The satirical novel by Czech writer J. Hašek is a brilliant epic spanning events in Austria-Hungary on the eve of World War I and in its early years. Hašek exposes the stupidity, senselessness, and soullessness of war and the state machine that lead an empire to collapse.
The novel’s hero, the famous Czech writer Jaroslav Hašek’s brave soldier Švejk, is a figure at once comic and tragic. This “little man” of 20th-century literature—the bearer of folk shrewdness and optimism—is known around the world through the unforgettable illustrations of Josef Lada. The novel entered the treasury of world literature.
There is also another opinion about this book: it is literature for real men, because barracks humor is a bit too salty for a woman’s taste.