The Good Soldier Vejk And His Fortunes In The World War

Poetic interpretations of legends taken from the folklore of many different peoples concerning the constellations.

A picaresque series of tales about an ordinary man's successful quest to survive, and a funny but unrelentingly savage assault on the very idea of bureaucratic officialdom as a human enterprise conferring benefits on those who live under its control, and on the various justifications bureaucracies offer for their own existence.

The Good Soldier Švejk, written in the aftermath of World War I by Czech humorist Jaroslav Hašek (1883–1923), stands as the classic satiric portrait of a little man waging war against authority. The unassuming and affable Švejk, having been called to serve in the Austro-Hungarian army at the start of the Great War, shrewdly plays the bumbling fool and makes a genial nuisance of himself, managing to avoid ever reaching the front while appearing loyally determined to do so. Possessed of an unerring talent for finding himself in (and extricating himself from) the most chaotic and absurd situations, Švejk represents, in his instinct for survival, all those human values that stand opposed to the utter futility of warfare. Hašek’s novel, inspired by the author’s own wartime escapades, has entertained readers in more than fifty languages for nearly a century and has come to define the spirit of comic endurance necessary to withstand the manglings of a modern-day bureaucratic war machine. This hardcover edition, translated and introduced by Cecil Parrott, is lavishly illustrated with 156 drawings by Hašek’s friend and colleague, the Czech cartoonist Josef Lada, and includes maps, a guide to pronouncing Czech names, a bibliography, and a chronology of the author’s life and times. Everyman's Library pursues the highest production standards, printing on acid-free cream-colored paper, with full-cloth cases with two-color foil stamping, decorative endpapers, silk ribbon markers, European-style half-round spines, and a jacket. Contemporary Classics include an introduction, a select bibliography, and a chronology of the author's life and times.

NDWT genesis production performed by Neptune Theatre under the direction of K.Turnbull who later that year along with James Reaney formed the NDWT Co.

The collection of short stories entitled Behind the Lines: Bulguma and Other Stories draws on Hašek’s experience from revolutionary Russia. In a manner similar to that employed in his caricatures of the pre-war monarchy, he satirically captures events of the Bolshevik revolution from the perspective of a Red commissar in a combination of grotesque humor and sarcasm. Historical events serve merely as part of the historical mystification. Hašek presents them as he perceived them as a man and participant in historical events. He depicts them primarily as simple and human, pushing his critical view into the background. On the border of a comic exaggeration and a realistic depiction, an amusing story about a forgotten Tartar town of Bugulma unfolds featuring the Soviet commander of the Tver Revolutionary Regiment, drunk Yerokhimov, and Comrade Gašek, the Commanding Officer of Bugulma. Employing humor and exaggeration, Hašek demonstrates the zealotry of the revolutionary period as well as the stupidity and simple human insecurity of authoritarians. The collection of short stories, Behind the Lines, also includes other sketches by Hašek, written at the same time.

" Vous n'auriez pas, par hasard, une ceinture sur vous pour que j'en finisse ? - Si, et je vous la prêterai volontiers, répondit Chvéïk en quittant sa ceinture, d'autant plus que je n'ai encore jamais vu comment on fait pour se pendre dans une cellule. Ce qui est embêtant, continua-t-il en regardant autour de lui, c'est qu'il n'y a pas un seul piton ici. "