The Good Soldier: Schweik
THE GOOD SOLDIER
SCHWEIK
ILLUSTRATED BY JOSEPH LADA
ORIGINAL TITLE
IN CZECH:
OSUDY DOBRÉHO VOJÁKA ŠVEJKA
ZA SVĚTOVÉ VÁLKY
COPYRIGHT, 1930
BY DOUBLEDAY, DORAN & COMPANY, INC.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES AT
THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS
GARDEN CITY, N. Y.
JAROSLAV HASEK
Born in Prague forty-six years ago, Jaroslav Hasek followed neither the profession of his father, a teacher of mathematics, nor the dictates of necessity which forced him into a clerkship in a bank. He wanted to write, and before the catastrophic years of the war he had published sixteen volumes of short stories. Taken prisoner on the Eastern Front he spent several years in Russian prison camps. On his return he began to write “The Good Soldier: Schweik,” his Gargantuan book which was to enflame a nation to resistance and sweep all Europe with the virility of its satire. According to his original plan, “Schweik” was to be completed in six volumes. He died, however, in 1923, with only four volumes written.
AUTHOR’S PREFACE
A great epoch calls for great men. There are modest unrecognized heroes, without Napoleon’s glory or his record of achievements. An analysis of their characters would overshadow even the glory of Alexander the Great. To-day, in the streets of Prague, you can come across a man who himself does not realize what his significance is in the history of the great new epoch. Modestly he goes his way, troubling nobody, nor is he himself troubled by journalists applying to him for an interview. If you were to ask him his name, he would answer in a simple and modest tone of voice: “I am Schweik.”
And this quiet, unassuming, shabbily dressed man is actually the good old soldier Schweik; that heroic, dauntless man who was the talk of all citizens in the Kingdom of Bohemia when they were under Austrian rule, and whose glory will not pass away even now that we have a republic.
I am very fond of the good soldier Schweik, and in presenting an account of his adventures during the World War, I am convinced that you will all sympathize with this modest, unrecognized hero. He did not set fire to the temple of the goddess at Ephesus, like that fool of a Herostrate, merely in order to get his name into the newspapers and the school reading books.
And that, in itself, is enough.
CHAPTER I
Schweik, the Good Soldier, Intervenes in the Great WarPage 3
CHAPTER II
Schweik at the Police HeadquartersPage 13
CHAPTER III
Schweik before the Medical AuthoritiesPage 22
CHAPTER IV
Schweik Is Ejected from the Lunatic AsylumPage 29
CHAPTER V
Schweik at the Commissariat of PolicePage 34
CHAPTER VI
Schweik Home Again after Having Broken the Vicious Circle
Page 42
CHAPTER VII
Schweik Joins the ArmyPage 53
CHAPTER VIII
Schweik as a MalingererPage 60
CHAPTER IX
Schweik at the Detention BarracksPage 77
CHAPTER X
Schweik Becomes the Chaplain’s OrderlyPage 94
CHAPTER X
Schweik Accompanies the Chaplain to the Celebration of Mass
Page 116
CHAPTER XI
Religious DebatePage 126
CHAPTER XIII
Schweik Administers Extreme UnctionPage 132
CHAPTER XIV
Schweik Becomes Batman to Lieutenant LukashPage 147
CHAPTER XV
The CatastrophePage 183
CHAPTER I
Schweik’s Misadventures on the TrainPage 197
CHAPTER II
Schweik’s AnabasisPage 213
CHAPTER III
Schweik’s Adventures at Kiraly-HidaPage 257
CHAPTER IV
Fresh TribulationsPage 288
CHAPTER V
From Bruck-on-the-Leitha to SokalPage 304
CHAPTER I
Across HungaryPage 341
CHAPTER II
At BudapestPage 368
CHAPTER III
From Hatvan to the Frontiers of GaliciaPage 386
CHAPTER IV
Quick MarchPage 416
This work is a translation and has a separate copyright status to the applicable copyright protections of the original content.
| Original: |
This work was published before January 1, 1931, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse |
|---|---|
| Translation: |
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published in 1930, before the cutoff of January 1, 1931. The longest-living author of this work died in 1970, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 55 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse |
