The inspiration for such works as Joseph Heller''s Catch-22, Jaroslav Ha-ek''s black satire The Good Soldier -vejk is translated with an introduction by Cecil Parrott in Penguin Classics.
Good-natured and garrulous, -vejk becomes the Austro-Hungarian army''s most loyal Czech soldier when he is called up on the outbreak of the First World War - although his bumbling attempts to get to the front serve only to prevent him from reaching it. Playing cards, getting drunk and becoming a general nuisance, the resourceful -vejk uses all his natural cunning and genial subterfuge to deal with the doctors, police, clergy and officers who chivvy him towards battle. The story of a ''little man'' caught in a vast bureaucratic machine, The Good Soldier -vejk combines dazzling wordplay and piercing satire to create a hilariously subversive depiction of the futility of war.
Cecil Parrott''s vibrant, unabridged and unbowdlerized translation is accompanied by an intro
