{"product_id":"the-curtain-an-essay-in-seven-parts-isbn-9780060841959","title":"The Curtain: An Essay in Seven Parts","description":"\u003cp\u003e“An elegant, personalized integration of anecdote, analysis, scholarship, memory and speculation. . . . Not since Henry James, perhaps, has a fiction writer examined the process of writing with such insight, authority and range of reference and allusion.” —Russell Banks, New York Times Book Review\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A magic curtain, woven of legends, hung before the world. Cervantes sent Don Quixote journeying and tore through the curtain. The world opened before the knight-errant in all the comical nakedness of its prose.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this thought-provoking, endlessly enlightening, and entertaining essay on the art of the novel, renowned author Milan Kundera suggests that “the curtain” represents a ready-made perception of the world that each of us has—a pre-interpreted world. The job of the novelist, he argues, is to rip through the curtain and reveal what it hides. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHere an incomparable literary artist cleverly sketches out his personal view of the history and value of the novel in Western civilization. In doing so, he celebrates a prose form that possesses the unique ability to transcend national and language boundaries in order to reveal some previously unknown aspect of human existence.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut what is the unique knowledge only the novel can provide?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eThe Art of the Novel:\u003c\/b\u003e Kundera’s deeply personal definition of a prose form that exists to tear through the “curtain” of pre-interpreted reality.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eA History of Forgetting:\u003c\/b\u003e An exploration of how memory transforms and erases, and why the novel is a unique fortress against the fleeting, ghostly nature of the past.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eCentral European Modernism:\u003c\/b\u003e A passionate defense of Kafka, Broch, and Musil, and how their antilyrical, analytical novels charted a different course for European literature.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eAesthetics and Existence:\u003c\/b\u003e Why concepts like kitsch, vulgarity, and the comical are not just artistic terms but keys to understanding the human condition.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e | \u003cp\u003e“A magic curtain, woven of legends, hung before the world. Cervantes sent Don Quixote journeying and tore through the curtain. The world opened before the knight-errant in all the comical nakedness of its prose.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this thought-provoking, endlessly enlightening, and entertaining essay on the art of the novel, renowned author Milan Kundera suggests that “the curtain” represents a ready-made perception of the world that each of us has—a pre-interpreted world. The job of the novelist, he argues, is to rip through the curtain and reveal what it hides. Here an incomparable literary artist cleverly sketches out his personal view of the history and value of the novel in Western civilization. In doing so, he celebrates a prose form that possesses the unique ability to transcend national and language boundaries in order to reveal some previously unknown aspect of human existence.\u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cp\u003e“A swiftly told, beautifully crafted, pleasurable. . . scrutiny of the novel. . . . To Mr. Kundera, the novel is a liberating force.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Economist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Bursting at the seams with ideas. . . Kundera dashes irrepressibly around his own studio. . . to consistently fascinating effect. A rare pleasure.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSteven Poole, New Statesman\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“As the French expression goes, Kundera always gives you furiously to think…[He] writes…with passion.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMichael Dirda, Washington Post Book World\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Kundera offers witty and edifying improvisations on…favorite themes…Anyone interested in the novel will delight in this book.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eAlec Solomita, New York Sun\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Well-worth reading. . . witty and brisk and very smart, like all of [Kundera’s] writing.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWilliam Deresiewicz, The Nation\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Lovely, meandering observations on the genre to which he has consecrated his life. . . . Like good love stories, it pulls you in.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePhiladelphia Inquirer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Kundera’s essay so perfectly distilles an approach to art that it realigns the way an art form is understood.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly (starred review)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Essential reading in a long history of debates about the genre. . . . Wise, deep, and witty.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A work of sophisticated literary cartography. . . agreeably studded with insights.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“An elegant, personalized integration of anecdote, analysis, scholarship, memory and speculation. . . . Not since Henry James, perhaps, has a fiction writer examined the process of writing with such insight, authority and range of reference and allusion. . . Kundera’s opinions, reflections, memories and desires are well worth listening to.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Brilliant, vehement, learned and wise…Stimulating and provocative…THE CURTAIN raises essential questions.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSalon.com\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Kundera…argues brilliantly…Discarding chronology, [he] lets us witness the inner workings of his....wonderful reader’s mind.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eCecile Alduy, San Francisco Chronicle\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Evocative...Kundera marvelously conducts us on a journey through the history of the novel.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Kundera is assuredly one of the great living writers. . . . This is a remarkable book. . . . Absorbing and sometimes sublime.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBuffalo News\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Harper Perennial","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44887705682149,"sku":"NP9780060841959","price":16.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780060841959.jpg?v=1730227282","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-curtain-an-essay-in-seven-parts-isbn-9780060841959","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}