History Literature / TheGoodSoldierSvejk

* UnfriendlyFire: According to Švejk's friend, sapper Vodička, {{fragging}} is common in the Austro-Hungarian army. He remembers murdering one of their own company soldiers who volunteered to execute Serbian civilians. There are also other mentions of the incompetent GloryHound officers wasted by their own troops.

* TakeThatMe: In Czech historiography the term "Anabasis" usually refers to tribultations of Czechoslovak Legion during World War 1 and Russian Civil War. Calling Švejk's aimless wandering "Anabasis" looks like an insult to the Legion veterans... but the term was coined by none other than Hašek himself in 1916, and gained widespread use only in late 1920s, when the commander's memoirs were published.

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

''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 [[DiedDuringProduction Hašek dying 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.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: In the first few chapters Švejk often seems to be really plain dumb, not (possibly) just playing it. The character only really GrowingTheBeard 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 [[RegionalSpeciality local foods]] give hell for translators:

* ScrewTheWarWerePartying: Several instances - indeed the last scene finished before the author DiedDuringProduction 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 DiedDuringProduction, Švejk and his battalion actually never reached the frontline.

* OneSceneWonder: Battalion medical officer Dr. Welfer actually appears only in one scene.

* WhatAnIdiot: Invoked InUniverse just as frequently as said by the reader about half of the whole officer corps depicted in the book. The other half are self-serving cynical bastards -- and aren't shy to note the fact about the former.

** A lot of officers in the book, who generally have zilch of real combat experience, though cadet Biegler, an EnsignNewbie [[SmallNameBigEgo with delusions of grandeur]] and [[TheNeidermeyer Lieutenant Dub]], [[SadisticTeacher a former teacher]] and [[WhatAnIdiot a monumental cretin]], jump forth the first.

* MeaningfulName: [[TheNeidermeyer Lieutenant Dub]], whose name means "oak" and is a common slur [[WhatAnIdiot for an idiot]] in all Slavic languages.

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 not read the novel before, he'd never write ''Literature/CatchTwentyTwo''.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Being a satirical SliceOfLife novel about ArmedFarces, it is only natural. As it often happens in such cases, Hašek tends to recycle the names somewhat.