Renato Poggiolo Volgorde van de boeken (chronologisch)

De verhalen uit de Rode ruiterij zijn de aantekeningen en observaties van een joodse intellectueel temidden van zijn antipoden, de rode kozakken en geven de spanningen en botsingen weer tussen een wereld van oude tradities en geestelijke verfijning en de wereld van primitief geweld.

"Good-natured and garrulous, Švejk becomes the Austrian army's most loyal Czech soldier when he is called up on the outbreak of the First World War - although his bumbling attempts to get to the front serve only to prevent him from reaching it. Playing cards, getting drunk and becoming a general nuisance, the resourceful Švejk uses all his natural cunning and genial subterfuge to deal with the doctors, police, clergy and officers who chivvy him towards battle. The story of a 'little man' caught in a vast bureaucratic machine, The Good Soldier Švejk combines dazzling wordplay and piercing satire to create a hilariously subversive depiction of the futility of war"--P. [4] of cover.