The Good Soldier Švejk

The Good Soldier Švejk

by Jaroslav Hašek

     The story begins with Josef Švejk, a former soldier declared an authentic idiot, discussing with his charwoman, Mrs Müller, about the assassination in Sarajevo. After telling the landlord, Palivec, things about Franz Josef, he is arrested by Bretschneider, a secret policeman. The gaol staff sends him to a lunatic asylum, but after some days Švejk gets thrown out. He stays at the police station for a while for behaving like an idiot and then goes back home. One day, Mrs Müller was pushing him in a bathchair because he had rheumatism and he could not move. When Švejk started to shout "To Belgrade! To Belgrade!", doctor Bautze saw him and sent him to a malingerer hospital. After being tortured, he was brought to the garrison gaol. The chaplain Otto Katz finds him and likes him and Švejk became his batman. Then, Katz loses him at card to senior lieutenant Lukáš. Their march battalion is moved to České Budějovice, but Švejk loses all the trains. He tries to go to Budějovice on foot but he is arrested and escorted to his regiment. They are transferred to Bruck an der Leitha. Švejk is arrested again, because he was involved in a street fight with some Hungarian people. He is promoted to company orderly. The unit had a long train journey towards Galicia and the Eastern Front. Close to the front line, Švejk is taken prisoner by his own side, because he dressed with a Russian uniform. He manages to rejoin his unit. The novel breaks off abruptly before Švejk has a chance to enter the trenches. Hašek died before he finished the novel.

     The action happens in Austro-Hungarian Empire. The characters were inspired by real people. Otto Katz really lived and Hašek knew him.