kvmhouseof.blogg.se - The joke by milan kundera

In this new English-language version of Kundera's classic first novel, completely revised by the author to incorporate the most accurate portions of two previous translations plus his own corrections, the narrator Ludvik wonders, "What if History plays jokes?" This politically charged question, coupled with Ludvik's fate as an unintentional dissident, struck a chord in Czech readers the novel's 1967 publication was a key literary event of the Prague Spring. A great novel of thwarted love and revenge miscarried, in a completely revised translation that is nothing less than the restoration of a classic.

The authoritative version of the brilliant first novel by the author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

Schools & English Language Center Discount.

The result is nothing less than the restoration of a classic. For reasons he describes in his Author's Note, Milan Kundera devoted much time to creating a completely revised translation that reflects his original as closely as any translation possibly can: reflects it in its fidelity not only to the words and syntax but also to the characteristic dictions and tonalities of the novel's narrators. This edition provides English-language readers an important further means toward revaluation of The Joke.

Now, more than a quarter century after The Joke was first published and several years after the collapse of the Soviet-imposed Czechoslovak regime, it becomes easier to put such implications into perspective in favor of valuing the book (and all Milan Kundera 's work) as what it truly is: great, stirring literature that sheds new light on the eternal themes of human existence. And he says it with passion, with good humor, and with love." -Salman Rushdie All too often, this brilliant novel of thwarted love and revenge miscarried has been read for its political implications. Milan Kundera is an artist, clearly one of the best to be found anywhere, who says that the good (and evil) that issues from men's souls matters much more than the deeds of a State. "A thoughtful, intricate, ambivalent novel with the reach of greatness in it." -John Updike "It is impossible to do justice here to the subtleties, comedy, and wisdom of this very beautiful novel.