《好兵帅克》(The Good Soldier Švejk)全名《好兵帅克在第一次世界大战中的遭遇》，它是捷克杰出的讽刺作家哈谢克(Jaroslav Hašek)的一部长篇政治讽刺小说。作家以自己在奥匈帝国军队服役时所获得的大量素材提炼而成。
好兵帅克-小说简介
小说以普通士兵帅克在第一次世界大战中的经历为线索，深刻揭露奥匈帝国统治者的凶残专横及其军队的腐朽堕落。他们对人民奸淫掠夺，官兵之间欺上压下，“友军”之间相互倾轧，他们虐待俘虏，各级军官个个愚昧无知、贪婪腐败。这一切，在小说中暴露无遗。小说成功地塑造了一个与人民血肉相连的普通捷克士兵帅克的智慧、力量以及对占领者的不满情绪与自发反抗的精神。帅克善良又勇敢，机智而不露声色，貌似平凡，而且有点“愚昧”和滑稽可笑。然而他却善于运用民间谚语、笑话，接过上司的口号，以其人之道还治其人之身，伺机巧妙地同反动统治者作斗争。只要他到哪里，那里就被搅得鸡飞狗跳、天翻地覆，把反动政权的秩序搞得一团糟，使反动统治机器无法运动。从而表达对敌人的无比仇恨和对异族统治下的人民的深切同情与无比关怀。小说出版后被译成40多种文字，在世界各地都拥有广泛的读者，享有世界声誉。
Hašek originally intended Švejk to cover a total of six volumes, but had completed only four (which are now usually merged into one book) upon his death from tuberculosis in 1923. Many critics consider the book to be one of the greatest novels of the 20th century.
Themes
The novel is set during World War I in Austria-Hungary, a multi-ethnic empire full of long-standing tensions. Fifteen million people died in the War, one million of them Austro-Hungarian soldiers of whom around 140,000 were Czechs. Jaroslav Hašek participated in this conflict and examined it in The Good Soldier Švejk.
Many of the situations and characters seem to have been inspired, at least in part, by Hašek's service in the 91st Infantry Regiment of the Austro-Hungarian Army. However, the novel also deals with broader anti-war themes: essentially a series of absurdly comic episodes, it explores both the pointlessness and futility of conflict in general and of military discipline, specifically Austrian military discipline, in particular. Many of its characters, especially the Czechs, are participating in a conflict they do not understand on behalf of a country to which they have no loyalty.
The character of Josef Švejk 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 Švejk is genuinely incompetent, or acting quite deliberately with dumb insolence. These absurd events reach a climax when Švejk, wearing a Russian uniform, is mistakenly taken prisoner by his own troops.
In addition to satirising Habsburg authority, Hašek 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.
Švejk 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. However, he is arrested by a member of the secret police, Bretschneider, after making some politically sensitive remarks, and is sent to prison. After being certified insane he is finally transferred to a madhouse, before being ejected.
Švejk 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. Unfortunately, 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 Lieutenant Lukáš, whose batman he then becomes. Lukáš is then posted with his march battalion to barracks in České Budějovice, in Southern Bohemia, preparatory to being sent to the front. After missing the train to Budějovice, Švejk embarks on a long anabasis on foot around Southern Bohemia in a vain attempt to find Budějovice, before being arrested as a possible spy and deserter (a charge he strenuously denies) and escorted to his regiment. He is then promoted to company orderly.
The unit embarks on a long train journey towards Galicia and the Eastern Front. Stopping in a town on the border between Austria and Hungary, Švejk is again arrested, this time for causing an affray involving a respectable Hungarian citizen and engaging in a street fight. Before reaching the front line, Švejk 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 Švejk has a chance to be involved in any combat or enter the trenches, though it appears Hašek may have conceived that the characters would have continued the war in a POW camp, much as he had done.
The book also includes a very large number of anecdotes told by Švejk (usually 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 Švejk generally either are used as the butt of Hašek'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 slangy expressions.
Some characters seem to have been partly based on real people serving with the Imperial and Royal 91st Infantry Regiment, in which Hašek served as a one-year volunteer.
Josef Švejk
The novel's hero: in civilian life a dealer in stolen dogs.
Palivec
The foul-mouthed landlord of Švejk's local pub - the "U Kalicha" on Na Bojišti street, Prague. Palivec is eventually arrested by Bretschneider (see below) after commenting that flies shit on the pub's portrait of Franz Joseph I of Austria.
Bretschneider
A secret policeman for the Austro-Hungarian government, who repeatedly tries to catch Švejk and others out on their anti-monarchist views. Is eventually eaten by his own dogs, after buying a succession of animals from Švejk in an attempt to incriminate him.
Staff Warder Slavík
A cruel and corrupt prison official (revealed to have himself ended up in prison under the Republic of Czechoslovakia).
Chaplain Otto Katz
Katz is an army chaplain with a fondness for drinking, especially good communion wine, and gambling. A convert to Catholicism, many aspects of Katz's character are something of an anti-semitic caricature. Švejk seems fond of Katz, but the latter loses the services of Švejk to Lieutenant Lukáš in a game of cards.
Lieutenant Lukáš
Švejk's long-suffering company commander. A Czech from South Bohemia, Lukáš is something of a womanizer but is depicted in a broadly sympathetic manner by Hašek (the records of the real-life 91st Regiment show an Oberleutnant Rudolf Lukáš at the time of Hašek's service; Hašek admired Lukáš and even wrote him a number of poems). Though Švejk's actions eventually lead to Lukáš being labelled as a notorious philanderer in the Hungarian national press, he starts to miss Švejk after the latter is promoted to company orderly.
Colonel Friedrich Kraus von Zillergut
An idiotic Austrian officer with a penchant for giving his colleagues long-winded, moronic explanations of everyday objects (such as thermometers and postage stamps) and situations; run over by a cart while attempting to demonstrate what a pavement is. Kraus's dog is stolen by Švejk as a gift to Lukáš; the enraged colonel subsequently arranges Lukáš's transfer to the front.
Captain Sagner
One of the regiment's professional officers and commander of Švejk's march battalion; an ambitious careerist, he is later revealed to have been a closet Czech patriot in his youth. A Captain Sagner appears to have served in the 91st Regiment, where he was Hašek's battalion commander.
Colonel Schröder
The bad-tempered colonel of Švejk's regiment, and a caricature of the typical German-speaking senior officers of the Austro-Hungarian army.
Jurajda
The battalion's spiritualist cook; before military service he had edited an "occultist" journal. Spends time attempting to avoid frontline service through letters he is writing to his wife, in which he details meals he is intending to cook for senior officers.
2nd Lieutenant Dub
Dub is a Czech schoolmaster, officer of the reserve, and commander of the battalion's 3rd company: he has strongly monarchist views. As a conservative, pro-Habsburg Czech, Dub is the subject of some of Hašek's most vicious satire. Repeatedly placed in humiliating situations, such as being found drunk in a brothel or falling off a horse (in all Slavonic languages the word 'dub' ('oak') itself is a common synonym for a dull, idiotic person). Is said to have been based on a lieutenant of the reserve, Mechalek, who served in Hašek's regiment.
Quartermaster Sergeant-Major Vaněk
Another recurring character, Vaněk (a chemist from Kralupy nad Vltavou in civilian life) is an example of an easy-going but self-serving senior NCO, whose main concern is to make his own existence as comfortable as possible.
Volunteer Marek
The character of one-year volunteer Marek is to some degree a self-portrait by the author, who was himself a one-year volunteer in the 91st. For example, Marek — like Hašek — was fired from the editorship of a natural history magazine after writing articles about imaginary animals. Is appointed the battalion historian by Sagner and occupies himself with devising memorable and heroic deaths in advance for his colleagues.
Vodička
A sapper friend of Švejk noted mainly for his extreme hatred of Hungarians, which leads to an unfortunate incident in Bruck an der Leitha.
Cadet Biegler
Biegler is a young junior officer with pretensions to nobility, despite being the middle-class son of a furrier. Biegler takes his military duties so seriously he is ridiculed even by his senior officers, and is mistakenly hospitalised as a "carrier of cholera germs" after medical staff misdiagnose (for army PR-purposes) a cognac-induced hangover.
Captain Tayrle
The brigade adjutant and a particularly disgusting example of a headquarters officer, whose interests appear to lie mainly in crude jokes and sampling of local prostitutes.
General Fink von Finkenstein
An aristocratic, vicious and near-insane senior Austrian officer and commander of the garrison fort of Przemyśl, Fink treats his men with extreme brutality. Almost succeeds in having Švejk executed after the latter is taken prisoner by his own side.
Chaplain Martinec
A chaplain plagued by drink-induced spiritual doubts, whose attempt to provide spiritual consolation to Švejk ends in disaster.
"Sergeant Teveles"
A man in possession of a silver Military Merit Medal, purchased from a Bosnian, and claiming to be a Sergeant Teveles, who had previously disappeared along with the entire 6 March Company during fighting in Belgrade.
Baloun
A miller from Český Krumlov in civilian life, and Švejk's successor as Lukáš's batman, Baloun is a glutton and is regularly punished for stealing Lukáš's food. Will eat raw dough, sausage skins, etc., when nothing else is available.
Literary significance and criticism
A number of literary critics consider The Good Soldier Švejk to be one of the first anti-war novels, predating Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front. Furthermore, Joseph Heller said that if he had not read The Good Soldier Švejk, he would never have written his novel Catch-22.
Broader cultural influence
The idiocy/subversion of Švejk has entered the Czech language in the form of words of švejkovina ("švejking"), švejkovat ("to švejk"), švejkárna (military absurdity), etc. Peter Sellers in his movie "Shot in the Dark", uses two comic bits from Svejk. From the overbearing captain "You know what a road is? - simplistic overstatement, and poor Lieutenent Lucas in despair to Svejk , "I should have shot you — who would have said anything ? who ?", (this was put to Clouseau by Captain Dreyfuss in the movie).
Adaptations
* The Czech animator Jiří Trnka adapted the novel as an animated film in 1955, including Jan Werich starring as a narrator.
* Czech director Karel Steklý filmed the adventures in two films in 1956 and 1957, starring Rudolf Hrušínský as Švejk.
* In West Germany the book was newly adapted in the 1960s, starring Heinz Rühmann.
* A 13-part TV series in German, Die Abenteuer des braven Soldaten Schwejk, directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner, was made and broadcast by the Austrian state TV (ORF) in 1972. The title role was played by Fritz Muliar.
* Czechoslovakian puppetoon version "Osudy dobrého vojáka Švejka" (1986)
* In November 2008, BBC Radio 4 broadcasted a two-part radio adaptation starring Sam Kelly.
The Good Soldier Švejk inspired Bertolt Brecht to write a play continuing his adventures in World War II. It was aptly titled Schweik in the Second World War.
Švejk became the subject of comic books, films, an opera, a musical, statues, and the theme of many restaurants in a number of European countries.
Arthur Koestler worked on an uncompleted sequel called The Good Soldier Schweik Goes to War Again.[citation needed]
* Robert Kurka wrote an opera based on the novel, first performed in 1958.
* The Harry Harrison science fiction series 'Bill, the Galactic Hero', begun in 1965, is a retelling of the Švejk story updated to a future galactic war.
Translations and adaptations
Three major English-language translations of Švejk 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 0140182748 & ISBN 978-0140449914.
* The Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier Svejk During the World War, Book One, Books 3 & 4 (E-book).
* The Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier Švejk During the World War, Book Two
* The Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier Švejk During the World War, Book(s) Three & Four]
The first translation does not give a full impression of Hašek's original. Whole passages are missing (such as the famous imaginary-animals passage on the Animal World Magazine, and the whole of Volume 4 after Švejk's capture as a Russian), various passages are bowdlerised, and the style is somewhat stifling and unimaginative, contrary to the language used by Hašek. Succeeding translations are generally perceived as evolving from good to better.[citation needed]
The translation by Sadlon (all four books) is now also available on CD, together with a collection of several dozen great works of satire from B*R Samizdat Express
There is also an orchestral suite and an opera , both for wind ensemble, written by Robert Kurka, as well as a stage adaptation, Svejk, by Colin Teevan.
好兵帅克-小说简介
小说以普通士兵帅克在第一次世界大战中的经历为线索，深刻揭露奥匈帝国统治者的凶残专横及其军队的腐朽堕落。他们对人民奸淫掠夺，官兵之间欺上压下，“友军”之间相互倾轧，他们虐待俘虏，各级军官个个愚昧无知、贪婪腐败。这一切，在小说中暴露无遗。小说成功地塑造了一个与人民血肉相连的普通捷克士兵帅克的智慧、力量以及对占领者的不满情绪与自发反抗的精神。帅克善良又勇敢，机智而不露声色，貌似平凡，而且有点“愚昧”和滑稽可笑。然而他却善于运用民间谚语、笑话，接过上司的口号，以其人之道还治其人之身，伺机巧妙地同反动统治者作斗争。只要他到哪里，那里就被搅得鸡飞狗跳、天翻地覆，把反动政权的秩序搞得一团糟，使反动统治机器无法运动。从而表达对敌人的无比仇恨和对异族统治下的人民的深切同情与无比关怀。小说出版后被译成40多种文字，在世界各地都拥有广泛的读者，享有世界声誉。
Hašek originally intended Švejk to cover a total of six volumes, but had completed only four (which are now usually merged into one book) upon his death from tuberculosis in 1923. Many critics consider the book to be one of the greatest novels of the 20th century.
Themes
The novel is set during World War I in Austria-Hungary, a multi-ethnic empire full of long-standing tensions. Fifteen million people died in the War, one million of them Austro-Hungarian soldiers of whom around 140,000 were Czechs. Jaroslav Hašek participated in this conflict and examined it in The Good Soldier Švejk.
Many of the situations and characters seem to have been inspired, at least in part, by Hašek's service in the 91st Infantry Regiment of the Austro-Hungarian Army. However, the novel also deals with broader anti-war themes: essentially a series of absurdly comic episodes, it explores both the pointlessness and futility of conflict in general and of military discipline, specifically Austrian military discipline, in particular. Many of its characters, especially the Czechs, are participating in a conflict they do not understand on behalf of a country to which they have no loyalty.
The character of Josef Švejk 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 Švejk is genuinely incompetent, or acting quite deliberately with dumb insolence. These absurd events reach a climax when Švejk, wearing a Russian uniform, is mistakenly taken prisoner by his own troops.
In addition to satirising Habsburg authority, Hašek 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.
Švejk 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. However, he is arrested by a member of the secret police, Bretschneider, after making some politically sensitive remarks, and is sent to prison. After being certified insane he is finally transferred to a madhouse, before being ejected.
Švejk 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. Unfortunately, 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 Lieutenant Lukáš, whose batman he then becomes. Lukáš is then posted with his march battalion to barracks in České Budějovice, in Southern Bohemia, preparatory to being sent to the front. After missing the train to Budějovice, Švejk embarks on a long anabasis on foot around Southern Bohemia in a vain attempt to find Budějovice, before being arrested as a possible spy and deserter (a charge he strenuously denies) and escorted to his regiment. He is then promoted to company orderly.
The unit embarks on a long train journey towards Galicia and the Eastern Front. Stopping in a town on the border between Austria and Hungary, Švejk is again arrested, this time for causing an affray involving a respectable Hungarian citizen and engaging in a street fight. Before reaching the front line, Švejk 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 Švejk has a chance to be involved in any combat or enter the trenches, though it appears Hašek may have conceived that the characters would have continued the war in a POW camp, much as he had done.
The book also includes a very large number of anecdotes told by Švejk (usually 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 Švejk generally either are used as the butt of Hašek'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 slangy expressions.
Some characters seem to have been partly based on real people serving with the Imperial and Royal 91st Infantry Regiment, in which Hašek served as a one-year volunteer.
Josef Švejk
The novel's hero: in civilian life a dealer in stolen dogs.
Palivec
The foul-mouthed landlord of Švejk's local pub - the "U Kalicha" on Na Bojišti street, Prague. Palivec is eventually arrested by Bretschneider (see below) after commenting that flies shit on the pub's portrait of Franz Joseph I of Austria.
Bretschneider
A secret policeman for the Austro-Hungarian government, who repeatedly tries to catch Švejk and others out on their anti-monarchist views. Is eventually eaten by his own dogs, after buying a succession of animals from Švejk in an attempt to incriminate him.
Staff Warder Slavík
A cruel and corrupt prison official (revealed to have himself ended up in prison under the Republic of Czechoslovakia).
Chaplain Otto Katz
Katz is an army chaplain with a fondness for drinking, especially good communion wine, and gambling. A convert to Catholicism, many aspects of Katz's character are something of an anti-semitic caricature. Švejk seems fond of Katz, but the latter loses the services of Švejk to Lieutenant Lukáš in a game of cards.
Lieutenant Lukáš
Švejk's long-suffering company commander. A Czech from South Bohemia, Lukáš is something of a womanizer but is depicted in a broadly sympathetic manner by Hašek (the records of the real-life 91st Regiment show an Oberleutnant Rudolf Lukáš at the time of Hašek's service; Hašek admired Lukáš and even wrote him a number of poems). Though Švejk's actions eventually lead to Lukáš being labelled as a notorious philanderer in the Hungarian national press, he starts to miss Švejk after the latter is promoted to company orderly.
Colonel Friedrich Kraus von Zillergut
An idiotic Austrian officer with a penchant for giving his colleagues long-winded, moronic explanations of everyday objects (such as thermometers and postage stamps) and situations; run over by a cart while attempting to demonstrate what a pavement is. Kraus's dog is stolen by Švejk as a gift to Lukáš; the enraged colonel subsequently arranges Lukáš's transfer to the front.
Captain Sagner
One of the regiment's professional officers and commander of Švejk's march battalion; an ambitious careerist, he is later revealed to have been a closet Czech patriot in his youth. A Captain Sagner appears to have served in the 91st Regiment, where he was Hašek's battalion commander.
Colonel Schröder
The bad-tempered colonel of Švejk's regiment, and a caricature of the typical German-speaking senior officers of the Austro-Hungarian army.
Jurajda
The battalion's spiritualist cook; before military service he had edited an "occultist" journal. Spends time attempting to avoid frontline service through letters he is writing to his wife, in which he details meals he is intending to cook for senior officers.
2nd Lieutenant Dub
Dub is a Czech schoolmaster, officer of the reserve, and commander of the battalion's 3rd company: he has strongly monarchist views. As a conservative, pro-Habsburg Czech, Dub is the subject of some of Hašek's most vicious satire. Repeatedly placed in humiliating situations, such as being found drunk in a brothel or falling off a horse (in all Slavonic languages the word 'dub' ('oak') itself is a common synonym for a dull, idiotic person). Is said to have been based on a lieutenant of the reserve, Mechalek, who served in Hašek's regiment.
Quartermaster Sergeant-Major Vaněk
Another recurring character, Vaněk (a chemist from Kralupy nad Vltavou in civilian life) is an example of an easy-going but self-serving senior NCO, whose main concern is to make his own existence as comfortable as possible.
Volunteer Marek
The character of one-year volunteer Marek is to some degree a self-portrait by the author, who was himself a one-year volunteer in the 91st. For example, Marek — like Hašek — was fired from the editorship of a natural history magazine after writing articles about imaginary animals. Is appointed the battalion historian by Sagner and occupies himself with devising memorable and heroic deaths in advance for his colleagues.
Vodička
A sapper friend of Švejk noted mainly for his extreme hatred of Hungarians, which leads to an unfortunate incident in Bruck an der Leitha.
Cadet Biegler
Biegler is a young junior officer with pretensions to nobility, despite being the middle-class son of a furrier. Biegler takes his military duties so seriously he is ridiculed even by his senior officers, and is mistakenly hospitalised as a "carrier of cholera germs" after medical staff misdiagnose (for army PR-purposes) a cognac-induced hangover.
Captain Tayrle
The brigade adjutant and a particularly disgusting example of a headquarters officer, whose interests appear to lie mainly in crude jokes and sampling of local prostitutes.
General Fink von Finkenstein
An aristocratic, vicious and near-insane senior Austrian officer and commander of the garrison fort of Przemyśl, Fink treats his men with extreme brutality. Almost succeeds in having Švejk executed after the latter is taken prisoner by his own side.
Chaplain Martinec
A chaplain plagued by drink-induced spiritual doubts, whose attempt to provide spiritual consolation to Švejk ends in disaster.
"Sergeant Teveles"
A man in possession of a silver Military Merit Medal, purchased from a Bosnian, and claiming to be a Sergeant Teveles, who had previously disappeared along with the entire 6 March Company during fighting in Belgrade.
Baloun
A miller from Český Krumlov in civilian life, and Švejk's successor as Lukáš's batman, Baloun is a glutton and is regularly punished for stealing Lukáš's food. Will eat raw dough, sausage skins, etc., when nothing else is available.
Literary significance and criticism
A number of literary critics consider The Good Soldier Švejk to be one of the first anti-war novels, predating Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front. Furthermore, Joseph Heller said that if he had not read The Good Soldier Švejk, he would never have written his novel Catch-22.
Broader cultural influence
The idiocy/subversion of Švejk has entered the Czech language in the form of words of švejkovina ("švejking"), švejkovat ("to švejk"), švejkárna (military absurdity), etc. Peter Sellers in his movie "Shot in the Dark", uses two comic bits from Svejk. From the overbearing captain "You know what a road is? - simplistic overstatement, and poor Lieutenent Lucas in despair to Svejk , "I should have shot you — who would have said anything ? who ?", (this was put to Clouseau by Captain Dreyfuss in the movie).
Adaptations
* The Czech animator Jiří Trnka adapted the novel as an animated film in 1955, including Jan Werich starring as a narrator.
* Czech director Karel Steklý filmed the adventures in two films in 1956 and 1957, starring Rudolf Hrušínský as Švejk.
* In West Germany the book was newly adapted in the 1960s, starring Heinz Rühmann.
* A 13-part TV series in German, Die Abenteuer des braven Soldaten Schwejk, directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner, was made and broadcast by the Austrian state TV (ORF) in 1972. The title role was played by Fritz Muliar.
* Czechoslovakian puppetoon version "Osudy dobrého vojáka Švejka" (1986)
* In November 2008, BBC Radio 4 broadcasted a two-part radio adaptation starring Sam Kelly.
The Good Soldier Švejk inspired Bertolt Brecht to write a play continuing his adventures in World War II. It was aptly titled Schweik in the Second World War.
Švejk became the subject of comic books, films, an opera, a musical, statues, and the theme of many restaurants in a number of European countries.
Arthur Koestler worked on an uncompleted sequel called The Good Soldier Schweik Goes to War Again.[citation needed]
* Robert Kurka wrote an opera based on the novel, first performed in 1958.
* The Harry Harrison science fiction series 'Bill, the Galactic Hero', begun in 1965, is a retelling of the Švejk story updated to a future galactic war.
Translations and adaptations
Three major English-language translations of Švejk 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 0140182748 & ISBN 978-0140449914.
* The Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier Svejk During the World War, Book One, Books 3 & 4 (E-book).
* The Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier Švejk During the World War, Book Two
* The Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier Švejk During the World War, Book(s) Three & Four]
The first translation does not give a full impression of Hašek's original. Whole passages are missing (such as the famous imaginary-animals passage on the Animal World Magazine, and the whole of Volume 4 after Švejk's capture as a Russian), various passages are bowdlerised, and the style is somewhat stifling and unimaginative, contrary to the language used by Hašek. Succeeding translations are generally perceived as evolving from good to better.[citation needed]
The translation by Sadlon (all four books) is now also available on CD, together with a collection of several dozen great works of satire from B*R Samizdat Express
There is also an orchestral suite and an opera , both for wind ensemble, written by Robert Kurka, as well as a stage adaptation, Svejk, by Colin Teevan.