History Literature / TheGoodSoldierSvejk

* ClusterFBomb: Plenty, but Kákonyi's reaction to the love letter to his wife is, perhaps, the biggest one: "Baszom az anyát, baszom az istenet, baszom a Krisztus Márját, baszom az atyadot, baszom a világot!" It's never translated from Hungarian, and for a good reason: "I fuck your mother, I fuck god, I fuck Christ's Mary, I fuck your father, I fuck the whole world."

*** Colonel Schröder is NotSoDifferent and after Vodička with Švejk started a huge fight with Hungarians in streets of Királyhida/Bruck an der Leitha, which led to massive backlash in Hungarian press, quite frankly states to Lieutenant Lukáš that in his opinion the real problem is "constant Hungarian agitation against Austrian regiments", and that all people from the Austrian part of the monarchy, regardless of their ethnicity, are just better than Hungarians anyway. His [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections intervention]] later saved them from the CourtMartial.

The novel revolves around the titular soldier, a born and bred ''Pražák'' Josef Švejk, about whom even the author [[ShrugOfGod cannot seem to decide]], whether he is out to subvert all the idiocy around him through ObfuscatingStupidity, his blue-collar wits and common sense, and [[BotheringByTheBook dumb insolence]]; or he's indeed just as stupid as almost everyone around him seems to think. You see, the novel being set in a vast, archaic [[VestigialEmpire and crumbling]] Hapsburg Empire, where the Czechs like him (and the author) were considered Second Class Citizens at best, and which, like so many crumbling empires before, tried to prop itself by an extensive and intricate [[ObstructiveBureaucrat bureaucratic scaffolding]], this produced a lot of [[SurroundedByIdiots glaring, visible idiocy around]] for everyone to see, and a lot of [[DeadpanSnarker cynical, snarky people]] just trying to get by through it. Now, take everything said above, and try to [[UpToEleven put it into a military setting]] — and you'll see why Joseph Heller once said that had he read the novel before, he'd never write ''Literature/CatchTwentyTwo''.

''The Good Soldier Švejk'' is an unfinished [[{{Satire}} satirical]] [[WarIsHell anti-war]] novel by the Czech author and political activist Jaroslav Hašek. Originally named ''Osudy dobrého vojáka Švejka za světové války''[[note]]''Adventures of the Good Soldier Švejk in the World War''[[/note]] it, naturally, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin tells us about the adventures of the titular soldier in ]] UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. Such dry description, however, couldn't even try to approach the [[RuleOfFunny irreverent hilarity]] of the book, that from its very first lines sets to lampoon, satirize and hang to dry just about everything Hašek finds objectionable in the Two-Headed Monarchy and [[ArmedFarces its military]]. Unfortunately, due to AuthorExistenceFailure (Hašek died in 1923 from tuberculosis) the novel got only about half-finished, with Hašek completing just three parts out of intended six. [[ExecutiveMeddling The publisher insisted]] on the rest [[PosthumousCollaboration being completed by his friend Karel Vaněk]], though it ended up not as good and is rarely republished today, unike the original portion of the novel, which is the most translated book in the whole of Czech literature.

* ScrewTheWarWerePartying: Several instances - indeed the last scene finished before the AuthorExistenceFailure describes a party thrown by officers of the Švejk's battalion. Only TheNeidermeyer Lieutenant Dub attempts to talk about the war, annoying others immensely.

** And of course, due to the AuthorExistenceFailure, Švejk and his battalion actually never reached the frontline.

* * NoPartyLikeADonnerParty: When Hašek gives some background information about batmen, he mentions that during the siege of Toledo, the Duke of Almavira resorted to eating his orderly without salt, later describing in his memoirs that his orderly had "fine, tender, succulent meat tasting like something between chicken and donkey."

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: In the first few chapters Švejk often seems to be really plain dumb, not (possibly) just playing it. The character only really GrowsTheBeard when serving as Chaplain Katz's batman.

* FoodPorn: Hašek was a good cook and and often paid his friends for crashing at their homes with cooking. When he described cooking and eating, he [[WriteWhatYouKnow wrote from experience]]. Exotic local foods give hell for translators:

* EmbarrassingNickname: Cadet Biegler is nicknamed "Stork's wing with fish tail" by other officers - early in his military career he claimed that he's descended from minor nobility (their family name originally being "Bügler von Leuthold") with stork's wing and fish tail in coat of arms - and [[NeverLiveItDown never lived it down]].

** Also played for laughs when one-year volunteer Marek reminiscences about his stint as the editor of magazine called ''The Animal World'' - when he ran out of his useful tips on farm animals and bee-keeping (which caused havoc in the areas where his tips were adhered to), he resorted to literally inventing something fresh - new animals with outrageously pseudoscientific names, improbable habitats and physiology. He also got involved in lengthy polemics with the editor of another journal, after Marek published photo of a jay sitting on a walnut tree, therefore rechristening it "nutcracker", which he later supported with [[RefugeInVulgarity vulgarities]] and [[WrongfullyAttributed false quotations]] from [[AppealToAuthority Alfred Brehm]], claiming e.g. that [[invoked]][[CriticalResearchFailure jays belong in the family ''Crocodilia'']].

* CanonIllustration: Švejk's appearance is not described in the text but Josef Lada's illustrations are a staple of most editions of the book so most people imagine him as a rather fat man with a very round and perpetually smiling face. Supposedly the illustrations were commissioned when Lada and Hašek drank together in a pub and Hašek thought Lada's sketches were brilliant.

* CanonIllustration: Švejk's appearance is not described in the text but Josef Lada's illustartions are a staple of most editions of the book. Most people imagine him as a rather fat man with a very round and perpetually smiling face.

[[caption-width-right:350:An illustration of Svejk, by Josef Lada.]]

''The Good Soldier Švejk'' is an unfinished [[{{Satire}} satirical]] [[WarIsHell anti-war]] novel by the Czech author and political activist Jaroslav Hašek. Originally named ''Osudy dobrého vojáka Švejka za světové války''[[note]]''Adventures of the Good Soldier Švejk in the World War''[[/note]] it, naturally, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin tells us about the adventures of the titular soldier in ]] UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. Such dry description, however, couldn't even try to approach the [[RuleOfFunny irreverent hilarity]] of the book, that from its very first lines sets to lampoon, satirize and hang to dry just about everything Hašek finds objectable in the Two-Headed Monarchy and [[ArmedFarces its military]]. Unfortunately, due to AuthorExistenceFailure (Hašek died in 1923 from tuberculosis) the novel got only about half-finished, with Hašek completing just three parts out of intended six. [[ExecutiveMeddling The publisher insisted]] on the rest [[PosthumousCollaboration being completed by his friend Karel Vaněk]], though it ended up not as good and is rarely republished today, unike the original portion of the novel, which is the most translated book in the whole of Czech literature.

* AlmightyJanitor: Quartermaster Sergeant Vaněk is essentially this as he runs the company administration. For example, Lieutenant Lukáš can not persuade him to find him another batman, despite Baloun often eating his rations, because Vaněk opines that Baloun is so incompetent as a soldier that in any other position he would make more harm and Lukáš just has to deal with him. As a solace, though, he puts Baloun on double portions, so that he, at least, would stop eating Lukáš' meals ''every'' time.
** Note that in the Habsburg military, the unit commander usually had ''two'' senior noncom assistants, one for administrative duties, and another for military ones. An offhand mention in the novel seems to indicate that Vaněk actually wears ''both'' hats, making him a somewhat overworked, but unusually powerful noncom.

''The Good Soldier Švejk'' is an unfinished [[{{Satire}} satirical]] [[WarIsHell anti-war]] novel by the Czech author and political activist Jaroslav Hašek. Originally named ''Osudy dobrého vojáka Švejka za světové války''[[note]]''Adventures of the Good Soldier Švejk in the World War''[[/note]] it, [[CaptainObvious naturally]], [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin tells us about the adventures of the titular soldier in ]] UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. Such dry description, however, couldn't even try to approach the [[RuleOfFunny irreverent hilarity]] of the book, that from its very first lines sets to lampoon, satirize and hang to dry just about everything Hašek finds objectable in the Two-Headed Monarchy and [[ArmedFarces its military]]. Unfortunately, due to AuthorExistenceFailure (Hašek died in 1923 from tuberculosis) the novel got only about half-finished, with Hašek completing just three parts out of intended six. [[ExecutiveMeddling The publisher insisted]] on the rest [[PosthumousCollaboration being completed by his friend Karel Vaněk]], though it ended up not as good and is rarely republished today, unike the original portion of the novel, which is the most translated book in the whole of Czech literature.

** Also played for laughs when one-year volunteer Marek reminiscences about his stint as the editor of magazine called ''The Animal World'' - when he ran out of his useful tips on farm animals and bee-keeping (which caused havoc in the areas where his tips were adhered to), he resorted to literally inventing something fresh - new animals with outrageously pseudoscientific names, improbable habitats and physiology. He also got involved in lengthy polemics with the editor of another journal, after Marek published photo of a jay sitting on a walnut tree, therefore rechristening it "nutcracker", which he later supported with [[RefugeInVulgarity vulgarities]] and [[WrongfullyAttributed false quotations]] from [[AppealToAuthority Alfred Brehm]], claiming e.g. that [[CriticalResearchFailure jays belong in the family ''Crocodilia'']].

** When the battalion aproaches the front, there are mentioned rather strained relations with the [[UsefulNotes/PrussiansInPickelhauben German Army]][[note]]With a Hannoverian Colonel so mean and ugly looking that he scared shit from the Austro-Hungarian brigade commander and an off-hand mention that upon meeting some Bavarians, soldiers of Švejk's company started fight with them.[[/note]] too - with a bit of WeAREStrugglingTogether.

* AnachronismStew: Whenever Švejk mentioms some historical events, he ties them to 1914 landmarks.

** Starving malingerers in Dr. Grünstein's hospital are described as discussing various delicacies with [[SeriousBusiness fervor and dedication]] of gourmets or students of cordon bleu cuisine school. Minor subversion: some stuff they describe [[ForeignQueasine sounds rather unpleasant]] -- many wouldn't want fried goose scratchings, if they can afford a choice. And then one of them sings praise to the ''beef suet'' cracklings,[[note]]Beef fat has a ''higher'' melting temperature than a human body as anyone who handles a beef suet can attest, and gives them very unpleasant mealy texture.[[/note]], even though he's somewhat defensive about it, saying they're [[DamnedByFaintPraise good, if still warm]]. And then there's one who mentions [[PovertyFood horse cracklings]]...

** Starving malingerers in Dr. Grünstein's hospital are described as discussing various delicacies with [[SeriuousBusiness fervor and dedication]] of gourmets or students of cordon bleu cuisine school. Minor subversion: some stuff they describe [[ForeignQueasine sounds rather unpleasant]] -- many wouldn't want fried goose scratchings, if they can afford a choice. And then one of them sings praise to the ''beef suet'' cracklings,[[note]]Beef fat has a ''higher'' melting temperature than a human body as anyone who handles a beef suet can attest, and gives them very unpleasant mealy texture.[[/note]], even though he's somewhat defensive about it, saying they're [[DamnedByFaintPraise good, if still warm]]. And then there's one who mentions [[PovertyFood horse cracklings]]...

** Starving malingerers in Dr. Grünstein's hospital are descibed as discussing various delicacies with fervor and dedication of gourmets or students of cordon bleu cuisine school. Minor subversion: some stuff they describe is rather unpleasant -- you would't want fried goose scratchings, if you can afford a choice. And then one of them sings praise to the ''beef'' cracklings.[[note]]Beef fat has a ''higher'' melting temperature than a human body as anyone who handles a beef suet can attest, and gives them very unpleasant mealy texture.[[/note]]

** Starving malingerers in Dr. Grünstein's hospital are descibed as discussing various delicacies with fervor and dedication of gourmets or students of cordon bleu cuisine school. Minor subversion: some stuff they describe is rather unpleasant -- you would't want fried goose scratchings, if you can afford a choice.