Ο πέπλος

by Milan Kundera, Γιάννης Η. Χάρης (Translator)

"Μπροστά από τον κόσμο έπεφτε ένας μαγικός πέπλος, υφασμένος από θρύλους. Ο Θερβάντες έστειλε ταξίδι τον Δον Κιχότη, και έσκισε τον πέπλο. Ο κόσμος ξανοίχτηκε μπροστά στον περιπλανώμενο ιππότη σ' όλη την κωμική γύμνια της πρόζας του."
Σκίζοντας "τον πέπλο της προερμηνείας", με τα στερεότυπα και τα ετοιμοπαράδοτα ερμηνευτικά σχήματα, ο Θερβάντες εγκαινίασε την ιστορία της τέχνης του μυθιστορήματος, μιας τέχνης αυτόνομης, κατά τον Κούντερα, με τη δική της, αυτόνομη ιστορία.

Από τον Ραμπελαί ώς τον Φώκνερ και τον Τζόυς, από τον Φλωμπέρ ώς τον Κάφκα, τον Μούζιλ, τον Μπροχ και τον Γκομπρόβιτς, την "Πλειάδα των μεγάλων μυθιστοριογράφων της Κεντρικής Ευρώπης", ο Μίλαν Κούντερα παρακολουθεί την ιστορία του μυθιστορήματος και, μέσα από αυτήν, μας δίνει τη δική του "ποιητική του μυθιστορήματος".

Η "ηθική του ουσιώδους" στην τέχνη, ο δεσποτισμός τού "αγγλικού" story και η "καταχρηστική εξουσία του μοναδικού αφηγητή" μέσα σ' ένα μυθιστόρημα, η έννοια του τραγικού και ο πολιτικός εκσυγχρονισμός της αρχαίας τραγωδίας, η διασκευή έργων της λογοτεχνίας για το θέατρο και τον κινηματογράφο και άλλα θέματα συναντιούνται με προσφιλή μοτίβα του συγγραφέα, όπως το δικαίωμα του δημιουργού στο έργο του, ο ρόλος της λήθης, το χιούμορ, το κιτς.

Μέσα από τον ανάλαφρο αλλά συχνά πικρό σαρκασμό του Κούντερα, ένας ορισμός της βλακείας, ένα "φάρσας εγκώμιον" ή η κακογουστιά της Ιστορίας που επαναλαμβάνεται μας βοηθούν να μην παίρνουμε "στα σοβαρά τη σοβαρότητα των ανθρώπων".

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, Literary Criticism, Literature, Writing, Criticism, Czech Literature

202 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2005

About the author

Milan Kundera (1 April 1929 – 11 July 2023) was a Czech and French novelist. He went into exile in France in 1975, acquiring citizenship in 1981. His Czechoslovak citizenship was revoked in 1979, but he was granted Czech citizenship in 2019.

Kundera wrote in Czech and French. He revises the French translations of all his books; people therefore consider these original works as not translations. He is best known for his novels, including The Joke (1967), The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (1979), and The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), all of which exhibit his extreme though often comical skepticism.

Reviews

[Glenn Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Robert Musil Literature Museum in Klagenfurt, Austria - French street artist Jef Aérosol did these three spray paint portraits: Christine Lavant (left), Ingeborg Bachmann (middle) and Robert Musil (right). All three authors are represented with their own exhibits in the museum. Robert Musil is one of the authors Milan Kundera most admired.

This slim work of less than two hundred pages contains dozens and dozens and dozens of sharp insights on the art of the novel and how a novel and the novelist relate to society, culture and history. Over the last few weeks I have reread Milan Kundera’s words (and listened to the audio book) and have gained a deeper appreciation with each reading and listening. As a way of sharing a small taste of the author’s reflections, below are direct quotes from the book along with my comments:

“In Tom Jones, Fielding suddenly interrupts himself in mid-narrative to declare that he is dumbfounded by one of the characters, whose behavior the writer finds “the most unaccountable of all the absurdities which ever entered into the brain of that strange prodigious creature man”; in fact, astonishment at the “inexplicable” in “that strange creature man” is for Fielding the prime incitement to writing a novel, the reason for inventing it.”

Milan Kundera goes on to emphasize one of the great beauties of the novel is how an author can explore through digressions beyond a simple storyline, forever discovering various aspects of character and plot, mood and setting by things like letters, diaries, poems, anecdotes, philosophic reflections, even a segue to speak directly to the reader. Yes! I recall reading a novel by the Brazilian author Ignacio de Loyola Brandão where he breaks from the story to tell me, the reader, that he doesn’t like the way his main character is acting at this point in the scene. The overarching idea: according to Milan Kundera, think twice before applying rules to what the novel can and can’t do.

“Applied to art, the notion of history has nothing to do with progress; it does not imply improvement, amelioration, an ascent; it resembles a journey undertaken to explore unknown lands and chart them. The novelist’s ambition is not to do something better than his predecessors but to see what they did not see, say what they did not say.”

I recall Georges Perec’s words, how books by authors he loved were like pieces of a puzzle but there were still spaces between the pieces and those were the spaces where he could write. Indeed, Georges, the arts are not the hard sciences; to write a novel worth reading, a novelist is required to have two qualities about all else: expanded vision and uniqueness of voice.

“Art isn’t there to be some great mirror registering all of History’s ups and downs, variations, endless repetitions. Art is not a village band marching dutifully along at History’s heels. It is there to create its own history. What will ultimately remain of Europe is not its repetitive history, which in itself represents no value. The one thing that has some chance of enduring is the history of the arts.”

Ars longa, vita brevis. A novel is not a history report; a novel creates its own reality, a gateway to deep truths about ourselves and the life around us. As by way of example, recall the countless times you have heard events and happenings referred to as “Kafkaesque.”


Witold Gombrowiz (1904-1969) from Poland, according to Milan Kundera and many others, among the greatest novelists of the 20th century. His most widely read novel is Ferdydurke.

“What distinguishes the small nations from the large is not the quantitative criterion of the number of their inhabitants; it is something deeper: for them their existence is not a self-evident certainty but always a question, a wager, a risk; they are on the defensive against History, that force that is bigger than they, that does not take them into consideration, that does not even notice them. (“It is only by opposing History as such that we can oppose today’s history,” Witold Gombrowicz wrote.)”

One wonders if Witold Gombrowicz’s novels would have been better known if he was from a major country, say, if he had been an Englishman writing in English or a Frenchman writing in French or a Russian writing in Russian. Same thing goes for other novelists from small European countries: Robert Musil and Hermann Broch from Austria, for example.

“And yet Rabelais, ever undervalued by his compatriots, was never better understood than by a Russian, Bakhtin, Dostoyevsky than by a Frenchman, Gide; Ibsen than by an Irishman, Shaw; Joyce than by an Austrian, Broch. The universal importance of the generation of great North Americans – Hemingway, Faulkner, Dos Passos – was first brought to light by French writers. These few examples are not bizarre exceptions to the rule; no, they are the rules: geographic distance sets the observer back from the local context and allows him to embrace the large context of world literature, the only approach that can bring out a novel’s aesthetic value – that is to say: the previously unseen aspects of existence that this particular novel has managed to make clear; the novelty of form it has found.”

And Milan Kundera notes how those great authors have had their keenest, most perceptive and sympathetic readers reading their work in translation! A personal note: Being a typical monolingual American myself, Kundera’s observations give me some hope.


Austrian novelist Hermann Broch (1886-1951) - Milan Kundera considers Broch's novel trilogy, The Sleepwalkers, one of the most brilliant literary achievements in all of Europe.

“To emphasize; novelistic thinking, as Broch and Musil brought it into the aesthetic of the modern novel, has nothing to do with the thinking of a scientist or a philosopher; I would even say it is purposely a-philosophic, even anti-philosophic, that is to say fiercely independent of any system of preconceived ideas; it does not judge; it does not proclaim truths; it questions, it marvels, it plumbs; its form is highly diverse; metaphoric, ironic, hypothetic, hyperbolic, aphoristic, droll, provocative, fanciful; and mainly it never leaves the magic circle of its characters’ lives; those lives feed it and justify it.”

A novel explores character and life on its own terms, unbound by system, philosophic or otherwise. That “on its own terms” is the difference that makes all the difference.

“Alas, miracles do not endure for long. What takes flight will one day come to earth. In anguish I imagine a time when art shall cease to seek out the never-said and will go docilely back into the service of the collective life that requires it to render repetition beautiful and help the individual merge at peace and with joy, into the uniformity of being. For the history of art is perishable. The babble of art is eternal.”

Sorry to say, if you want to hear a number of the greatest 20th century composers, Phillip Glass or Iannis Xenakis, for example, you will have to make a serious individual effort. However, few are the people on the globe who can escape the constant blare of pop music, Muzak and commercial jingles. Many are the forces to make sure the babble of art is eternal.

[BookHunter M ُH َM َD · Rating 3 out of 5]

رغم استمتاعي بقرائته الا أني لم أفهم أكثر من ربعه. يحتاج إلى شخص واسع الثقافة سيما الثقافة الغربية بشعرها و موسيقاها و أدبها و كذلك تاريخها و سياستها في الجانب الأوروبي منها.

يحدثنا كونديرا حديثا شائقا عن الرواية سيدة الأدب من وجهة نظره عابرا محيطات من الروائيين العظام ناثرا ما حوت بطون سفنهم التي تمخر عباب الأدب و الفن مصورا نفسه قارئا لا أكثر.
ربما أحتاج لقرائته مرة أخرى إن صرت أكثر نضجا.

[Jibran · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Every novelist that writes today is actually in dialogue with his predecessors."

Milan Kundera, who in my estimation is a great novelist, transmits that fascinating dialogue to the readers in this collection of short essays that when I picked up I knew would interest me. I am a keen reader of writers' [not critics'] musings on the art of fiction and this one surpassed my expectations; it turned out to be pure education.

It's not possible to take stock of all the themes, issues, and topics Kundera captures so concisely in this book. So I will focus on the central theme (stepping aside the question whether or not a 'central theme' can be singled out of this work) that discusses the history of major developments in the idea of the novel, as in how it developed from the earliest prototypes of Rabelais and Cervantes where people navigate vast spatial expanse in long stretches of time without being held down by the diurnal and the commonplace of life. Hence every novel of that time is a tome that explores the adventurous lives of its protagonists in the manner of a biography (Don Quixote, History of Tom Jones, Clarissa etc - so much so that the timestamp and spatial reference of a work as short as Voltaire's Candide stretches over decades and across continents.

This was to change radically with the onset of modernity when the scope of space and time was restricted to the narrow margins of a cityscape. Great journeys were reduced to understanding the city and its new limiting machinery, and focus shifted from higher ideals of politics and history to mundane stories of individuals and their relationship with their surroundings, through a new device of psychological examination. A trend was set and from that point onwards we - the readers - knew much more about what went on in the minds of a character. Gustav Flaubert and Fyodor Dostoyevsky can be singled out as two major novelists who set the trend.

Moving down we meet a new development whose foremost practitioner - indeed founder - was Franz Kafka. Much can be said about the complex sources of Kafkan world and the continual search for meanings in Kafka's confounding stories. But he was the first amongst many to come who documented, indeed predicted, the uncontrollable genie of the modern state that invaded and violated all concepts of space and distance in its relationship with people (aka citizens). In Kafka's The Trial and The Castle, says Kundera, the vast and open expanse of Don Quixote is completely inverted: human existence becomes part of the larger existence of the mythical state, which acts as a totality to be internalised not analysed, and subsumes all human expression into a larger meta-expression. In Kundera's view what Cervantes did in Don Quixote can't be separated from Kafka's The Trial because they represent, consecutively, the beginning and the culmination of an unbroken chain of time-and-space consciousness that defines the modern novel.

Although it is too early in history to make this claim but, in my humble opinion, Gabriel Garcia Marquez represents a new paradigm shift in the concept of time and space in the novel's history. He heralds a new development that changes the way we examine human relationships, their expectations, dreams, visions - or their self-expression. In Marquez we have discovered time anew, everything has to be renamed and retold from scratch. He frustrates our assumptions of prior knowledge - that's something none of his predecessors have managed to do. Of course, magical or supernatural stories grouped up in fantasy genre have always been around, from Greek mythological dramas to Lord of the Rings. That is a different, parallel world we don't know and rely on the writer to introduce us to it; Marquez's world, however, is our very own and we know it very well. This is why Marquez is real but Tolkien is not.

Oh there's so much more in this treatise that I must leave out for the sake of brevity: a discussion of aesthetics and our perceptions of the same, the absurdity of labelling works of fiction by the nationality of their authors (The Great American Novel! the Great French prose stylist!), the concept of repetition and loss or gain of beauty in mimesis - and on and on and on.

Reading it, I gained new insights into the art of fiction and its philosophical underpinnings. Pure education.

[P.E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Miscellaneous musings and rambling thoughts on art, conscience, history... On a very wide scope indeed!

------

Une collection de réflexions et d'observations qui comparent d'un seul tenant la conscience humaine, l'Histoire et les histoires de l'art !

[ع. ر. افّلا · Rating 4 out of 5]

با صبا خیلی پیش می‌آید دربارهٔ میلان کوندرا حرف بزنیم، چون بت ادبی او و از نویسنده‌های موردعلاقهٔ من است. همین بار اخیر که یکدیگر را دیدیم هم بحثش پیش آمد، و من گفتم چه حلال‌زاده! یکی از کتابهایش توی کیفم است، و این را برداشتم و بهش نشان دادم. نگاهی به فهرستش انداخت، و گفت از اینجاش عکس بفرستم، و بعد گفت از اینجاشم، و عاقبت هم از کل فهرست. من گفتم بگیر برای خودت، و روز بعد یکی برای خودم سفارش دادم، و بدون اینکه بدانیم داشتیم به طور موازی می‌خواندیمش. روز دیگری لابه‌لای حرف‌هایمان باز به کوندرا رسیدیم، و از صفحهٔ ۲۳ کتاب برایم عکس فرستاد، که دیدم زیر سه قسمتش خط کشیده، و من هم برایش از همان صفحه عکس فرستادم، من هم زیر دو تا از آن سه قسمتِ او خط کشیده بودم. او دیالوگی از فیلم نون‌وگلدون برایم فرستاد:
- اونم تو رو دوست داره؟
- بله.
- خودش بهت گفته؟
- نه.
- ها. از کجا می‌دونی پ؟
- خب، راستش من بهش کتاب می‌دم، بعد وقتی کتاب رو پس می‌گیرم، لاش گل گذاشته.
- چه کتابایی بهش می‌دی؟
- کتاب‌های رمان، شعر، کتاب‌های علمی و کتاب‌های کامپیوتر.
- می‌خونه پس می‌ده یا فقط لاش گل می‌ذاره؟
- نه آقا می‌خونه.
- از کجا می‌دونی؟ ازش می‌پرسی که خوندی؟
- نه، وقتی کتابو می‌گیرم می‌بینم زیر جمله‌های خوبش خط کشیده.
- اونم می‌خواد مثل تو بشریت رو نجات بده؟
- بله
- از کجا می‌دونی؟
- از اون جمله‌هایی که زیرش خط کشیده.

شاید چیزی که گفتم شبیه فصل اول یک رمان عاشقانه باشد، اما نیست. همانطور که در یادداشت دیگری هم اشاره کردم، تورگینیف می‌گوید «شاید تقدیرش چنین بود که لحظه‌ای از عمرش را با تو همدل باشد»، چیزی که من تجربه می‌کنم رابطهٔ عاشقانه نیست، لحظات همدلی است، و منظورم فقط الان و این شخص نیست، انگار کل زندگی‌ام آسمان تنهایی تاریک شبی ست که این لحظات همدلی همچون ستاره‌هایی در آن می‌درخشند، و اگر پرنسس فیونا بگوید: تو دیگه چه‌جور عاشق‌پیشه‌ای هستی؟
باید بگویم: اینم یه جورشه.

کتاب خوبی بود از یک نویسندهٔ خوب.

[W.D. Clarke · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am in the middle of writing a gloss on its predecessor, Testaments Betrayed: An Essay in Nine Parts while reading this for the second time...

This extends his thinking about the history of the novel as developed in The Art of the Novel (my gloss on which can be read here )...and Testaments Betrayed, which I'll also link to here when done.

The Curtain definitely merited this re-read, though, and was over far too quickly (what a mind! I only wish there were 5 or 10 more books of his essays to re-read, but there's alas just one more after this, Encounter...

But the upside to having just finished this one is that, thankfully, The Curtain really needs at least another re-read or three to take it all in, plus (re)reading some of the books it deals with (Anna Karenina, As I lay Dying, Terra Nostra and the works of Alejo Carpentier) in 2023 I hope, then maybe I'll write something about it, too, someday...

BUT, if you haven't read any of Kundera's nonfiction, could you start here?

Yes. Certainly you could! The extended metaphor of The Curtain—of how received wisdom, clichéd thought, unexamined ideology and unjustified assumptions about art and life, all of which veil our perceptions and muddy our thinking and plague our actions (and which what "genuine" novels for MK attempt to tear away)...that argument stands on its own in this book. So it can really be read first, no question.

OTOH I'd also say that a reading of this one does benefit from having read its predecessors, in order, first, as MK is always circling, circling around a constellation of recalcitrant problems, worrying and re-worrying over them, never quite exhausting their problematic...

OT other OH, though, you can't ever go wrong reading Kundera, no matter where you start!

[Katia N · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a logical continuation of The Art of the Novel. By the way, I've just noticed that Henry James has got a book with that title. Kundera muses about his favourite writers, the destiny of his native country and the Eastern and Central Europe in general under the Soviet control and compares the perception on writing of his French colleagues with his own.

The writers he thinks very highly off and discuss here is Rabelais, Cervantes, Flaubert, Kafka, Musel and Broch. He also compares Central European Baroque and its historical roots with Latin American one. According to him, both have grown from the combination of the cruelty and search for idealism in different forms. "Mysterious combination of evil and beauty". He finds the continuity between central European writers of the 20-30s and Latins American ones in the 60-70s.

He also shows that the European novel was developed like a rally with the button passed from one writer to another notwithstanding the different languages. Roughly from Rabelais to Cervantes to Stern to Flaubert to Joyce. (I am writing from the memory, so highly likely I've missed many. The main point was that the different languages were not the issue; moreover the remoteness from the national context has helped to develop the craft and boost cross-fertilisation and inventiveness.

He also remembers the existential feeling when the Russians have invaded in 1968 and he thought that his country would not exist anymore at all.

This book is a bit more fragmentary and less coherent at its premises compared to "The Art..", but still wonderful breezy read.

[Argos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Varoluşçu Çek yazar Milan Kundera ağırlıklı olarak roman hakkında yedi denemesini bu kitapta toplamış. Yazarın tüm eserlerinde rastladığımız totaliter rejimleri yeren veya hicveden, insanın varoluş hallerini felsefi yaklaşımlarla ve ironiyle aktaran düşüncelerini denemelerinde de görüyoruz.

Sanatta devamlılık kavramını, Goethe’nin formülüze ettiği “dünya edebiyatı”nı (die Weltliterature), Kafka, Musil, Broch , Flaubert gibi yazarlar üzerinden ise romanda “şeylere” inmek kavramını işlemiş. Romancı nedir diye soran Kundera, estetik ve varoluş düşüncelerini de antik edebi eserlerden örneklerle renklendirerek anlatmış. Yırtılan Perde başlıklı denemesinde bürokrasiyi hedefe koymuş. Orta Avrupa’nın makus talihini sıklıkla hatırlatan yazar son bölümde bir “bellek tiyatrosu” kavramını açıklayarak romanda bellek ve unutuşu ele alır.

Edebiyat özellikle roman ile ilgilenenlere öneririm.

[Οδυσσέας Μουζίλης · Rating 5 out of 5]

Η γιορτή της ασημαντότητας!
Για μια στιγμή σκέφτηκα να γράψω μια ακόμα ανάρτηση για αυτόν αλλά γρήγορα αναθεώρησα, γιατί ποιος ασχολείται πλέον με τον Κούντερα και ακόμα χειρότερα ποιος ασχολείται με μένα που ασχολούμαι με τον Κούντερα. Εγώ όμως αγαπώ υπερβολικά τα δοκίμιά του, είναι ίσως τα καλύτερα δοκίμια που έχω διαβάσει, και συνοψίζουν όλη την θεωρία του για την μεγάλη τέχνη του μυθιστορήματος. Είτε τον βαριέστε είτε όχι, μας γλεντάει κανονικά, και αν με ρωτάτε προσωπικά, πολύ το χαίρομαι!
Παραθέτω δύο αγαπημένες μου σκέψεις του, από τις δεκάδες που σημείωσα από την συλλογή δοκιμίων «Ο πέπλος» (εκδ. Εστία, μετ. Γιάννης Χάρης), δοκίμιο σε 7 μέρη, με 74 πολύ μικρά - και πολύ μεγάλα! - κεφάλαια που πρέπει να διαβάσει όποιος λέει ότι αγαπάει την λογοτεχνία.

***

[...] Οι Πολωνοί είναι εξίσου πολυάριθμοι με τους Ισπανούς. Αλλά η Ισπανία είναι μια γηραιά δύναμη που η ύπαρξή της δεν απειλήθηκε ποτέ, ενώ η Ιστορία έμαθε στους Πολωνούς τι θα πει να μην υπάρχεις. Στερημένοι το κράτος τους, έζησαν περισσότερο από έναν αιώνα στον προθάλαμο του θανάτου. «Η Πολωνία δεν χάθηκε ακόμα» είναι ο συγκλονιστικός πρώτος στίχος του εθνικού τους ύμνου, και εδώ και 50 περίπου χρόνια, ο Βίτλοντ Γκομπρόβιτς, σε μια επιστολή του προς τον Τσέσλαβ Μίλος, έγραψε μια φράση που δεν θα περνούσε ποτέ απ' το μυαλό κανενός Ισπανού: «Αν υπάρχει ακόμα η γλώσσα μας, έπειτα από 100 χρόνια...»

***

[...] Είναι μερικοί άνθρωποι που θαυμάζω την ευφυΐα τους, εκτιμώ την εντιμότητά τους, αλλά νιώθω άβολα μαζί τους: λογοκρίνω τα λόγια μου για να μη με παρεξηγήσουν, για να μη φανώ κυνικός, για να μην τους πληγώσω με κάποια ιδιαίτερα επιπόλαιη λέξη. Οι άνθρωποι αυτοί δεν ζουν αρμονικά με το κωμικό στοιχείο. Δεν τους κατηγορώ: η αγελαστία τους είναι βαθιά ριζωμένη μέσα τους και δεν μπορούν να κάνουν αλλιώς. Αλλά ούτε κι εγώ μπορώ να κάνω αλλιώς, κι έτσι, χωρίς να τους απεχθάνομαι, τους αποφεύγω.

[Ahmad Badghaish · Rating 4 out of 5]

الصراحة بأنه ميلان كونديرا كناقد تحليلي أعظم منه كروائي. يشبه نزهات أمبيرتو إيكو في عوالم السرد، لا تُمَل ولا يمكن أن تتوقف عنها، ستبحث دائمًا عن المزيد. جميل جدًا، الترجمة متوسطة الجودة.

[MihaElla · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was fun to be reminded of the tales of Don Quixote, and that my mind, through various variations of manifestations, is nothing but a Don Quixote ;) Of course Milan Kundera speaks about of tons of other topics related to the art of novel, writers, politics, nations, identity, etc etc, in a small dose, yet I seem to remain only with this image especially. Surely the book is worth the read for the whole of it.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Almost twenty years ago I read The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, then the Unbearable Lightness of Being (before the movie), The Joke and Life is Elsewhere. Then I lost track of the impressionable Czech author. In fact I can still remember his opening scene of the Book of Laughter and Forgetting where the Communist leader giving his hat to the Czech leader and when the leader fell from grace, how he was removed from the photos (in 1948 way before Photoshop). That scene where history was removed by mechanical means always stuck with me.

Now some thirty years late I found this essay in seven parts in the marked-down to sell in a local bookstore. Well what a treat to read this essay on memory, literature and forgetting. It took a little longer than usual to read as I frequently pondered and fondly remembered his material. Kundera is a treat to read - wise, astute, a good sense of humour and incredibly well-read. He lives and writes in French and visits his homeland - in part a bilingual writer with two homelands. His selection of writers in the essay is vast including several that I know of but haven't read like Gombrowicz, some like Kafka that I should read and several that I have read like Cervantes, Flaubert, Garcia Marquez and Rushdie (who I have read almost all their works).

One of his most astute comments is that if we really love lyric poetry, some of us will memorize lines of poetry, but when we read a novel, and as he says, a 400-page novel will take a week or more to read, we often forget about the pages we just read. When two people get together, we may disagree about what we read, as our memory plays tricks with us. So it was funny to read this and still recall his opening that I remembered after 30 years. But do I remember the rest of the novel? Only parts. It shows that for most of us, we love to read, but we will forget most of what we read. As Kundera says "For the history of art is perishable. The babble of art is eternal".

Kundera is part of this babble.

[Jonfaith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Later, in the 1960s, philosophers would talk about the modern world in which everything had turned into spectacle: demonstrations, wars, and even love; through this “quick and sagacious penetration” (Fielding), Musil had already long ago discerned the “society of spectacle.”

Reading this directly after Testaments Betrayed: An Essay in Nine Parts (with but the softest of interludes into Prae in the interim) it felt like further variations rather than anything distinct, it must be admitted that the multipart essays of Kundera remain decentered, protean, themes bubbling into prominence. I must admit the reptilian elements of my brain felt something was afoot. He appears keenly concerned about the youthful folly of Youth into History, he cites literary characters, including his own as well as historical figures who's biases and conviction from their 20s are held against them later in life. This is interesting given that concern has been raised by journalists and scholars about Kundera's own cooperation with state security during the late 1960s and early 1970s before his exile to France. I say this without judgment. Such acts don't make him sinister. They mean he is human.

I wrote after finishing the last essay (Testaments Betrayed) that I felt bereft that the author hadn't pushed me towards anything (other than, perhaps, a rereading of Rabelais and perhaps Satanic Verses) but this time I feel that The Sleepwalkers might be on my immediate horizon.

[Radu Popovici · Rating 4 out of 5]

,,Cu spaima în suflet, îmi imaginez ziua în care arta va înceta să caute nespusul şi se va pune iar, docilă, în slujba vieţii colective care-i va cere să ofere splendide repetiţii şi să-l ajute pe individ să se contopească, în linişte şi voioşie, cu uniformitatea fiinţei.
Fiindcă istoria artei este pieritoare. Bâlbâială ei,însă, e eternă."

[Sidharth Vardhan · Rating 5 out of 5]

To anyone who may be interested in or has already read and enjoyed this book, I highly recommend 'The Art of Novel' from same author - preferably read that one before this book. The Art of Novel explores some of same themes in a far more detailed manner as each of those themes get their own essays - the one on history of Novel and another of Kafka for example. Here Kundera is only discussing those subjects in passing. I also recommend that book if you wish to read Kundera's own novels better.

I am not gonna write a detailed review here as it would only be quotations for most part but one advantage of reading either of aforementioned books for a serious reader as well as a novelist would be to help them distinguish the excellent works from books that suffer from 'just another novel' syndrome. Kundera, like Nabokov, probably hates detective novels because of their very 'generic' nature.

On goodreads itself, many serious readers seem to suffer from a liking for Kitsch and a dislike for vulgar. There is a desire to read books about social issues (from global warming to women's rights to whatever) - and it seems such books are more likely to make award lists (I am thinking English Booker prize here) - especially if they are written by migrants than other better written novels that probably do more to raise the 'curtain' (of course, there are excellent books written by migrants too). I can understand reading an excellent book and finding oneself getting aware of social issue because of that, but to read a book just because it discusses a social issue! The thing is even if you read a hundred books about global warming, it would make health of environment an iota better. Charlotte Bronte wrote a heartfelt novel in Jane Eyre and did more to inspire generations of feminists than her younger sister Anne Bronte who wrote her masterpiece explicitly to instruction the young ladies. Kundera prefers vulgar over Kitsch - he probably would have been more impressed by a Miller than an average book whining about lives of poor souls.


International Booker lists in this regard are probably better - where books so often are shorter, more intense, challenging conventional ways of novels. I guess that's because International prize goes to translations. And between time novel was published and time when it got translated, the book had proven its value.


That's too much rambling already. There is one point though I have to make - Kundera's two novels about history of novel fail to mention name of a single Asian or African novel excepting Rushdi (which is understandable given how few novels from those continents he may have a chance to come across); but also there is not even one female author. Even taking Kundera's very high standards you could argue that at least someone like Jane Austen, Mary Shelly, Charlotte Bronte or Virginia Woolf - at least one of them could find at least a passing reference in his history. It's not criticism of his values, everyone has his own criteria of judgment after all and Kundera is definitely one of best living authors IMO.

[Shweta Ganesh Kumar · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must read for any writer who is serious about the craft of writing and about the history of the novel in particular.
So wonderfully written, that I dare not even attempt a review.

In the curtain, Milan Kundera talks about the rules novelists have traditionally followed to create their masterpieces. And then he talks about how important it is to break these very rules.

He talks about the continuity of consciousness that gives context to every work of fiction.
Milan Kundera says that many a time geographical details are inessential. He says that "For a character to be successful, the writer need not supply all the possible data he has on him but it is enough that he fill the space the novelist has created for him."

On historians being upset on many novelists taking liberty with history, Milan Kundera says, "The novelist is not a valet for historians. History may fascinate him as a kind of searchlight circling around human existence and throwing light onto its unexpected possibilities."

In response to the question, "What is a novel?" he says -
A novel is the product of an alchemy that turns a woman into a man, a man into a woman, sludge into gold, an anecdote into drama.
On a writer's work he says, that it 'is only a kind of optical instrument he provides the reader so he can discern what he might never have seen in himself without this book - this defines the meaning of the art of the novel."

And one of my favourite lines from the novel, 'Hitch your novel's cart to a wild horse called drunkenness alongside a trained horse called rationality.'

Like I said, this book is a must-read for writers and aspiring writers everywhere.
You won't regret it.

[Hani Al-Kharaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

إن كنتم من عشاق قراءة الروايات، هذا الكتاب سيجعلكم حتماً تعشقونها أكثر وتقرؤونها بشكل مختلف

[Min Trong Suốt・透明みん · Rating 3 out of 5]

'Bởi lịch sử nghệ thuật có thể tàn lụi. Những lời nhố nhăng của nghệ thuật thì vĩnh hằng'

Sinh năm 1929, khi xuất bản 'Màn' vào năm 2005 thì Milan Kundera đã 76 tuổi.
Chính vì một khoảng cách khá lớn về tuổi tác giữa tôi và Milan Kundera, nên khi bước vào đọc từng câu chữ trong 'Màn', tôi cảm tưởng như đang ngồi xuống nói chuyện nghiêm túc về nghệ thuật văn chương và lịch sử châu Âu với một người ông, hoặc đang bàn chuyện và được một người thầy chia sẻ. Có một sự quan tâm nhất định về những thứ xảy ra trong suy tưởng của những nhà văn được coi là bậc thầy ngôn từ, tôi cũng có một sự hứng thú nho nhỏ trước khi đọc cuốn tiểu luận này. Milan nghiêm khắc, tinh tế, quyết liệt, mềm mỏng, dữ dội, chậm rãi. Và một loạt những biến chuyển xen kẽ khiến cho một đứa 'học trò' như tôi phải nín thở theo dõi thật kỹ. Người thầy này đem tôi lên những tầng lớp mây và thay vì để tôi trôi theo nó thì ông lại giữ tôi lại. Văn học nghệ thuật với ông như một thứ tất nhiên sẽ được bàn tới trong những cuộc trò chuyện với bất kể một người Những tác phẩm Milan bàn tới trong cuốn tiểu thuyết tình cờ toàn là những cuốn tôi đã đọc từ rất rất lâu rồi hoặc chưa đọc, nên khi ông bàn về chúng, cảm giác như được nghe phân tích những cuốn sách bản thân chưa nắm rõ bao giờ. Lênh đênh và cần một chỗ dựa, ông lại đưa tôi về cái cảm giác bị dẫn dắt để tìm tới những tác phẩm được nhắc tới một lần nữa, cũng như tìm hiểu về đất nước Tiệp Khắc của ông.

Milan nhắc tới những cuốn tiểu thuyết như Don Quixote, Bà Bôvary, hay những tác giả lớn như Fyodor Dostoevsky, Franz Kafka với cuốn Lâu Đài, Gabriel García Márquez,.. Những biến chuyển về nghệ thuật, ngôn từ trong những cuốn tiểu thuyết kinh điển trên thế giới được Milan nhìn nhận rất rạch ròi và đầy tính chuyên môn.

Ông còn có bàn luận về việc nếu một nhà văn mang một quốc tịch "ít tiếng tăm" như Tiệp Khắc thì bao nhiêu người sẽ đọc và sẽ tỏ ra thích ông ta? Nếu hàng loạt những đại văn hào trên thế giới mang những quốc tịch lạ lẫm nào đó, ngôn ngữ của họ ít được biết tới, khả năng tác phẩm của họ được bàn tới càng thấp hơn. Những câu chuyện về những tác giả nổi tiếng trở nên đầy mâu thuẫn, và đúng là thật chẳng công bằng khi trên thực tế có lẽ có nhiều tác phẩm đỉnh cao xuất sắc hơn, nhưng đáng tiếc không được biết đến rộng rãi chỉ vì quốc tịch của nhà văn viết nên nó. Có lẽ phải chăng đây là một lý do khi Milan định cư ở Pháp từ năm 1975 và trở thành công dân Pháp từ năm 1981?

Thỉnh thoảng khi đọc tôi tự đặt ra một câu hỏi, Milan có cảm nhận thế nào về Cuộc Cách Mạng Nhung diễn ra vào năm 1989? Mặc dù đã mang quốc tịch Pháp nhưng ông viết về đất nước Tiệp Khắc của mình rất ấm áp và đầy tự hào. Một người đầy sự khó tính và có một cá tính riêng, tôi chuẩn bị đọc sang cuốn tiểu thuyết nổi tiếng nhất Đời nhẹ khôn kham của ông, mong cũng sẽ có một trải nghiệm thật tốt như khi đọc cuốn tiểu luận này.

❝Vinh quang của các nghệ sĩ là thứ gớm ghiếc nhất trong số tất cả, bởi nó hàm ý sự bất tử. Và đó là một cái bẫy quỷ quái, bởi sự cao ngạo mang tính hoang tưởng tự đại gớm guốc mong được sống sau khi chết là một phần không thể chia cắt trong tính trung thực của người nghệ sĩ.❞

[Maksym Karpovets · Rating 4 out of 5]

взагалі читати Мілана Кундеру можу всього. є у нього слабші речі (скажімо, перший його роман "Жарт"), а є просто геніальні - практично всі після "Нестерпної легкості буття" (дивно, що перейшовши на мову країни, що породила в принципі оформлену і зшиту дорогу роману, Кундера наче знаходить правильне дихання, відкриває приховані шляхи і дороги). однак крім Кундери-романіста є ще Кундера-есеїст, який задає теж високу планку не тільки для письменників, але й для філософів, культурологів, антропологів. прикладом такого рівня може бути збірка есеїв із чарівною назвою "Завіса" (2005).

можна припустити, що Мілан Кундера - геніальний романіст і середній теоретик, бо як в одній людини можуть жити два генії? зрештою, він само неодноразово пише про свій середній рівень академічного теоритизування, тому навмисно уникає словника і, відповідно. понять, концептів і взагалі не прагне вибудувати строгий герменевтичний апарат тлумачення літератури. звідси - неминуче певний рівень недосягання, але й водночас рівень прояснення днищ. тут же варто додати, що Кундера трішки лукавить - він прекрасно володіє письмом і відчуттям матеріалу (про рівень ерудиції письменника говорити зайве), але просто не хоче капітулювати у мереживо термінів і понять, а спробувати наче заново витворити розуміння. чим вам не апробація гадамерівської герменевтики? чим вам не Джон Кейдж від есеїстики, що пробує осмислити буття тексту немов той, хто взагалі не читав текст?

Мілан Кундера хоче витворити розуміння, як і кожен щирий автор, перш за все для себе. та він настільки наполегливий у своєму бажанні, що мимовлі вивертає це суб'єктивне прагнення почути голос автора у бік звучання цілого оркестру голосів, що лунає із різних історичних програм, культурних зразків і канонів. неможливо не виділити його міркування щодо роману Толстого "Анна Кареніна" (підрозділ "Краса смерті"). Кундера починає з того, що самогубство Анни - загадка. власне, ось ця таїна небуття і змушує Кундеру провести невеличке розслідування, під час якого виявляються і симетричні звучання (мотив смерті під колесами потяга), і деестетизація дійсності, і потік свідомості (саме так, Толстой значно випередив Вулф із Джойсом), і багато всього інших неймовірних фактів, висвітлених, attention, на семи сторінках! повірте, після його роздумів вам захочеться пречитати цей текст і пройтись мапою, окресленою саме Кундерою (ось і ненавмисний перехід від глибоко суб'єктивних до органічно об'єктивованих ландшафтів). так само захочеться перечитати і Марселя Пруста, і Мігеля де Сервантеса, та й загалом пройтись всією класичною літературою, щоб збагнути, хто там шепоче за ширмою.

[Girish · Rating 4 out of 5]

"For it is clear immediately: human life as such is a defeat. All we can do in the face of that ineluctable defeat called life is to try to understand it. That - that is the raison d'être of the art of the novel.”

I think if I had read it as a physical copy/ebook than as an audiobook this would have been a 5 star read. This entertaining history of idea of a novel expressed through his readings is brilliant. It goes behind the curtains of the pages to explore the life in a novel.

Is novel an exaggeration of life or is it the dramatisation of human sentiments. Obviously, we meet Madame Boavary - the lack of goodness that redeems a novel. We meet Don Quixote, Anna Karena and Kafka. We deconstruct the characters in the novel as people in situations - an author's responsibility. Fantastic ideas that you forget in the flood of ideas.

I found the seed for his book 'Immortality' and maybe 'Joke' among the ideas discussed. Memory and History in a novel, the obsession with the artist than the art - this book touches a lot of interesting ideas.

Gives out spoilers to many major books which is a negative. I loved the book on the whole but suffered from not being able to savour the ideas.

One for the physical library.

[Елина Генова · Rating 5 out of 5]

,,Всекидневието. То не е само скука, незначителност, повторяемост, посредственост; то е и красота... Единствено романът е успял да открие огромното и тайнствено могъщество на незначителното."

Милан Кундера разсъждава върху историята на романа в есето си в 7 части "Завесата". Книгата по-скоро бих определила като 7 есета в един сборник, всяко от които индивидуално, внушаващо свои смисли и послания, но и силно свързано с останалите чрез общите теми за романа и особеностите му. Започва от световната история и литература и от раждането на романа като такъв - Кундера го определя като ,,последната обсерватория, от която можем да обхванем човешкия живот в неговата цялост". Продължава с целта на романиста, крайния драматизъм и противоположния му описателен стил на реалистите, с идеята, че произведението е неделимо от историята на изкуството. Пише още за възприемането на световната и националната литература през призмата на различните националности, за вулгарността, за тънката граница между сериозното и комичното, за трагичното, разума и глупостта. Чрез препратки към произведелията на Камю, Кафка, Виктор Юго и още куп все така значими романисти той обяснява тенденции и течения в литературата.
Преплитайки история, литература и философия, Милан Кундера създава увлекателни и обогатяващи есета, които плавно препращат от една тема на друга:

,,Срещу нашия реален свят, който по същността си е мимолетен и достоен за забрава, произведенията на изкуството се възправят като друг свят, идеален, солиден свят, в който всяка подробност е от значение и има смисъл, в който всичко, всяка дума, всяка фраза заслужава да бъде незабравима и е била замислена като такава."

Препоръчвам "Завесата" на всеки, който се интересува от литература. :)

[Omisztal · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.3

[Panagiotis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Είναι η τρίτη φορά που το διαβάζω. Ένα δοκίμιο για το μυθιστόρημα και τους εραστές του. Γραμμένο σοβαρά χωρίς σοβαροφάνειες. Έτσι κι αλλιώς το χιούμορ του Κούντερα είναι γνωστό. Διαβάστε το μην φοβηθείτε την λέξη δοκίμιο είναι ένα από τα πιο καλύτερα αναγνώσματα που έχω κάνει ποτέ μου.

[Jenbebookish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kundera is…Kundera. He's brilliant. Of course I prefer his novels, I've never been a big short story or essay lover, but Kundera is just..GENIUS. 'Nuff said.

[أحمد شاكر · Rating 3 out of 5]

واحد من الكتب المهمة في فهم الرواية وتاريخها. شكراً كونديرا.

[Noor Sabah · Rating 4 out of 5]

عظيم جدا في كل شي يا كونديرا ❤️❤️.

[Ali Almatrood · Rating 5 out of 5]

قد لا أسمي فصول الكتاب بالمباحث، كما يقول الكتاب نفسه. فهي أقرب للسوالف.. لكنها، لعمري، أحد أفضل السوالف التي قرأتها في حياتي.
كتاب رائع، تعيبه الترجمة فقط.

[Mashael Alamri · Rating 5 out of 5]

يأخذنا كونديرا في رحلة ننظر من خلالها للروايات من زاويته الفريدة، نزهة فكريّة لن تمل منها أبداً.

[Đông Huynh · Rating 4 out of 5]

M.K là một trong số rất ít những nhà văn có thể viết nên những cuốn tiểu thuyết rất hay và những cuốn tiểu luận văn chương thật tuyệt vời.
P/s: Cảm giác sau khi đọc xong cuốn này là muốn chộp ngay Don Quixote để đọc =))

[Mèo lười · Rating 5 out of 5]

Xứng đáng 5 sao.
Tại sao 1 cuốn tiểu luận lại trở nên hay ho đến vậy?
Bởi vì sau khi đọc nó, mình đã nhìn những cuốn tiểu thuyết đã đọc và đang đọc dưới một con mắt hoàn toàn khác. Thành fan Milan Kundera thật rồi.