by Milan Kundera (Author), Linda Asher (Translator), Milan Kundera (Author), Linda Asher (Translator)
In this entertaining and always stimulating collection of seven essays, Kundera deftly sketches out his personal view of the history and value of the novel. Too often, he suggests, a novel is thought about only within the confines of the nation of its origin, when in fact the novel's development has always occurred across borders: Laurence Sterne learned from Rabelais, Henry Fielding from Cervantes, Joyce from Flaubert, Garcia Marquez from Kafka. The real work of a novel is not bound up in the specifics of any one language: what makes a novel matter is its ability to reveal some previously unknown aspect of our existence. In "The Curtain", Kundera skilfully describes how the best novels do just that.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 176
Edition: Main
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 15 Mar 2007
ISBN 10: 0571232817
ISBN 13: 9780571232819
Book Overview: Milan Kundera's The Curtain: Essays is a brilliant exploration of the novel - its history and its art - from one of the genre's most distinguished practitioners.