Jaroslav Hašek is a Czech writer most famous for his wickedly funny, widely read, yet incomplete novel The Good Soldier Schweik, a series of absurdist vignettes about a recalcitrant WWI soldier. Hašek—in spite of a life of buffoonery and debauchery—was remarkably prolific. He wrote hundreds of short stories that all display both his extraordinary gift for satire and his profound distrust of authority. Behind the Lines presents a series of nine short stories first published in the Prague Tribune and considered to be some of Hašek’s best. Based on his experiences as a Red Commissar in the Russian Civil War and his return to Czechoslovakia, Behind the Lines focuses on the Russian town of Bugulma, taking aim, with mordant wit, at the absurdities of a revolution. Providing important background and insight into The Good Soldier Schweik, this collection by a writer some call the Bolshevik Mark Twain is nevertheless much more than a tool for understanding his better-known novel; it is a significant work in its own right. A hidden gem remarkable for its modern, ribald sense of humor, Behind the Lines is an enjoyable, fast-paced anthology of great literary and historical value.  

Product Description: Vydajushheesja proizvedenie nacional'noj cheshskoj literatury - satiricheskij roman Jaroslava Gasheka (1883-1923) "Pohozhdenija bravogo soldata Shvejka vo vremja mirovoj vojny" - blestjashhaja antiimperialisticheskaja jepopeja, ohvatyvajushhaja sobytija v Avstro-Vengrii nakanune pervoj mirovoj vojny i v pervye ee gody...read more

Product Description: Cuando estalla la Primera Guerra Mundial, el orondo y entusiasta Švejk, llevado por su fervor patriótico, se alista enseguida en el ejército austrohúngaro, se inician así las desternillantes y sorprendentes andanzas de este simpático pícaro moderno, cuya curiosa manera de atender a las órdenes de sus superiores le lleva a ...read more

Product Description: El valiente soldado Svejk es una satira mordaz y divertida sobre lo absurdo de las guerras. Su protagonista, un soldado picaro y sin motivacion, cuyas peripecias durante la Primera Guerra Mundial demuestran el sinsentido del conflicto belico, libra su guerra privada contra la maquinaria militar y empleando la estupidez se transforma en un estratega capaz de desarmar a quien sea...read more

Hasek's most important work was centered around the deeply funny story of a hapless Czech soldier in the Austro-Hungarian army. Dsmissed for incompetence only to be pressed into service by the Russians in World War I.

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In Book One of The Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier Svejk During the World War Jaroslav Hasek wrote about the familiar world he lived in and wrote about his whole life before the onset of the "War to End All Wars". Book One introduces that world to those who are not familiar with it. For those "in the know" it is a hilarious stroll down the familiar paths: the pubs, cops, politics, houses of ill repute, eking out a living. Even after Svejk already joined the military, life goes on as usual. He and his cohorts might be in uniform, but frequent the same pubs, interact with the same people under similar circumstances. The military is not much different than the police. It's just another uniformed service diminishing one's options and pleasure, only to be outwitted and largely ignored. Book One sets the stage for what follows once Svejk moves out with his outfit to go to the front. As the text, now continuing in Book Two, progresses, it becomes clear that The Good Soldier Svejk is not a book meant for the light entertainment of the leisure class. There have been quite a few "livingers", people making a living from interpreting what Hasek meant by what he wrote, who or what svejk is and arguing among themselves. If the common working people find the text funny or even hilarious, it is because, as Don DeGrazia put it, it is "a bellowing barroom brawl of a book that will forever have everyday people doubled-up with the painful laughter of recognition". Such laughing people know svejk without having to analyze him or the text he lives in. On the other hand, if you want to take that route, you will find a lot of material to confront at SvejkCentral.com.

Translates the iconoclastic Czech's classic satire depicting the adventures of a soldier during the First World War

Product Description: Jaroslav Hasek is best known for his satirical masterpiece, "The Good Soldier Svejk". That has been described as 'Perhaps the funniest novel ever written'. Although his life was short and chaotic, Hasek did however write more as this volume tellingly reveals...read more

Product Description: Translated by Paul Selver with Foreword by Leslie A. fiedler