Osudy dobrého vojáka Švejka za světové války (1926)

The Good Soldier Švejk is the great comic novel of the First World War, told from the bottom of the Austro-Hungarian army. Švejk obeys every order with such cheerful, rambling literalness that the whole military machine seizes up around him, and nobody can tell whether he is an idiot or a genius at sabotage. It is the most translated Czech novel. Hašek planned six parts but died in 1923 while writing the fourth, so the book simply stops. Cecil Parrott's unabridged translation, with Josef Lada's famous drawings, is the one most English readers know, though some find it stiff; the newer one led by Zenny Sadlon is the alternative. Švejk's anecdotes are the point, not the plot. The cover shown is a 1920s Czech edition of part four.