria & Hungary, and when the monarch starts WW1 after the shots in Sarajewo, Svejk is drafted and sent to the front.
Svejk consoles him: don't be sad, if you are lucky, you die tomorrow, then you don't have to pay your debts. He deserves to be mentioned next to Don Qixote and Robinson Crusoe.
What a shame.Sveijk is the prototypical small man called to the front by superior and ununderstandable forces.
translated in footnotes. Basically, the translation needs more editing. This is a difficult review because I love the stories and the translation is good overall, However: It seems like the Czech oaths and swears have been bawdlerized, although in the chapter in with Hungarians, the author has relented. On the other hand, Jalocová is repeatedly noted as juniper berry schnapps although context makes it obvious its a liquor. I like Osudy dobrého vojáka Švejka za svtové války enough that I might get another translation. There's a lot of old informal British terms used in dialogue, and I needed to look these up- some of these words might as well have remained in Czech. The text itself has German and Hungarian phrases which are usually (but not always).
I have okay eyesight, too. I will have to seek another edition of this classic, which comes highly recommended by friends. I thought potential buyers should know if print size is important to them. I am sorry to register this report as the book is nicely bound and set in Bembo, very handsome but way too small. The print in this edition is so tiny (6 pt.). that I couldn't imagine making it through hundreds of pages.
Our greatest president was as much a lover and chronicler of tales as Hasek, and it's a sure bet that growing up in backwoods Kentucky Lincoln commanded a pantheon of scatalogical tales on par with Hasek's that never made it into the standard Lincoln hagiographies.Svejk will be greatly enjoyed when read hard on the heels of Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August or Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front (Bloom's Guides). There's no getting around the fact that this book is funny and long, the latter characteristic often working might and main to detract from the former. Whether you muddle through to the end or not, it's a book you can dive into at any point and get anything from a chuckle to a snort to a few flecks of spit on the page.Hasek's brilliant ability to recount funny anecdotes reminds me of Doris Kearns Goodwin's portrayal of Abe Lincoln in Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.
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