The Red Commissar: Including Further Adventures Of The Good Soldier Svejk And Other Stories

Jaroslav Hasek is best known for his satirical masterpiece “The Good Soldier Svejk.” That book has been described (by British writer George Monbiot) 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, Sir 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 in a pharmacy, and the hilariously funny speeches made by Hasek when promoting his short-lived political ‘Party of Moderate Progress within the bounds of the Law’.