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Švejk before the divisional court Illustration by Josef Lada Picture sourceDespite this section’s title, Švejk does not make it to the front, although if the real battle is with bureaucracy then he is constantly “at the front.” He does travel, with and without his regiment, from Prague to a staging and training area just east […]
Movie poster for The Good Soldier SchweikSince I just finished Book 2 and haven’t had a chance to write any thoughts about it, I’ll post a quick review of the 1956 Czech movie which is based on Book 1, “Behind the Lines”. The film faithfully follows Schweik’s misadventures in Hašek’s book, at least for the […]
Švejk goes to the war Illustration by Josef Lada Picture source Those who boggle at strong language are cowards, because it is real life which is shocking them, and weaklings like that are the very people who cause most harm to culture and character. They would like to see the nation grow up into a […]
Picture sourceThe UPS guy must think I have a crush on him…I couldn’t stop smiling as I signed for today’s delivery at work. I splurged and bought the new release of In the First Circle by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. The Wall Street Journal has a review of this restored version as well as the first chapter. […]
…can make you laugh and cry at the same time. Presented without further commentary.
Illustration by Josef Lada from The Good Soldier Švejk Picture sourceSeveral recent nonfiction reads have included quite a bit on World War I and The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek (my keyboard mojo is going to be sorely tested with this book) was mentioned. As I posted recently, Barbara Tuchman’s The Guns of August […]
Sketches by Pío Baroja (Characters from The Restlessness of Shanti Andía) At sea I lost the notion of time. Aboard ship the days are long, and yet the years, sum of the days, are short, and they fly by and are gone. Time has sped for me. The thought of the past, once youth has […]
I’m overloaded on so many fronts, the temperature reminds me of Hell’s antechamber (yes, I would know), and yet I’m under the spell of Pío Baroja’s “magical melancholy”. It’s a beautiful day, indeed.
The Restlessness of Shanti Andía and Other Writings by Pío Baroja Translated and with an introduction by Anthony Kerrigan (The University of Michigan Press, 1959) Picture source Text on the back: HEMINGWAY: Allow me to pay this small tribute to you who taught so much to those of us who wanted to be writers when […]
Paul L Martin at The Teacher’s View posted a review/summay on Rob Riemen’s book Nobility of Sprit (Yale University Press; $12.00, paperback). His review intrigued me enough to order it—if you’re not familiar with the book, please go read his wonderful summary at the link. There are three essays and a long introduction, all of […]