Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie leaving Sarajevo Town Hall on 28 June 1914, five minutes before the
assassination.
The Good Soldier Švejk is a novel with an exceptionally rich array of characters. In addition to the many who directly form part of the
plot, numerous fictional and real people (and animals) are mentioned throughout the narrative, in Švejk's anecdotes,
or indirectly through words and expressions.
This web page contains brief write-ups on the people referenced in the novel, from Napoléon in the introduction to
Hauptmann Ságner in the final lines of the unfinished Part Four. The list is sorted according to the order in which the names first
appear. The chapter headings are taken from Zenny Sadlon's recent translation (1999-2024) and will, in most cases, differ
from Cecil Parrott's version from 1973.
The quotations in Czech are taken from the online version of The Good Soldier Švejk provided by Jaroslav Šerák and contain links to the relevant
chapter. The toolbar includes links for direct access to Wikipedia, Google Maps, Google Search, svejkmuseum.cz, and the novel online.
The names are colour-coded according to their role in the novel, as illustrated by the following examples:
Dr. Grünstein, a fictional character directly involved in the plot.
Fähnrich Dauerling, a fictional character who is not part of the plot.
Heinrich Heine, a historical person.
Note that many apparently fictional characters are inspired by real people. Examples include Oberleutnant Lukáš, Major Wenzl, and many
others. These are still listed as fictional because they are literary creations only partly inspired by their
similarly named 'models'.
Military ranks and other titles related to Austrian officialdom are given in German, in accordance with the terms
used at the time (explanations in English are provided as tooltips). This means that Captain Ságner is still
referred to as Hauptmann, although the term is now obsolete, having been replaced by Kapitän. Civilian titles
denoting profession, etc., are translated into English. This also applies to ranks in the nobility, at least where a
direct translation exists.
Guth
is held as an example of someone who speaks very differently from pubkeeper Palivec.
Background
Guth
was a significant educator and literary figure, also known as a member of the first Olympic Committee, and was very active in the Olympic movement. He was also master of ceremonies at President Professor Masaryk's office. From 1920 onwards, he called himself Jiří Stanislav Guth-Jarkovský.
He studied at universities in Prague and Geneva, and graduated in philosophy. He then became an educator in a noble family. From 1890 onwards, he was active as a translator of French literature, and he also wrote short stories using the pseudonym Stanislav Jarkovský.
At the turn of the century, he was teaching at a Gymnasium in Prague, and was active in Klub Českých Turistů, where for almost forty years he published their monthly Časopis turistů. He promoted Czech participation in the Olympic Games and was a member of the very first Olympic Committee from 1896. He also wrote travel literature—from the Mediterranean countries, France, Sweden, etc.
Kuděj
Guth was Zdeněk Matěj Kuděj's teacher at the Gymnasium at Vinohrady and, soon after the end of World War I, he employed his former student as secretary of Klub Českých Turistů, an organisation he chaired at the time. Kuděj describes his employer in relatively positive terms.
Quote(s) from the novel
[I. Doslov] Život není žádnou školou uhlazeného chování. Každý mluví tak, jak je schopen. Ceremoniář dr Guth mluví jinak než hostinský Palivec „U kalicha“, a tento román není pomůckou k salonnímu ušlechtění a naučnou knihou, jakých výrazů je možno ve společnosti užívat. Je to historický obraz určité doby.
Sv. Alojsia Gonzagy Spisek o andělích a jiné zápisky,1891
Mädchenzeitung,10.1.1926
Saint Aloysius
did, according to the monk monk Eustach, burst into tears when he overheard a thunderous fart, and had to resort to prayer to regain the equilibrium of his soul. Jaroslav Hašek contemptuously describes him as a representative of "the masturbators of false culture".
Background
Saint Aloysius
was an Italian Jesuit priest, later canonised. His real name was Luigi Gonzaga. He is the patron saint of Catholic youth and chastity. He died while caring for plague victims, which made him a saint for protection against this disease.
Quote(s) from the novel
[I. Doslov] Oni by vychovali národ jako skupinu přecitlivělých lidiček, masturbantů falešné kultury typu sv. Aloise, o kterém se vypravuje v knize mnicha Eustacha, že když sv. Alois uslyšel, jak jeden muž za hlučného rachotu vypustil své větry, tu se dal do pláče a jedině modlitbou se upokojil.
Eustach
is supposed to have written the story about the sufferings of Saint Aloysius after the latter witnessed a thunderous fart.
Background
Eustach
is not identified with certainty. One possibility is the French painter, architect and abbot Eustache Restout (1655-1743). He does not seem to have been an author, though.
One of his namesakes was actually an author: Eustache de Refuge (1564-1617). However, there is no information indicating that he was ever a monk.
Milan Jankovič put forward a theory that the person in question was the Greek Eustathios. This assumption, however, seems improbable as Saint Aloysius lived some 500 years later, and the former could not possibly have got any whiff of that thunderous fart.
Quote(s) from the novel
[I. Doslov] Oni by vychovali národ jako skupinu přecitlivělých lidiček, masturbantů falešné kultury typu sv. Aloise, o kterém se vypravuje v knize mnicha Eustacha, že když sv. Alois uslyšel, jak jeden muž za hlučného rachotu vypustil své větry, tu se dal do pláče a jedině modlitbou se upokojil.
Laudová
was very well spoken compared to pubkeeper Palivec and, along with Doctor Guth and Olga Fastrová, was named as a masturbator of false culture—one of the people trying to turn Czechoslovakia into a huge banquet hall with parquet flooring, where people would arrive in tails and gloves. Proper language would always be used, and salon manners would be observed.
Background
Laudová
was a well-known Czech actress, and periodically active as a journalist. She performed at Národní divadlo from 1899 to 1915, when she had to retire after an accident. During her acting career she also performed abroad, notably in Serbia and Russia.
After her forced retirement, she became a teacher at the State Music Conservatory in Prague and resumed her writing. For the most part, she wrote educational prose, including advice on how to behave in society. This is surely what Hašek refers to in the afterword to Part One of The Good Soldier Švejk.
She was married to the journalist and politician Ignát Hořica (1859-1902) and therefore also used the name Laudová-Hořicová, but as an actress she continued to use her family name.
Quote(s) from the novel
[I. Doslov] Od hostinského Palivce nemůžeme žádat, aby mluvil tak jemně jako pí Laudová, dr Guth, pí Olga Fastrová a celá řada jiných, kteří by nejraději udělali z celé Československé republiky velký salon s parketami, kde by se chodilo ve fracích, v rukavičkách a mluvilo vybraně a pěstoval se jemný mrav salonů, pod jehož rouškou bývají právě salonní lvi oddáni nejhorším neřestem a výstřednostem.
Olga Fastrová
was another of the author's ironic examples of someone who did not speak like pubkeeper Palivec.
Background
Olga Fastrová
(born Cikhartová) was a Czech writer, journalist and translator, considered the first female Czech journalist. In 1896 she completed her teacher's education, a rare feat for a woman in those days. In 1898 she married the dramatist and translator OttoFaster (1872-1907), with whom she had three daughters.
Her initial writing activities consisted of helping her husband in his various projects. This included translation, and from 1903 she is listed as a translator from French in her own right. In 1908 she published the novel Fata Morgana.
From 1910 to 1936 she was permanent editor of Národní politika, the first ever woman to serve in this capacity in any of the major Czech newspapers. Her focus was primarily fashion and other themes that were deemed of typically female interest (home decoration, etc.). She often used the pseudonym Yvonna. Some of her articles were also published in North America, for instance in Cleveland.
Hašek and Fastrová
Jaroslav Hašek knew Fastrová personally; in the short story Za Olgou Fastrovou he writes that they met just after his return from Russia, and Fastrová had asked him if "the Bolsheviks really were eating human meat". The story was a reaction to a satire about the Bolsheviks that Fastrová wrote in Národní politika7 May 1922. In the story Hašek arranges her death, claiming that she must have had a very high fever when writing such nonsense. Fastrová never responded in writing to the story and survived Hašek by 42 years.
Fastrová is also mentioned as Yvonna in Strana mírného pokroku v mezích zákona, so Hašek probably knew her before the war, although in his story he claimed that he met her for the first time shortly after returning from Russia on 19 December 1920.
In his book Franta Habán ze Žižkova, Franta Sauer dedicates an entire chapter to the meeting between the two, and confirms the story about the Bolsheviks eating human meat, or rather: he was just relaying Hašek's version from the story Kronštat, printed in Rudé právo on 20 March 1921. Otherwise, Sauer describes the meeting as being held in a polite manner.
Quote(s) from the novel
[I. Doslov] Od hostinského Palivce nemůžeme žádat, aby mluvil tak jemně jako pí Laudová, dr Guth, pí Olga Fastrová a celá řada jiných, kteří by nejraději udělali z celé Československé republiky velký salon s parketami, kde by se chodilo ve fracích, v rukavičkách a mluvilo vybraně a pěstoval se jemný mrav salonů, pod jehož rouškou bývají právě salonní lvi oddáni nejhorším neřestem a výstřednostem.
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