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Book Description
A brilliant exploration of the novel - its history and its art - from one of the genre's most distinguished practitioners.
Product Description
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, García Márquez 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 skillfully describes how the best novels do just that.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tear the curtain!,
By
This review is from: The Curtain: Essays (Paperback)
Schopenhauer made the astute observation that the essence of true art is the fact that it conveys an unexpected and original insight into the real nature of our world.
Building on that, Hermann Broch considered the novel (literature) as an optical instrument for the reader so that he can discern what he might never have seen in himself without that specific book. He even went so far as to claim that a novel, which fails to reveal some hitherto unknown bit of existence, is immoral. This is also Milan Kundera's viewpoint: `For all we can do in the face of the ineluctable defeat called life is to try to understand it; that is the raison d'être of the novel.' `A novel is purposely a-philosophic, even anti-philosophic, fiercely independent of any system of preconceived ideas, it questions, it marvels, it doesn't judge, nor proclaims truths.' `Its characters do not need to be admired for their virtues. They need to be understood.' And, `novelists should past the frontier of the plausible.' Milan Kundera sketches marvelously the history of the novel: from actions (Cervantes), over psychology (Dostoyevsky, Flaubert) to situations (Kafka, Joyce). He makes also penetrating comments on his favorite writers (Fielding, Broch, Kafka, Flaubert, Musil, Rabelais, Gombrowicz, Cervantes, Dostoevsky, Sterne) and shows their unique place and high originality in the continuing evolution of the art of the novel. This book is a must read for all lovers of world literature.
5.0 out of 5 stars
better than his novels in some ways,
By
This review is from: The Curtain: Essays (Paperback)
A reviewer of Kundera's latest book of essays (published in 2010 after this book) made the comment that in essay form he is in some ways more interesting than he is when he's merely writing novels.
The reviewer thought that what was perhaps what was particularly good about his novels were the philosophical musings rather than any particular narrative that was going on. This is a sentiment that I can wholly agree on. Apart from the wonderful Immortality I think this book sees Kundera at his best. The Curtain presents not just stimulating ideas about the novel but also about literature and the arts in general, as well as the wider contexts of history, psychology and philosophy.
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Art of Thoughtful Perspective,
By jooles "jooles76" (london) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Curtain: Essays (Paperback)
Nowhere near as good as Testaments Betrayed and the Art of the Novel, possibly because it feels like it covers some of the same ground of the latter (albeit maybe just in sentiment). But saying that a wonderfully welcome breath of fresh air; hearing from the perspective of a practitioner of the craft and not from the stage wings of academe, it is always an interesting insight into what writing means from someone within the 'inner sanctum.' Annecdotal, informative, and certainly led me to seeing some works mentioned in a different light.
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