"Several people have asked why our edition of Švejk does not contain the famous illustrations by Josef Lada. It is said that the book and the pictures are virtually inseparable. (We find that Americans do not respond to Lada's pictures as enthusiastically as one would hope.)
"After a long consideration we decided not to use Lada’s illustrations. For one, Hašek had never seen and therefore had neither authorized them. And two, they significantly differ from the one picture which Hašek did see and which adorned the cover of the serial booklets, the format of Švejk’s originally published edition.
"The main reason however was that Švejk is a very complex character, but Lada’s illustrations shift the character of Josef Švejk onto a plane of a clown or even a buffoon. (That certainly did not bother the communist rulers who, if Hašek were still alive, would have sent him and his Švejk to the uranium mines for reeducation.).
"Hašek's book is a masterpiece of satire, not comedy. We decided that Jaroslav Hašek would address readers of English alone, using only his text (albeit merely in our as-faithful-as-possible translation.)"
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