Black Barons (book)

The first part was published in 1969 by the publishing house Vysočina (Havlíčkův Brod). The novel has 17 chapters and ends with a chapter in which the main character, Kefalin, desperate for extending his service for another year, gets drunk on cider.

Švandrlík continued writing the second part, although it was clear that an uncompromising political normalization was under way and that the book could not be published in Czechoslovakia. It was published in exile, though, in 1975 in Zurich, under Švandrlík's pseudonym Rudolf Kefalin,[3] and in London in 1988 by Alexander Tomský's publishing house Rozmluvy.[4][5] At the same time the work spread via samizdat in Czechoslovakia.[6] Both parts consisting of 29 chapters were published as a whole in the 1990 edition (300,000 copies) after the Velvet Revolution. In 1981 the third part was published in Zurich, again under the alias Rudolf Kefalín, however, Švandrlík vigorously rejected the authorship of this sequel. It is attributed to Miloš Miltner instead.[3]

The novel pictures an ironic and satiric form of absurdity in the socialist army not long after the end of WWII. Without taking in consideration the cold war at the time and the fact that former Czechoslovakia was on the front line of potential armed conflict, Švandrlík focuses on day to day joys and sorrows of soldiers at Auxiliary Technical Unit (In Czech called Pomocný technický prapor) at which he allegedly served his time. The story takes place on Zelená Hora Castle in town of Nepomuk.[7]

After the year 1990 Švandrlík wrote a number of books which followed on from Black Barons:

• Říkali mu Terazky aneb šest půllitrů u Jelínků ("He was called Terazky and six pints at 'U Jelínka'")
• Pět sekyr poručíka Hamáčka ("Five axes of Lieutenant Hamáček")
• Lásky Černého barona ("The loves of the Black Baron")
• Kam to kráčíš, Kefalíne? ("Where are you off to Kefalín?")
• Růžové sny pilného hňupa aneb Poručíme větru, dešti ("Pink dreams of diligent tosser and 'We will order to the wind and rain'" [a communist motto])
• Černí baroni po čtyřiceti letech ("The Black Barons after forty years")
• Černí baroni těsně před kremací ("The Black Barons shortly before the cremation")
• Stoletý major Terazky ("A hundred years old Terazky")
• Černý baron od Botiče ("The Black Baron from Botič")
• Terazky na hrad ("Terazky onto the throne")
• Terazkyho poslední džob ("Terazky's last job")
• Terazky v tunelu doktora Moodyho ("Terazky in tunnel of Doctor Moody")
• Nesmiřitelný Terazky ("Irreconcilable Terazky")
• Černí baroni útočí na obrazovku ("The Black Barons are attacking the TV screen" [insight into the film])

• Černí baroni