Curtain

Author: (Czech) Milan Kundera
Translator: Dong Qiang
Czech Republic
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-09-01
Features: A masterpiece from the literary giant Kundera in three years, the concluding volume of Kundera's trilogy of literary reflections, a classic exposition of the theory of the novel. Kundera tears away the curtain that covers the world and literature, taking us to the lands of friends, to Rabelais, Flaubert, Stendhal, Cervantes, Garcia Marquez, Fuentes, Robert Musil, and Homer. The continuing mission of salvation in The Art of the Novel and The Unbearable Weight of Memory reaches its peak in The Curtain. The Curtain outlines Kundera's writing plan: to write a theory of the novel, which is also a theory of life. In The Curtain, Kundera, as a literary figure, buries his soul of a musician deep within his vast knowledge. He strives to discover the mystery of "humanity" in the novel. In Kundera's view, the novelist is not merely someone who pleases the readers; he is more like a distant, kind father who is not too serious and no longer takes "people's seriousness seriously," sharing the secrets of life with the readers.
The original work of The Curtain was written in French. Upon its publication in France, all national newspapers and magazines, such as Le Monde, Libération, Le Figaro, L'Express, L'Obs, and Point de Vue, published special reviews. It was also ranked as one of the ten most valuable books of the year by the widely respected literary magazine Les Livres. This Chinese translation was commissioned by Kundera himself and translated by Dong Qiang, a professor of French at Peking University and Kundera's only Chinese student, as a golden autumn gift to the long-awaited Chinese readers.
As the concluding volume of Kundera's trilogy of literary reflections, The Curtain continues the themes of The Unbearable Weight of Memory and The Art of the Novel, summarizing Kundera's thoughts in the former two works while exploring the world of the novel art intertwined with history and real-life realities with a freer touch. The Cervantes-style Don Quixote roams the world, tearing away the "curtain" that conceals the essence of reality, woven by legends and preconceived interpretations. Kundera synthesizes his life experiences, mentioning his beloved novelists such as Cervantes, Rabelais, Sterne, Flaubert, Musil, Joyce, and Kafka, interspersing multiple texts like Education of the Heart, The Three Years, The Idiot, and As I Lay Dying. Divided into seven parts—"The Awareness of Continuity," "World Literature," "The Soul Entering Things," "What the Novelist Is," "Aesthetics and Existence," "The Torn Curtain," and "Novel, Memory, Forgetfulness"—each with numerous subheadings, it delves into concepts such as time, kitsch, comedy, and forgetfulness, declaring, "Once applied to art, the concept of history has nothing to do with progress; it does not mean perfection, improvement, or enhancement; it is like a journey to explore unknown lands and mark them on a map," "the novelist is not the servant of the historian," and "the novelist is not merely someone who thinks about pleasing the readers," strongly advocating the necessity of introducing 'life's non-poetic' into the novel.