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The Art of the Novel

by Milan Kundera

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Kundera on the novel’s history, possibilities, and form

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Paperback New English

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AlbakiReads Editorial

Kundera on the novel’s history, possibilities, and form

In this collection of essays, Milan Kundera considers the novel as a distinct artistic form, tracing a lineage from Rabelais and Cervantes to Kafka, Musil, and Hermann Broch. The book places his own fiction within that history while outlining the questions that shape his thinking: how novels engage with history, what gives action meaning, and how character changes in what he calls the post-psychological novel. More than a survey of individual authors, it presents an interconnected view of the novel’s development, construction, and intellectual scope.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in literary criticism and novel theory
  • Fans of Kundera seeking his reflections on fiction
  • Students of European novelists from Cervantes to Kafka and Broch

Themes

History of the novelFiction and philosophyNarrative actionCharacter creationThe post-psychological novel

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

"Incites us to reflect on fiction and philosophy, knowledge and truth, and brilliantly illustrates the art of the essay." -- The New Republic

"Every novelist's work contains an implicit vision of the history of the novel, an idea of what the novel is. I have tried to express the idea of the novel that is inherent in my own novels." -- Milan Kundera

Kundera brilliantly examines the evolution, construction, and essence of the novel as an art form through the lens of his own work and through the work of such important and diverse figures as Rabelais, Cervantes, Sterne, Diderot, Flaubert, Tolstoy, Musil, Kafka, and perhaps the least known of all the great novelists of our time, Hermann Broch.

Kundera's discussion of his own work includes his views on the role of historical events in fiction, the meaning of action, and the creation of character in the post-psychological novel.

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