Overview
All too often, this brilliant novel of thwarted love and revenge miscarried has been read for its political implications. Now, a quarter century after The Joke was first published and several years after the collapse of the Soviet-imposed Czechoslovak regime, it becomes easier to put such implications into perspective in favor of valuing the book (and all Kundera & 39;s work) as what it truly is: great, stirring literature that sheds new light on the eternal themes of human existence. The present edition provides English-language readers an important further means toward revaluation of The Joke . For reasons he describes in his Author& 39;s Note, Milan Kundera devoted much time to creating (with the assistance of his American publisher-editor) a completely revised translation that reflects his original as closely as any translation possibly can: reflects it in its fidelity not only to the words and syntax but also to the characteristic dictions and tonalities of the novel& 39;s narrators. The result is nothing less than the restoration of a classic.
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Details
- ISBN-13: 9780060995058
- ISBN-10: 006099505X
- Publisher: Harper Perennial
- Publish Date: January 1994
- Dimensions: 8.01 x 5.32 x 0.84 inches
- Shipping Weight: 0.58 pounds
- Page Count: 336
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