J. Hasek wrote more than 1,500 works, but his most famous creation was âThe Adventures of the Good Soldier Schweikâ. In this almost the most fun novel of the century, the author was able to touch upon the most important problems of the century.
Biography of Yaroslav Hasek
April 30, 1883 in Prague, in the family of a teacher Joseph Hasek, a boy was born, he was called Yaroslav. Three years later, son Boguslav was born. The Hasek came from an ancient rural family. The father of Katerinaâs mother was a watchman for the princes. The parents of the future writer met in the south of the Czech Republic in the city of Pisek and waited for their wedding for thirteen years, after which they moved to Prague.
The constant companions of the family were the worries and insecurity of tomorrow. Joseph Hasek became hardened, began to drink, he needed a kidney operation, which he could not tolerate. Father died when Yaroslav was thirteen years old. Mother interrupted by sewing clothes. Due to difficulties in paying for housing, the family moved from place to place.
Perhaps this is due to the fact that the first two classes of the gymnasium, Yaroslav Hasek graduated with honors, in the fourth he became a second year student, after which he left school with the permission of his mother. Together with the raging crowd in 1897 he went out into the streets of Prague, shouting revolutionary slogans. The teenager was taken to the police, released only when they were convinced that the stones in the boyâs pockets were part of the school collection.
School break
After leaving school, Hasek had a hard time, they were reluctant to take jobs, and after working for some time in a drugstore, Yaroslav entered a commercial school, which he graduated in 1902. Here he perfectly mastered the languages: Russian, Hungarian, Polish, German and French. After the second course, in the summer of 1900, he goes with a classmate, Jan Chulen, on a trip to Slovakia, which played an important role in the work of Yaroslav Hasek.
The next vacation of 1901 he spent with his brother, exploring the Tatra Mountains. The brothers were very proud of this climb, as they wrote to their cousin. Hasek's fellow practitioner, J. Gavlas, publishes travel stories in the newspaper âPeople's Sheetsâ. Then begins to write essays and Hasek.
In 1902, Yaroslav again went on a trip to Slovakia, along with his friends J. Chulen and Victor Yanota. Hasek no longer writes essays about nature, but goes on to âordinary inhabitants of the mountainsâ and writes stories. In October 1902, Yaroslav was hired by the Slavia Bank, but his first successes in literature prompted new wanderings, and he was constantly trying to escape from bureaucratic life.
In search of sketches
In 1903, a revolutionary movement began in the Balkans. Yaroslav Hasek immediately went to the Macedonian rebels, but he failed to accomplish âmilitary exploitsâ. He wandered around Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland for more than a year, where he was repeatedly arrested for vagrancy. Finally returned to Prague. Everyone noted that he had changed beyond recognition - he began to drink plum brandy, smoke and even chew tobacco. There was no question of returning to the bank.
In 1903, the future writer joined the anarchists, lived and worked in the editorial office of the journal Omladiny, and carried publications on mines on a bicycle. Having saved some money, he went to carefree wanderings around Europe - this time to Germany. In October 1904, the writer appeared on the streets of Prague.
In 1905, several promising writers, including Hasek, organized a circle and published the magazine âModern Bellyâ. The chairman of the circle was Roman, a police officer and cousin of Hasek. Soon, Yaroslav became a popular and most read comedian, filling out the rubrics of newspapers, weekly magazines.
Personal life
Yaroslav Hasek looked after Yarmila for a long time, but her parents forbade them to see each other until he finds a permanent job and does not dress properly. In 1909, he proudly announces that he has found a permanent position - an assistant editor in the journal Animal World and 80 guilders per month, apart from what works in other newspapers. A week later, Hasek joyfully informed Yarmila that her father had allowed him to marry her. In May 1910, they got married.
At first, family life had a beneficial effect on his work. Yarmila understood that her husband was a creator and artist. She wrote under his dictation, sometimes she herself finished writing the works that he had begun. But soon Hasek began to disappear from the house and wander around the zucchini. Hasek could not find a permanent job after âThe Light Ringsâ. With one friend he opened the Dog Training Institute, a dog sales office. A friend repainted the mutts, and they sold them as thoroughbreds. The company did not flourish for long, the owners filed a lawsuit against them. The lawyers and the courts took their last savings.
The father-in-law refused to help the young family and said that the daughter should abandon her bad husband. In 1912, Yarmila gave birth to a son, Richard. She returns to her parents. In 1919 in Russia, at the Ufa printing house, Yaroslav Hasek met Alexandra Gavrilova, in 1920 they registered a marriage in Krasnoyarsk.
Life is a game
Hasek perceived life as a game. After becoming the editor of the animal magazine âLight Ringsâ, he invented all sorts of tales that led to serious problems with scientific journals, and the owner hastened to dismiss the new editor. Hasek collaborated with many magazines and newspapers and in 1911 was the most prolific Czech writer. Yaroslav Hasek published more than 120 humoresque and feuilleton.
In the same year, in the magazine "Caricature", and then "Good Cop", the stories of a soldier Schweik began to appear. Various types of troops are ridiculed in them, the formula "serve the sovereign in the sea and air until the last breath" is a parody of the oath.
In the satyrs of that time they ridiculed the cruelty of the military, humiliation, but the hero Hasek as if did not notice them and performed his duties. But the more serious he was about the service, the more insignificant and funnier was the very existence of the army. Thanks to this image, Hasek found an original view of the world and penetrated the very essence of this era.
Russian captive
In February 1915, the writer Yaroslav Hasek was drafted into the army, in September he surrendered to Russian captivity and stayed in camps near Kiev and Samara. In 1916 he joined the Czechoslovak Volunteer Regiment, and in 1918 became a member of the Bolshevik Party. He worked in the political department of the Eastern Front, published in front-line newspapers, went with the army to Irkutsk.
In 1920, by decision of the Bolshevik Bureau of Czechoslovakia, he went to Prague. Everyone turned away from him, as from a traitor. The police followed him, in addition, and the personal life of Yaroslav Hasek became the object of public attention - he was threatened with a court for bigamy, since he did not formally divorce his first wife. In October 1922, Hasek acquired his own home, but his health deteriorated every day. He died in January 1923.
Writer's works
The subjects of many books of Yaroslav Hasek are the church, the Austrian bureaucracy, the state school, unconditional military submission, and contrived charity. From 1900 to 1922, Hasek published under various pseudonyms over a thousand stories, essays and feuilleton, two novels and a children's story. In the Czech Republic, a 16-volume of works by the writer was published, among them:
- a collection of poems âMay criesâ, published in 1903;
- the authorâs collection âThe Suffering of Pan Tenkratâ, published in 1912;
- the novel âThe Adventures of the Good Soldier Schweikâ was published in 1912;
- a compilation of humor books âA Guide for Foreigners and Other Satiresâ (1913);
- satirical collection âMy dog ââtradeâ (1915);
- the collection âTwo Dozen Storiesâ was published in 1920;
- Selected Humoresques âThree Men and a Sharkâ (1921);
- collection âPepichek New and Other Storiesâ (1921);
- âPeace Conference and Other Humoresquesâ (1922).
Reader Reviews
Humor is a specific thing, especially in literature. It is difficult to make the reader laugh - there are no gestures or facial expressions in the book - that helps to perceive jokes. But this does not apply to the books of Yaroslav Hasek. On almost every page of any of his works - a story or a story, one hilarious than the other. In part - laughter through tears, as the writer raises serious topics in his works, reveals human vices and makes fun of them very subtly.