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  • Published: 26 April 2005
  • ISBN: 9780140449914
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 784
  • RRP: $26.99

The Good Soldier Svejk



Joseph Heller said that if it weren't for his having read The Good Soldier Švejk he would never had written his American novel Catch 22

Hasek's most important work was centered around the deeply funny story of a hapless Czech soldier in the Austro-Hungarian army -- dismissed for incompetence only to be pressed into service by the Russians in World War I (where he is captured by his own troops). A mischief-maker, bohemian and drunk, Hasek demonstrated his wit in this classic novel of the Czech character and preposterous nature of war.

  • Published: 26 April 2005
  • ISBN: 9780140449914
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 784
  • RRP: $26.99

Other books in the series

The New Penguin Book Of American Short Stories, From Washington Irving To Lydia Davis
The Black Tulip
The Lady of the Camellias
Selected Poetry
Venus in Furs
Man and Superman
Military Dispatches
The Prelude

About the authors

Jaroslav Hašek

Jaroslav Hašek (1883-1923) wrote more than 2,000 short works, short stories, glosses, sketches, mostly under various pen-names. A prankster and stalwart of innumerable taverns scattered across Bohemia, Hašek was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian army during the First World War and spent much of the war in a Russian prisoner-of-war camp. After the war Hašek launched into writing his devastating and hilarious satire The Good Soldier Švejk, which was tragically left unfinished at his premature death and yet was, by various measures, probably unfinishable.