The Bad Bohemian: A Life of Jaroslav Haek, Creator of the Good Soldier vejk

(Paperback, Main)

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Jaroslav Haek was the author of The Good Soldier vejk, a twentieth-century masterpiece, and one of the funniest novels ever written. He was also, to quote Sir Cecil Parrott, a 'truant, rebel, vagabond, anarchist, play-actor, practical joker, bohemian (and Bohemian), alcoholic, traitor to the Czech legion, Bolshevik and bigamist.': in short a Bad Bohemian. this remarkable biography, the only one in the English language, makes for riotous reading. Ambassador to Czechoslovakia in the 1960s was also the translator of The Good Soldier vejk (his translation is definitive) and leading authority on Jaroslav Haek. transmit the raucous glitter of the beer-gardens and night-dives and cafs-chantants which were Hasek's element. The result is a triumph, and - like all first-rate scholarship - enormously enjoyable.' Sunday Times

Author Bio

Sir Cecil Parrott (1909-1984), diplomat, translator, writer and scholar, is best known for his definitive translation of Jaroslav Hasek's The Good Soldier Svejk. He also wrote two autobiographical volumes, The Tightrope and The Serpent and the Nightingale as well as his biography of Jaroslav Hasek, The Bad Bohemian (reissued in Faber Finds as is his translation of some of Hasek's short stories, The Red Commissar)). His diplomatic career culminated with his posting to Prague where he was the British Ambassador from 1960 to 1966. On retiring from the Foreign Office, he became first Professor of Russian and Soviet Studies and later Professor of Central and South-Eastern European Studies and Director of the Comenius Centre at the University of Lancaster.