Jaroslav Ha?ek
A Study of Švejk and the Short Stories

This 1982 book was the first major critical study of Jaroslav Hašek and his most important literary creation, The Good Soldier Švejk.

Cecil Parrott (Author)

9780521136778, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 25 February 2010

244 pages
21.6 x 14 x 1.4 cm, 0.32 kg

This 1982 book was the first major critical study of Jaroslav Hašek and his most important literary creation, The Good Soldier Švejk. For many people Hašek's book is simply extremely funny. Cecil Parrott begins from the point of view that a closer examination of the conditions under which the book was written reveal it to be a much deeper work than it appears on the surface: a tragic as well as a comic masterpiece. A leading authority on Hašek, Parrott wrote the definitive biography, The Bad Bohemian, and translated the unexpurgated version of Švejk and many of Hašek's short stories. This book is lucidly written and aimed at the non-specialist reader who requires guidance in coming to terms with this strange book. All quotations are translated, and the book also includes a number of illustrations including the only sketch of Švejk that Hašek approved.

1. The individual and the giant power
2. The oppressor's shame
3. Hašek as a journalist and short story writer
4. The origins. Three Švejks or one?
5. The characters in the book - Švejk himself
6. The other characters: the Army
7. Structure and form
8. The controversy
9. Were the critics right?
Notes
Appendices 1–3
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]