The Good Soldier Svejk and His Fortunes in the World War: Translated by Cecil Parrott. with Original Illustrations by Josef Lada. (Hasek Jaroslav)(Paperback)

The Good Soldier Svejk follows Josef Svejk ('one of the great characters of 20th century literature'--New Republic), a boisterous and sometimes bumbling (or brilliantly subversive?) Czech soldier, through the trials of World War I. Beginning with the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in 1914, we follow one of the great comic heroes of the 20th century on a wild trip through war-ravaged Europe, as he fakes illnesses, is captured by his own men, and embarks on various quixotic quests, always with a bizarre--and often hilarious--anecdote at the ready. Predating countercultural American classics like Catch-22 (whose defining paradox about the insanity of anyone who would volunteer for war is liberally adapted from Svejk's own invocation 'The best thing you can do... is pretend to be an idiot') by a generation, The Good Soldier Svejk was one of the first anti-war satires, and still one of the finest ever written. Featuring Cecil Parrott's lively, unabridged translation, as well as the book's original illustrations, this will be the definitive publication of Hasek's masterpiece for years to come.

Discover 'perhaps the funniest novel ever written' (The Guardian ), now beautifully reissued

'The classic comic novel of the First World War.' --The New Yorker - 'A literary masterpiece.' --New York Review of Books - 'One of the greatest works of 20th century literature.' --Boston Globe

Jaroslav Hasek's The Good Soldier Svejk follows the adventures of Josef Svejk, a boisterous and sometimes bumbling (or brilliantly subversive?) Czech soldier, as he navigates the trials of World War I. Thrust into the Austro-Hungarian Empire's army in 1914, Svejk, 'one of the great characters of 20th century literature' (New Republic), embarks on a wild trip through war-ravaged Europe as he fakes illnesses, is captured by his