The Good Soldier ?vejk (pronounced ['?v?jk]), also spelled Schweik or Schwejk) is the abbreviated title of an unfinished satirical/dark comedy novel by Jaroslav Ha?ek. The original Czech title of the work is Osudy dobrého vojáka ?vejka za sv?tové války, literally The Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier ?vejk During the World War. It is the most translated novel of Czech literature.
?vejk has become a byword in the Czech Republic.
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Publication
The novel was originally illustrated by Josef Lada and more recently by Czech illustrator Petr Urban.
Ha?ek originally intended ?vejk to cover a total of six volumes, but had completed only three (and started on the fourth) upon his death from heart failure on January 3, 1923. Following Ha?ek's death, journalist Karel Van?k was asked by the publisher Adolf Synek to complete the unfinished novel. This continuation was released as ?vejk in Russian Captivity and Revolution (?vejk v Ruském Zajetí a Revoluci).
The volumes are:
- Behind the Lines (V zázemí, 1921)
- At the Front (Na front?, 1922)
- The Glorious Licking (Slavný výprask, 1922)
- The Glorious Licking Continued (Pokra?ování slavného výprasku, 1923; unfinished)
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Themes
The novel is set during World War I in Austria-Hungary, a multi-ethnic empire full of long-standing ethnic tensions. Fifteen million people died in the War, one million of them Austro-Hungarian soldiers including around 140,000 who were Czechs. Jaroslav Ha?ek participated in this conflict and examined it in The Good Soldier ?vejk.
Many of the situations and characters seem to have been inspired, at least in part, by Ha?ek's service in the 91st Infantry Regiment of the Austro-Hungarian Army. The novel also deals with broader anti-war themes: essentially a series of absurdly comic episodes, it explores the pointlessness and futility of conflict in general and of military discipline, Austrian military discipline in particular. Many of its characters, especially the Czechs, are participating in a conflict they do not understand on behalf of an empire to which they have no loyalty.
The character of Josef ?vejk is a development of this theme. Through (possibly feigned) idiocy or incompetence he repeatedly manages to frustrate military authority and expose its stupidity in a form of passive resistance: the reader is left unclear, however, as to whether ?vejk is genuinely incompetent, or acting quite deliberately with dumb insolence. These absurd events reach a climax when ?vejk, wearing a Russian uniform, is mistakenly taken prisoner by his own troops.
In addition to satirising Habsburg authority, Ha?ek repeatedly sets out corruption and hypocrisy attributed to priests of the Catholic Church.
Plot summary
The story begins in Prague with news of the assassination in Sarajevo that precipitates World War I.
?vejk displays such enthusiasm about faithfully serving the Austrian Emperor in battle that no one can decide whether he is merely an imbecile or is craftily undermining the war effort. He is arrested by a member of the state police, Bretschneider, after making some politically sensitive remarks, and is sent to prison. After being certified insane he is transferred to a madhouse, before being ejected.
?vejk gets his charwoman to wheel him (he claims to be suffering from rheumatism) to the recruitment offices in Prague, where his apparent zeal causes a minor sensation. He is transferred to a hospital for malingerers because of his rheumatism. He finally joins the army as batman to army chaplain Otto Katz; Katz loses him at cards to Senior Lieutenant Luká?, whose batman he then becomes.
Luká? is posted with his march battalion to barracks in ?eské Bud?jovice, in Southern Bohemia, preparatory to being sent to the front. After missing all the trains to Bud?jovice, ?vejk embarks on a long anabasis on foot around Southern Bohemia in a vain attempt to find Bud?jovice, before being arrested as a possible spy and deserter (a charge he strenuously denies) and escorted to his regiment.
The regiment is soon transferred to Bruck an der Leitha, a town on the border between Austria and Hungary. Here, where relations between the two nationalities are somewhat sensitive, ?vejk is again arrested, this time for causing an affray involving a respectable Hungarian citizen and engaging in a street fight. He is also promoted to company orderly.
The unit embarks on a long train journey towards Galicia and the Eastern Front. Close to the front line, ?vejk is taken prisoner by his own side as a suspected Russian deserter, after arriving at a lake and trying on an abandoned Russian uniform. Narrowly avoiding execution, he manages to rejoin his unit. The unfinished novel breaks off abruptly before ?vejk has a chance to be involved in any combat or enter the trenches, though it appears Ha?ek may have conceived that the characters would have continued the war in a POW camp, much as he himself had done.
The book includes numerous anecdotes told by ?vejk on nearly any occasion (often either to deflect the attentions of an authority figure, or to insult them in a concealed manner) which are not directly related to the plot.
Selected characters
The characters of The Good Soldier ?vejk are generally either used as the butt of Ha?ek's absurdist humour or represent fairly broad social and ethnic stereotypes found in the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the time. People are often distinguished by the dialect and register of Czech or German they speak, a quality that does not translate easily. Many German- and Polish-speaking characters, for example, are shown as speaking comedically broken or heavily accented Czech, while many Czechs speak broken German; much use is also made of slang expressions.
Some characters seem to have been partly based on real people serving with the Imperial and Royal 91st Infantry Regiment, in which Ha?ek served as a one-year volunteer.
Literary significance and criticism
A number of literary critics consider The Good Soldier ?vejk to be one of the first anti-war novels, predating Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front. Joseph Heller said that if he had not read The Good Soldier ?vejk, he would never have written his novel Catch-22.
Broader cultural influence
The idiocy and subversion of ?vejk has entered the Czech language in the form of words such as ?vejkovina ("?vejking"), ?vejkovat ("to ?vejk"), ?vejkárna (military absurdity), etc. The name has also entered the English dictionary, in the form of Schweik, "A person likened to the character of Schweik, pictured as an unlucky and simple-minded but resourceful little man oppressed by higher authorities," and the derivative forms to Schweik, Schweikism, and Schweikist.
In the British television documentary Hollywood (1979), a history of American silent films, director Frank Capra claimed the screen character of comedian Harry Langdon, which Capra helped to formulate, was partially inspired by The Good Soldier ?vejk.
Adaptations
?vejk is the subject of films, plays, an opera, a musical, comic books, and statues, even the theme of restaurants in a number of European countries. The novel is also the subject of an unpublished operetta by Peter Gammond. ?vejk has statues and monuments for example in Humenné, Slovakia, Przemy?l and Sanok in Poland, in Russian Saint Petersburg, Omsk and Bugulma and in Ukraine Kiev, Lviv and Donetsk. The first statue of ?vejk in the Czech Republic was unveiled in August 2014, in the village of Putim in South Bohemia.
- 1935: Arthur Koestler mentions in his autobiography that in 1935 he was commissioned by Willy Münzenberg, the Comintern propagandist, to write a novel called The Good Soldier Schweik Goes to War Again. He adds that the project was cancelled by the Communist Party when half the book had been written due to what they termed the book's "pacifist errors".
- 1943: Bertolt Brecht writes Schweik in the Second World War, a play which continues the adventures of ?vejk into World War II.
- 1957: Robert Kurka writes an opera based on the novel.
- 1965: BBC 60 minute television adaptation The Good Soldier Schweik starring Kenneth Colley, John Collin and Felix Felton.
- 2002: Sotha of the Café de la Gare writes a play, Le Brave Soldat Chvéïk s'en va au Ciel (The Good Soldier Schweik goes to Heaven), based on novel.
- 2008: BBC Radio 4 broadcasts a two-part radio adaptation starring Sam Kelly.
Film
- 1931: Martin Fri? films a black-and-white comedy based on the novel, starring Sa?a Ra?ilov as ?vejk.
- 1955: The Czech animator Ji?í Trnka adapts the novel as the animated film The Good Soldier Schweik (1955 film), consisting of three episodes, with Jan Werich starring as the narrator.
- 1956 and 1957: The Good Soldier Schweik (1956 film) - The most famous film adaptation. Czech film director Karel Steklý depicts the adventures of ?vejk in two color films, starring Rudolf Hru?ínský as the title character. It was nominated for the 1957 Crystal Globe Awards.
- 1960: In West Germany the book was adapted to black-and-white film The Good Soldier Schweik (1960 film) starring Heinz Rühmann.
- 1967-8: In Finland the book was adapted for television as a ten-part series called Kunnon sotamies ?vejkin seikkailuja (The Adventures of the Good Soldier ?vejk), starring Matti Varjo in the eponymous role.
- 1972: A 13-part TV series in German, Die Abenteuer des braven Soldaten Schwejk (The Adventures of the Good Soldier Schwejk), directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner, is made and broadcast by the Austrian state TV (ORF). The title role is played by Fritz Muliar.
- 1986: Czechoslovak puppetoon version Osudy dobrého vojáka ?vejka (The Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier Schweik) appears.
- 2009: The Good Soldier Shweik, animated film, United Kingdom/Ukraine, directed by Robert Crombie.
Translations
It is the most translated novel of Czech literature (58 languages in 2013). Three major English-language translations of ?vejk have been published:
- The Good Soldier Schweik, tr. Paul Selver, 1930.
- The Good Soldier Svejk and His Fortunes in the World War, tr. Cecil Parrott, 1973; reprints: ISBN 0-14-018274-8 & ISBN 978-0-14-044991-4.
- The Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier Svejk During the World War, tr. Zden?k Sadlo? and Emmit Joyce, in three volumes, 1997; ISBN 1585004286, ISBN 9781585004287.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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