Lost manuscripts of The Good Soldier Švejk found after 90 years in Prague archive
The Czech Museum of Literature has announced a remarkable discovery. Literary scholars have uncovered a large part of the original manuscripts of Jaroslav Hašek’s world-famous novel The Good Soldier Švejk and His Fortunes in the World War.
The texts, which Jaroslav Hašek wrote or dictated until his death in 1923, resurfaced during the cataloguing of materials belonging to his longtime publisher, Adolf Synek.
Among the discovery are fragments of the second volume, the complete third volume, and part of the fourth. The documents had been lying among the family’s belongings for nearly 90 years, unnoticed.
The discovery came as a complete surprise, says Michal Stehlík, director of the Museum of Czech Literature:
“When, under the first and subsequent sheets, we suddenly came across a manuscript both in Jaroslav Hašek’s hand and in that of Kliment Štěpánek — who later became the scribe to whom Hašek dictated from the third volume onward — it became clear that we were looking at something truly extraordinary. I would call it something between a rarity, a discovery, and a miracle.”
At first, researchers believed the manuscripts were the work of Karel Vaněk, who completed Hašek’s unfinished fourth volume after the author’s death. It has now been confirmed, however, that these pages are Hašek’s original work.
The museum plans to restore the manuscripts as quickly as possible and hopes to make them available to the public soon, says Mr. Stehlík.
“It is very well legible. In fact, during the festival of Three Villas, on September 13, we want to exhibit some of these materials at our Museum of Literature, the ones that are easily readable. There are, however, certain portions that will require restoration, since not everything is in perfect condition.”
In the long term, the museum will digitize the manuscripts so they can be studied by scholars around the world.
Jaroslav Hašek’s Good Soldier Švejk ranks among the most translated and widely read works of Czech literature, having been translated into over 50 languages.
Published between 1921 and 1923, it is considered one of the most striking satirical portrayals of life on the battlefields of the First World War, exposing the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the chaos that marked the beginning of the conflict.
At the centre of the story is the good-natured yet seemingly simple-minded soldier Josef Švejk. His unforgettable image was shaped not only by Hašek’s prose but also by the illustrations of Hašek’s friend, painter Josef Lada, whose drawings gave Švejk his iconic face and figure.
Švejk’s adventures have been adapted many times for both stage and screen. One of the most famous versions is Karel Steklý’s two-part 1956 film, in which actor Rudolf Hrušínský portrayed the title character.
