The Art of the Novel

113 Pages·1988·0.55 MB·English

by  Milan Kundera

MILAN KUNDERA
The Art of the Novel
Translated from the French by Linda Asher Copyright © 1986 by Milan Kundera
English translation copyright © 1988 by Grove Press, Inc.
First published in French as L'Art du roman by Editions Gallimard, 1986
ISBN 0-8021-0011-2

Parts One and Five first appeared in English in translations by David Bellas,
respectively as "The Novel and Europe" (The New York Review of Books, July
19, 1984) and "Somewhere Beyond" (Granta 11, 1984). With the permission of
Mr. Bellos, these translations have been extensively revised by the translator of
this book in light of the author's revisions of his original texts and in order to
achieve a consistent style. Part Two appeared in Salmagundi 73 (Winter 1987)
under the title "Conversation with Milan Kundera on the Art of the Novel." Part
Pour: Portions of this much revised and enlarged interview appeared (in another
translation) in The Paris Review 92 (1984) as "The Art of Fiction LXXX1: Milan
Kundera." Some of the "Sixty-three Words" of Part Six were first published in
English early in 1988 in The New York Times Book Review, and Part Seven
appeared in The New York Review of Books (June 13,, 1985) as "Man Thinks,
God Laughs."
Though most of the pieces in this book owe their existence to various specific
circumstances, I conceived them all with the idea that they would someday be
linked together in one book-essay setting out my thoughts on the art of the novel.
(Need I stress that I intend no theoretical statement at all, and that the entire
book is simply a practitioner's confession? 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 here the idea of the novel that is inherent in my own novels.)
"The Depreciated Legacy of Cervantes," written in 1983, describes my personal
conception of the European novel and begins this "seven-part essay."
The same year, The Paris Review asked Christian Salmon to interview me about
my practical experiences with the art of the novel. I divided that text (which is
not a transcript of an actual conversation but an edited dialogue) into two
separate pieces, of which the first, "Dialogue on the Art of the Novel," became
Part Two of this volume.
When Gallimard published a new edition of The Sleepwalkers, I was eager to
reacquaint the French public with Broch, and I published an essay called "The
Testament of The Sleepwalkers" in Le Nouvel Observateur. After Guy Scarpetta
brought out his excellent "Introduction to Hermann Broch," I decided not to
include my essay here. Still, because The Sleepwalkers is so prominent in my
own personal history of the novel, I could not entirely avoid writing about it, so
Part Three consists of "Notes Inspired by The Sleepwalkers," a series of
reflections that does not so much analyze that work as acknowledge how much I
— we all— owe to it.
"Dialogue on the Art of Composition" uses my own novels to discuss several
artistic, "craft" problems of the novel, especially of its architecture.
"Somewhere Behind" (1979) is a summary of my reflections on Kafka's novels.

"Sixty-three Words" (1986) is a "dictionary" of certain key words that appear
throughout my novels, and key words in my aesthetic of the novel.
In the spring of 1985, I received the Jerusalem Prize. Father Marcel Dubois, a
Dominican and professor at the Hebrew University, read the eulogy in English
with a heavy French accent; with a heavy Czech accent, in French, I read my
own speech of thanks, knowing that it would constitute the last part of this book,
the closing lines of my reflection on the novel and Europe. I could have done it in
no setting more thoroughly European, more cordial or dear to me.
PART ONE
The Depreciated Legacy of Cervantes - 3
PART TWO
Dialogue on the Art of the Novel - 23
PART THREE
Notes Inspired by "The Sleepwalkers" - 47
PART FOUR
Dialogue on the Art of Composition - 71
PART FIVE
Somewhere Behind - 99
PART SIX
Sixty-three Words - 121