Igor Clark

One of my top three favourite books [with' Catch 22' and' Ulysses'], The Good Soldier Schweik is a treat every time. I wanted to point out the differences between the older translation by Paul Selver ['Schweik'], and the 1973 one [Svejk'] by Cecil Parrott. The Selver version is under 500 pages long and the Parrott over 700, and Parrott also has more of the wonderful Josef Lada illustrations [Penguin and Heinemann editions], but Selver lands the knockout blow by being funnier. His prose is fresh and lively where Parrott's is often stilted and cumbersome. Reading the two translations side-by-side is fascinating; how the small differences build to make one book good and the other one great. If you can be bothered, get both versions, but if you're only getting one, be sure it's the pre-1973 Selver!