Discount Shopping Online :: Books The Good Soldier Svejk: and His Fortunes in the World War (Penguin Classics) : :

The Good Soldier Svejk: and His Fortunes in the World War (Penguin Classics)
by: Jaroslav Hasek

List Price: $16.00

Amazon.com's Price: $10.88

You Save: $5.12 (32%)
Prices subject to change.

Used Price: $6.40
Third Party New Price: $9.12

Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 891.8635
EAN: 9780140449914
ISBN: 0140449914
Label: Penguin Classics
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 784
Publication Date: December 27, 2005
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Sales Rank: 186713
Studio: Penguin Classics

Related Items:

Editorial Review:

Product Description:
In The Good Soldier Svejk, celebrated Czech writer and anarchist Jaroslav Hasek combined dazzling wordplay and piercing satire in a hilariously subversive depiction of the futility of war.

Good-natured and garrulous, Svejk becomes the Austrian army’s most loyal Czech soldier when he is called up on the outbreak of World War I—although his bumbling attempts to get to the front serve only to prevent him from reaching it. Playing cards and getting drunk, he uses all his cunning and genial subterfuge to deal with the police, clergy, and officers who chivy him toward battle. Cecil Parrott’s vibrant translation conveys the brilliant irreverence of this classic about a hapless Everyman caught in a vast bureaucratic machine.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Hasek and Abe Lincoln
There's no getting around the fact that this book is funny and long, the latter characteristic often working might and main to detract from the former. Whether you muddle through to the end or not, it's a book you can dive into at any point and get anything from a chuckle to a snort to a few flecks of spit on the page.

Hasek's brilliant ability to recount funny anecdotes reminds me of Doris Kearns Goodwin's portrayal of Abe Lincoln in Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. Our greatest president was as much a lover and chronicler of tales as Hasek, and it's a sure bet that growing up in backwoods Kentucky Lincoln commanded a pantheon of scatalogical tales on par with Hasek's that never made it into the standard Lincoln hagiographies.

Svejk will be greatly enjoyed when read hard on the heels of Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August or Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the ... Read More

Rating:

- witty writing
I have to say that reading this book reminded me of my own service in the Greek army and all the moments of hilarity. Witty humour though it shows its age. Unfortunately an unfinished novel, but a classic all the same.

Rating:

- Humor on different levels
The good soldier Svejk is one of those books labelled as "literature" that has to be read with an understanding of its context to be fully understood. This is not a fluffly beach reading novel that you pick up, read in a couple of hours, and then forget as soon as you close the cover. Instead, it is a very long criticism of the craziness of Austro-Hungarian society during World War I.

The good soldier Svejk is a czech who is either extremely stupid, or who is manipulating the system to his own benefit. Depending on the anecdote, you will interpret his actions either way. To give you a good idea of what I mean, Svejk is introduced to us as a person who makes his living by supplying dogs to customers. The dogs are mongrels of no particular provenance and frequently stolen, but Svejk supplies them to you with a certificate telling you that the dog is a pure-bred-whatever-you-wanted. On the other hand, when ... Read More

Rating:

- the good soldier svejk
This is an hilarious novel that was a forerunner to catch 22. We have the Good Soldier Svejk for WWI, Catch 22 for WWII, and to a lesser extent Forrest Gump for Viatnam.

Recommend to those wanting a good chuckle

Discount Shopping Online Books and Publications

Books : The Good Soldier Svejk: and His Fortunes in the World War (Penguin Classics)
Books and Publications Average Rating:

Search the web for info about The Good Soldier Svejk: and His Fortunes in the World War (Penguin Classics)

Discount Shopping Online Books and Publications

Books : The Good Soldier Svejk: and His Fortunes in the World War (Penguin Classics)Books and Publications Average Rating:

Search the web for info about The Good Soldier Svejk: and His Fortunes in the World War (Penguin Classics)

Books : The Good Soldier Svejk: and His Fortunes in the World War (Penguin Classics)
Books and Publications Average Rating: