The Curtain: An Essay in Seven Parts - Softcover

"A work of sophisticated literary cartography.agreeably studded with insights." -- Joseph Epstein, Wall Street Journal

"Bursting at the seams with ideas.Kundera dashes irrepressibly around his own studio...to consistently fascinating effect. A rare pleasure." -- Steven Poole, New Statesman

"Brilliant, vehement, learned and wise.Stimulating and provocative.THE CURTAIN raises essential questions." -- Salon.com

"Well-worth reading.witty and brisk and very smart, like all of [Kundera's] writing." -- William Deresiewicz, The Nation

"Kundera.argues brilliantly.Discarding chronology, Kundera lets us witness the inner workings of his....wonderful reader's mind." -- Cecile Alduy, San Francisco Chronicle

"Essential reading in a long history of debates about the genre...Wise, deep, and witty."--New York Review of Books

"Lovely, meandering observations on the genre to which he has consecrated his life...Like good love stories, it pulls you in."--Philadelphia Inquirer

"Kundera is assuredly one of the great living writers...This is a remarkable book....Absorbing and sometimes sublime."--Buffalo News

"As the French expression goes, Kundera always gives you furiously to think...[He] writes...with passion."--Michael Dirda, Washington Post Book World

"A swiftly told, beautifully crafted, pleasurable...scrutiny of the novel ...To Mr. Kundera, the novel is a liberating force."--The Economist

Traces the author's personal view of the history and significance of the novel in western civilization, arguing that a novel's development crosses international and language boundaries while serving to reveal previously unknown aspects of a reader's existence. By the author of The Art of the Novel. Reprint.