Chances are that you are familiar with the inane, smiling face of the Good Soldier Å vejk â one of Czech literatureâs most famous characters â immortalized in the sketches of artist Josef Lada.
Well, Å vejk has been sent back to the drawing board, perhaps somewhat controversially. Jaroslav HaÅ¡ekâs literary hero has been redesigned by artist Petr Urban, a man famous for his bawdy cartoons often Nicole Kidman gives birth to girl ...
Altered images ...
Deep divide ...
Next decade 'may see no warming' ...
Czech ex-police chief Husak to head foreigner police ... featuring beer and busty women. The new edition of Švejk is being brought out by XYZ Publishers - its boss, Robert Kubánek, explains his choice of illustrator:
âAfter discussing the situation with distributors and booksellers, we chose Petr Urban, who was very happy with the offer, and who likes Å vejk very much. It was a dream come true for him. His pictures reflect perfectly HaÅ¡ekâs own philosophy.â
And what is HaÅ¡ekâs philosophy that you think is so well encapsulated by Urban?
âWell, I believe that HaÅ¡ek would like Urbanâs illustrations, that their nature would be close to his heart, because the pictures stem from the same traditions of folk humour as the text itself. It isnât only that Urbanâs themes and topics are similar to those of HaÅ¡ek, but both authors have similar world views, and a similar sense of humour, as far as I see.â
HaÅ¡ekâs book has famously been accompanied by illustrations drawn by Josef Lada â which a lot of people here in the Czech Republic and abroad know very well â isnât it a bit controversial to replace these highly-respected illustrations with pictures by Petr Urban, who is very well known for his base sense of humour?
âI donât think that Urbanâs illustrations should in any way be compared with Ladaâs, or judged in their light. Urbanâs work is original, independent, has a life of its own. It has a right to exist, just as any other work does. I donât think that choosing Urban for Å vejk is controversial.
âAnd I should say that we are not the first publishing house to use new pictures for Å vejk. In the 1990s, another publishing house tried something similar using the illustrations of Karel Klos. And as far as our publishing policy is concerned, HaÅ¡ek is not the only author who we treat this way. In our series called âThe Immortalsâ, we are going to publish other works of classical literature too, with new illustrations, for example âThe Three Musketeersâ, âGargantua and Pantagruelâ and âDon Quixote de la Manchaâ.â
And finally, have you been working with Jaroslav HaÅ¡ekâs relatives in the course of this project?
âWe have not. The rights for Å vejk are free, which is why we decided to publish the title â this was the same with the other titles I just mentioned. We think that working with the authorâs relatives and other people concerned with the author would be very difficult, with all of their conditions and demands. We think it would have slowed down the project.â
(radio-Prague)
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