Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Art of the Novel | 1986 | Milan Kundera | Buy |
| 2 | Testaments Betrayed | 1993 | Milan Kundera | Buy |
| 3 | The Curtain | 2005 | Milan Kundera | Buy |
| 4 | Encounter | 2009 | Milan Kundera | Buy |
Kundera’s four non-fiction books are among the most influential works of literary criticism written by a novelist in the twentieth century. The Art of the Novel (1986) sets out his theory of the European novel as a form of inquiry – a mode of knowledge distinct from both science and philosophy, concerned with the complexity and ambiguity of human life. He draws on Cervantes, Kafka, Musil, and Broch to argue for a particular tradition of Central European modernism.
Testaments Betrayed (1993) extends these arguments into a broader defense of artistic autonomy against political appropriation, journalism, and what he called the “graphomania” of mass culture. The book includes a famous essay on the betrayal of Kafka by his literary executors and another on the corruption of musical interpretation. The Curtain (2005) returns to the novel and its history, arguing that great fiction always ruptures the “curtain of pre-interpretation” – the habits of thought that prevent readers from seeing the world freshly.
Encounter (2009) is a collection of shorter pieces on writers, painters, and musicians who mattered to Kundera personally, including Francis Bacon, Fellini, and Malaparte. Taken together, the four books form a coherent aesthetic philosophy, one that insists on the novel’s irreducibility and resists reducing literature to biography, politics, or national identity. They are essential reading for anyone seriously interested in Kundera’s fiction.