Feb 14 2009
Books you might want to read before you come to Prague I
Part one – The Good Soldier Schweik
Apart of tourist guides and language books, a good way to learn to know a country and its people is by its literature. Here is part one of a (planned) series of my personal favorites that might help you to learn to understand the Czech way of being a bit before actually coming to the country. Each book a facette of the Czech soul.
Image source (detail of)
The Good Soldier Švejk, by Jaroslav Hašek
“The Good Soldier Švejk/ Schweik/ Schwejk”, the writing of the name depends on the translator, is the short title for “The Good Soldier Švejk and his Fortunes during the World War”, an unfinished satirical novel by Jaroslav Hašek. There were six volumes planned, but the author died in 1923 from tuberculosis, having completed only four of them. It is often considered to be the first European anti-war novel ever published.
The story in a nutshell:
News reached Prague that the Austrian heir to the throne and his wife have been assassinated in Sarajevo, an event that ultimately caused the first world war. The “War that ends all wars” as it was called for a short time. Švejk, an ex-soldier, is enthusiastic about serving the Austrian Emperor which leads him, via the jail and the madhouse, to re-enter the Austro-Hungarian Army. His naivety, or as one could say also idiocy, gets him in all kind of trouble. He tries to be a good soldier, but by trying too hard and taking things very often too literally he fails over and over again. Švejk is the Czech incarnation of an “Holy Idiot/ Fool”. One of the more famous quotes from the book illustrates that very nicely:
“Take that idiotic expression off your face.” “I can’t help it,” Švejk replied solemnly. “I was discharged from the army for idiocy and officially certified by a special commission as an idiot. I’m an official idiot.”
The novel breaks up just after he has reached finally, after many adventures and mishaps, the front but before he is entering combat. The author himself fought, for a short time, in the first world war before being captured by the Russians. His life bears a lot of resemblance to the life of the protagonist of his novel and most successful work. He was an anarchist, and later Bolshevik/ communist, loved wine and women, the latter so much that he married twice, oops without being divorced from wife number one ;-( The book was forbidden in some armies, because of his bad, i.e. anarchic influence/ example and publicly burned in a few countries. He gained fame, after his death, with the fact of having introduced Švejkisms into the Czech language and they survive until today in words like švejkovina=švejking, švejkovat=to švejk and švejkárna=military absurdity. Švejk become an war anti-hero and perhaps because of this, the book became incredibly successful, it has been translated into over sixty languages, so you will have no problems to pick up a copy in a language that suits you.
