The Art of the Novel

In these brilliant reflections Milan Kundera discusses fundamental characteristics of the novel, its history and its immorality. The object of the novel is the enigma of the self (the subject) functioning in a world full of ambiguities, where all things human are relative. History Novelists, like Cervantes, examined the self through its actions, which (partly) revealed the nature of the self. A new generation, like Flaubert, delved into the self's invisible interior life (dreams, the irrational) in order to reveal the self's secrets. Joyce dissects painstakingly the present. In fine, F. Kafka poses the ultimate question of what possibilities are left in a world where the external determinants become so overpowering that internal impulses no longer carry weight. Radical autonomy Kafka's novels are the masterful proofs of the radical autonomy of the novel. By creating an extreme and unrealized possibility of the human world, Kafka expressed things about our human condition which no social or political thought could ever tell. Immorality The novel is boundless freedom. It is not rational or based on verisimilitude. Novelists should use this freedom to discover unrealized possibilities of the human world. A novelist who doesn't unveil a hitherto unknown segment of human existence is immoral. These in depth meditations on one of the major components of human art are a must read for all lovers of world literature.

I am starting a novel this summer, and this book was recommended to me by my Creative Writing professor. Being a fan of Kundera already, I bought the book without question. For the reviewer who said that Kundera writes pretentiously: I am actually amazed, since Kundera's lack of pretention and clarity surprised me. So much literary criticism is bloated and difficult to read, but Kundera is very simple, very concise, and yet also explanatory. Often he will make a statement, such as "All novels are concerned with the enigma of the self," which he not only explains but gives immediate examples, never letting the flash of his writing try to convey the point. So much ground is covered in this tiny book: the difference between modernism and "establishment modernism," the craft of his own work, the history and purpose of the novel, insights into several of his great works, insights into European history, parallels between music and literature, etc, etc. Make sure to take notes, since your memory won't be able to hold everything in. I praise Kundera also for his deep respect for the novel, not only arguing against those "established modernists" who claim the novel is dead or antiquated, but stressing the infinite possibilities of the novel and how the weaknesses of the great works show the paths future novels can take. Rather than being pretentious or snobbish, Kundera reaffirms the life of the novel as central to the question of the self, which is as infinite as the novel is. This book is also essential for writers especially. For plotting out the structure for my work, Kundera's insights have been invaluable. Of course, Kundera doesn't suggest you write as he does, and you won't want to, but his radiant insight surely helped me find out what I myself wanted to do. Kundera's essays prompt exploration and possibility. A great read.

Milan Kundera is a Czechoslavakian writer who lives in France. He's written a number of novels, among the THE BOOK OF LAUGHTER AND FORGETTING and THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING. In this, his first nonfiction effort, Kundera relates the concept of the novel to his own work. The first two essays were inspired by an interview he gave to The Paris Review on his practical experiences with the art of the novel.His focus goes beyond his own work, however. Kundera presents some rather intense and unusual analyses of his personal favorite writers: Cervantes, Rabelais, Sterne, Diderot, Flaubert, Tolstoy and Kafka, to name just a few.This is a book for the scholarly reader; the reader who knows literature. It is one that illuminates all sorts of possibilities for writing the novel, for Kundera points out the the novel can express life in ways that can't be achieved by any other form. He moves from the general to the specific -- from the form of the novel, to the way others have used it, to his own work. Particularly interesting is his dictionary of 63 key words which he says are essential to understanding his fiction. His observations about the state of contemporary Russian literature -- what is being published and why -- are fascinating. He also expresses his frustration, as an author, with translators of his works and how they handle language."The art of reading," wrote Andre Maurois, "is in great part that of acquiring a better understanding of life from one's encounter with a book." Readers will come away from this with a better understand of the novel as an expression of life as well as deeper insight into a number of classical works.

"Outside the novel, we're in the realm of affirmation: everyone is sure of his statements: the politician, the philosopher, the concierge. Within the universe of the novel, however, no one affirms: it is the realm of play and of hypotheses. In the novel, then, reflection is essentially inquiring, hypothetical."Thus Milan Kundera affirms the wonder and beauty of the novel and explains the difference between how philosophers think and how novelists think. Born of the Modern Era ushered in by seventeenth century rationalism, the novel contemplates and explores existence in the Modern Era. Like the Modern Era, the novel is distinguished by its ambiguity and complexity. For Kundera, the novel's core is an inquiry, not a moral position. It makes sense, therefore, that in a world where humans long for black/white, wrong/right distinction, that the "wisdom of uncertainty" which Kundera calls the wisdom of the novel, should be so hard to accept and understand. This remarkable short book shares the seven part form of several of Kundera's novels: each can stand alone but all are connected by vital and pervading themes. The seven parts comprise two essays, a collection of notes, two dialogues, a dictionary of sixty-three words, and an acceptance speech for a literary prize--and not in the order just mentioned. This mosaic structure works well to underscore part of Kundera's point: there are many ways to approach an understanding of the novel. Is Don Quixote a critique or a celebration of idealism? Both cases have been made often, neither is right--the novel's spirit of complexity and continuity brooks no dogmatism. In fact, the novel has its own "radical autonomy" which Kundera uses to illuminate the works of Franz Kafka. It can say and show things humans cannot achieve in any other way. If the novel that is art--the novel that truly says something new--is to survive, novelists would do well to think more like Milan Kundera. Readers of THE ART OF THE NOVEL, meanwhile, will gain a new appreciation for the genre as well as valuable insight into the thought process of one of the world's greatest living novelists.

I recall that when asked about his "Theorie Aesthetique" by a journalist, Picasso took out a pistol and shot it in the air. Evidently Picasso did not care to banalize his works into neat theories for art critics. The problem is that Picasso often did lapse into following a theoretical form...more so in his later works.I read this book in French, "L'Art Du Roman" and while it does not attempt to reduce Kundera's works to neat theories, it does shed light on the philosphical underpinnings of many of his novels.In fact, one of the main themes of this book is the critique of reductionism. He exalts the "Wisdom of Uncertainty" and eschews any art work that proceeds from an ideology or moral high ground as such leads to judgement rather than understanding. Somewhat in an existentialist vein, Kundera promotes the idea of "l'ambiguite" as the ideal for the novel. That is to say that given we live in a world where there is no right or wrong way to proceed, the role of the novel is to understand each character within his own constructs, not according to some extrnal morality or ideology.Kundera's debt to Heidegger is made obvious throughout the book, and Kundera quotes him often. One is left wondering what Kundera's ideas on morality might be. However, I would not go so far as saying that he follows suit with Heidegger on this mattter. Heidegger's "Sein und Zeit" is interested in the question of being. For Da-Sein, morality is secondary, and relativistic, not primary and essential. No doubt, this indiffference towards morality led to Heidegger's nazism. However, if Kundera does not take a moralistic posture in "unbearable Lightness of Being", he defintiely implies that we suffer or thrive on a spiritual level with certain choices that we make....-Thomas Seay