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Product Description
Jaroslav Hasek is best known for his satirical masterpiece The Good Soldier Svejk. That has been described as 'Perhaps the funniest novel ever written.' Although his life was short and chaotic, Hasek did however write more as this volume tellingly reveals. In his preface, Cecil Parrott, translator and biographer of Hasek, crisply defines its purpose.. 'All the world has heard of Svejk, but few are familiar with the countless other characters Hasek created in his stories and sketches, which together with his feuilletons and articles are though to number some twelve hundred. The best of these deserve to be made available to the Western public and are included in this volume.' The range is wide. There is a selection from his Bugulma stories (Hasek as Bolshevik and Red Commissar), some early Svejk stories, reminiscences of Hasek's apprenticeship days, and the hilariously funny speeches made by Hasek when promoting his political 'Party of Moderate Progress within the bounds of the Law'.
About the Author
Cecil Parrott, translator, biographer and unrivalled authority on Jaroslav Hasek (1883-1923), describes him succinctly: 'Truant, rebel, vagabond, anarchist, play-actor, practical joker, bohemian (and Bohemian), alcoholic, traitor to the Czech legion, Bolshevik and bigamist.' He was also a satirical writer of genius, best known for The Good Soldier Svejk, but, as The Red Commissar (reissued in Faber Finds) reveals, dazzling in other formats as well: feuilletons, sketches, short stories and satirical cameos.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
The Bolshevik Mark Twain
17 Sep 2009
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Jaroslav Hasek's one novel, The Good Soldier Svejk, is an 'immortal' classic of humor, easily the most widely-read book by any Czech writer ever. Unfortunately, it was published near the end of Hasek's forty year lifespan of buffoonery, bigamy, debauchery, and rebellion against any kind of authority. 'Promises Not Kept, Promise Unfulfilled' would be an apt epitaph for the vagabond anarchist/communist who was one of the founders in 1911 of The Party for Moderate Progress Within the Bounds of Law, effectively a precursor of radical street theater. The annals and reports of this mock political party are included in "The Red Commisar"; Hasek was a good deal funnier than Al Franken, and he never had to shut up and serve in any legislature.
Another portion of "The Red Commisar" consists of the nine satirical sketches Hasek wrote about his real-life service as a Soviet Commissar in rural Russia. Slavophilia was perhaps Hasek's most consistent ideology; his brief tour of duty in Bolshevik Russia was enough to make him one of the heroes in the literary pantheon of the later USSR, but his irrepressible eccentricity and irregularity would almost certainly have gotten him 'expunged' if he hadn't scampered back to Czech territory in time. These sketches, and most of the other anecdotes collected here, were published in various 'fugitive' journals of the underground and bohemian press. Hasek wrote at least 1200 such ephemeral pieces before committing himself seriously to his single novel. Translator Cecil Parrott has offered us a chosen few.
The similarity of Hasek's short stories and sketches to those of Anton Chekhov should be no surprise. Same era, same cultural galaxy. Chekhov's sketches are more graceful, Hasek's are funnier, but they are of the same ephemeral genre. More surprising is how much Hasek's tossed-off anecdotes remind me of the informal scraps of writing by the American Mark Twain. The biographies of the two humorists could hardly be more different, but they display the same sardonic sense of humor. If you enjoy Twain's minor sketches and scraps of journalism, you'll be delighted by Hasek's just as much. Remember Twain's response to his own premature obituary? Hasek had just the same experience; a rival writer heard a rumor that Hasek had been killed in a brawl in Russia, and rushed to publish a defamatory obituary. Hasek's revenge was a practical joke, described in the sketch "How I Met the Author of my Obituary".
Only rarely does Hasek's satire fall flat, and that perhaps can be blamed on time and translation. This is a fun little collection of bits and pieces rescued from the bottomless literary wastebasket -- nothing great, but highly amusing.
Another portion of "The Red Commisar" consists of the nine satirical sketches Hasek wrote about his real-life service as a Soviet Commissar in rural Russia. Slavophilia was perhaps Hasek's most consistent ideology; his brief tour of duty in Bolshevik Russia was enough to make him one of the heroes in the literary pantheon of the later USSR, but his irrepressible eccentricity and irregularity would almost certainly have gotten him 'expunged' if he hadn't scampered back to Czech territory in time. These sketches, and most of the other anecdotes collected here, were published in various 'fugitive' journals of the underground and bohemian press. Hasek wrote at least 1200 such ephemeral pieces before committing himself seriously to his single novel. Translator Cecil Parrott has offered us a chosen few.
The similarity of Hasek's short stories and sketches to those of Anton Chekhov should be no surprise. Same era, same cultural galaxy. Chekhov's sketches are more graceful, Hasek's are funnier, but they are of the same ephemeral genre. More surprising is how much Hasek's tossed-off anecdotes remind me of the informal scraps of writing by the American Mark Twain. The biographies of the two humorists could hardly be more different, but they display the same sardonic sense of humor. If you enjoy Twain's minor sketches and scraps of journalism, you'll be delighted by Hasek's just as much. Remember Twain's response to his own premature obituary? Hasek had just the same experience; a rival writer heard a rumor that Hasek had been killed in a brawl in Russia, and rushed to publish a defamatory obituary. Hasek's revenge was a practical joke, described in the sketch "How I Met the Author of my Obituary".
Only rarely does Hasek's satire fall flat, and that perhaps can be blamed on time and translation. This is a fun little collection of bits and pieces rescued from the bottomless literary wastebasket -- nothing great, but highly amusing.
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