{"product_id":"9780060841959","title":"The Curtain: An Essay in Seven Parts","description":"\u003ctable\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAuthor\/Contributor(s):\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"\"\u003eKundera, Milan\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHarper Perennial\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDate:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e12\/26\/2007\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBinding:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"\"\u003ePaperback\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCondition:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"\"\u003eNEW\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/tbody\u003e\u003c\/table\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.” —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","brand":"Harper Perennial","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46828993282303,"sku":"9780060841959","price":16.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0452\/0886\/2873\/files\/9780060841959_s600x595.jpg?v=1779893894","url":"https:\/\/massivebookshop.com\/de\/products\/9780060841959","provider":"MASSIVE BOOKSHOP","version":"1.0","type":"link"}