Cecil Parrott Knihy

Dobrý voják Švejk je jedna z nejznámějších a nejoblíbenějších postav nejen české, ale i světové literatury. Svědčí o tom spolu s četnými vydáními doma a v zahraničí také skutečnost, že se z díla stala v pravém slova smyslu klasika, která se neustále čte a cituje. Možná bychom mohli mluvit i o součásti naší národní povahy, ať už v dobrém nebo pejorativním smyslu. Švejk, hostinský Palivec, polní kurát Katz, nadporučík Lukáš, sapér Vodička, Baloun a další postavičky nadále žijí svým životem.

Dobrý voják Švejk je jedna z nejznámějších a nejoblíbenějších postav nejen české, ale i světové literatury. Svědčí o tom spolu s četnými vydáními doma a v zahraničí také skutečnost, že se z díla stala v pravém slova smyslu klasika, která se neustále čte a cituje. Možná bychom mohli mluvit i o součásti naší národní povahy, ať už v dobrém nebo pejorativním smyslu. Švejk, hostinský Palivec, polní kurát Katz, nadporučík Lukáš, sapér Vodička, Baloun a další postavičky nadále žijí svým životem.

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.

Jaroslav Hasek is best known for his satirical masterpiece "The Good Soldier Svejk." That book has been described (by British writer George Monbiot) as 'Perhaps the funniest novel ever written.' Although his life was short and chaotic, Hasek did, however, write more, as this volume tellingly reveals. In his preface, Sir Cecil Parrott, translator and biographer of Hasek, crisply defines its purpose.. 'All the world has heard of Svejk, but few are familiar with the countless other characters Hasek created in his stories and sketches, which together with his feuilletons and articles are though to number some twelve hundred. The best of these deserve to be made available to the Western public and are included in this volume.' The range is wide. There is a selection from his Bugulma stories (Hasek as Bolshevik and Red Commissar), some early Svejk stories, reminiscences of Hasek's apprenticeship days in a pharmacy, and the hilariously funny speeches made by Hasek when promoting his short-lived political 'Party of Moderate Progress within the bounds of the Law'.