10 Greatest Unfinished Novels
7. The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek
This darkly satirical novel is considered by some to be the defining work of modern Czech literature, despite having been published unfinished. The eponymous character has entered the Czech language and zeitgeist and throughout numerous translations has become world-famous, despite the book abruptly having been cut short by Hašek's death by heart attack.
Throughout the book, the mishaps and misadventures of the eponymous Svejk are charted, as he confronts authority in all its guises during the First World War. No one, whether the audience or the characters, can quite figure out if Svejk is as incompetent and daft as he seems or if this is ironic subversiveness. The result is a picaresque masterpiece and one of the first anti-war novels.
Quickly, upon publication in the early 1920s, the novel was recognised as a work of considerable merit, and quickly its influence began stretching far and wide over Europe and beyond, especially as a favourite book amongst anti-fascists in the thirties.
Today, The Good Soldier Svejk remains as fresh as it did 100 years ago and, arguably, is funnier than that other classic anti-war novel, Catch-22.