The Bachura Scandal

Jaroslav Hasek was a humorist and satirist of a rare order long before he wrote his celebrated novel "The Good Soldier Sveik" (1921-3). This selection of 32 pre-1914 stories of Prague life - most of them translated into English for the first time - revels in the twisted logic of politics and bureaucracy in the Czech capital which was also an Austrian provincial city.

The sad fate of an idealistic mission to protect the morals of country girls arriving in Prague for the first time; an Austrian returning from abroad, where his left kidney has been replaced by a pig's, in serious trouble with Customs because the importation of pigs is illegal; a Prague barber, in full flow against Turks, the Serbs, the Hungarians, the Eyeties, who is over-enthusiastic with his razor... With unabashed relish, Hasek documents the Disorder Principle in life.

Alan Menhennet's translation first published by Angel Books in 1991 are reissued after being long out of print.

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