"I must say that I am ecstatic about your new translation of Švejk. I was entertained in the same degree (and in the same spots) as by the Czech original. In addition, this new translation also preserves the rhythm of the sentences, their overall sense and spirit.

That is all which the old translation lacks in a catastrophic measure. The old translation is awkward to a, as we say in Czech, "break-neck" degree, unreadable, and for the common reader hard to understand. I think that the old translation should have never appeared in the book marketplace - alas, it happened.

As a native Czech I can tell you that the author of the previous translation (perhaps due to his intellectualism) did not get what Hašek’s novel is about at all. His language is the language of high society evening parties - while Hašek’s Švejk speaks with the tongue of public houses in the fourth [i.e., grade D, the cheapest] price category.

I am convinced that thanks to this new translation the resurrection and the rediscovery of this never-to-die book for and by millions and millions of readers in Anglophone countries is taking place indeed."