Corner, Mark
Behind the Lines: Bugulma and Other Stories
by Jaroslav Hasek
translated by Mark Corner
afterword by Robert B. Pynsent
Karolinum Press, 2012
eISBN: 978-80-246-2910-0 | Cloth: 978-80-246-2013-8
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC
Jaroslav Hašek is a Czech writer most famous for his wickedly funny, widely read, yet incomplete novel The Good Soldier Schweik, a series of absurdist vignettes about a recalcitrant WWI soldier. Hašek—in spite of a life of buffoonery and debauchery—was remarkably prolific. He wrote hundreds of short stories that all display both his extraordinary gift for satire and his profound distrust of authority. Behind the Lines presents a series of nine short stories first published in the Prague Tribune and considered to be some of Hašek's best. Based on his experiences as a Red Commissar in the Russian Civil War and his return to Czechoslovakia, Behind the Lines focuses on the Russian town of Bugulma, taking aim, with mordant wit, at the absurdities of a revolution.
Providing important background and insight into The Good Soldier Schweik, this collection by a writer some call the Bolshevik Mark Twain is nevertheless much more than a tool for understanding his better-known novel; it is a significant work in its own right. A hidden gem remarkable for its modern, ribald sense of humor, Behind the Lines is an enjoyable, fast-paced anthology of great literary and historical value.
Jaroslav Hašek (1883‒1923) was a Czech satirist who wrote over 1,400 short stories, as well as the novel The Good Soldier Schweik. Mark Corner is a translator, author, and lecturer in religious and European studies who lives and works in Brussels.
"Behind the Lines is a special book. . . . Hašek tackles the absurdity of the Soviet approach to Marxism, making fun of how quickly the Bolshevik revolution was corrupted by ignorant men thirsty for power and willing to commit unnecessary violence. . . . In Behind the Lines, it's all a fraud, lies and betrayal, with war presented as a charade in which soldiers act out their role merely because they have no other way of earning a living, while civilian lives and precious resources are wasted like water. Although he was writing about an absurd, militarized society in the early twentieth century, Hašek pretty much nails contemporary society right on the head."
— Randy Rosenthal, Coffin Factory
"Prague's ribald raconteur of tavern tales, Hašek, the author not just of Svejk but of the equally pugnacious Behind the Lines."
— James Hopkin, Times Literary Supplement
Commanding Officer, Town of Bugulma
Second-in-Command to the Commanding Officer, Town of Bugulma
The Via Dolorosa
A Strategic Hitch
Bugulma's Glory Days
New Dangers
Potemkin's Villages
There is Hitch with the Prisoners
Before the Revolutionary Tribunal of the Eastern Front
The Supreme Truth which is Chên-shih
Shake the Dust from your Shoes
How I Came to Meet the Author of my Obituary
Translator's Note and Acknowledgement
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eISBN: 978-80-246-2910-0
Cloth: 978-80-246-2013-8