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    Testaments Betrayed: An Essay in Nine Parts
    Testaments Betrayed: An Essay in Nine Parts
    Testaments Betrayed: An Essay in Nine Parts
    Audiobook7 hours

    Testaments Betrayed: An Essay in Nine Parts

    Written by Milan Kundera

    Narrated by Graeme Malcolm

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    ""A defense of fiction and a lesson in the art of reading."" —New York Times Book Review

    ""Testaments Betrayed is to be savored paragraph by paragraph. . . . It must be purchased, read, pondered, and argued within the margins. And frequently reread."" — Washington Post

    A brilliant and thought-provoking essay from one of the twentieth century’s masters of fiction, Testaments Betrayed is written like a novel: the same characters appear and reappear throughout the nine parts of the book, as do the principal themes that preoccupy the author. Kundera is a passionate defender of the moral rights of the artist and the respect due a work of art and its creator’s wishes. The betrayal of both—often by their most passionate proponents—is one of the key ideas that informs this strikingly original and elegant book.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateOct 23, 2012
    ISBN9780062215642
    Author

    Milan Kundera

    The Franco-Czech novelist Milan Kundera (1929 - 2023) was born in Brno and lived in France, his second homeland, since 1975. He is the author of the novels The Joke, Life Is Elsewhere, Farewell Waltz, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and Immortality, and the short story collection Laughable Loves—all originally in Czech. His later novels, Slowness, Identity, Ignorance, and The Festival of Insignificance, as well as his nonfiction works, The Art of the Novel, Testaments Betrayed, The Curtain, and Encounter, were originally written in French.

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    Reviews for Testaments Betrayed

    4/5

    110 ratings3 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Kundera is so consistent and intelligent. I feel the loss of these writers who have known darkness while also being highly conversant with history and culture. That said, at times, some of his writing is prescient and relevant and other writings seem incredibly dated and passe. His eurocentric focus (not counting Latin America, the Caribbean and Mexico which was still a literary hotspot then) and his "great man" theory of novelists (and I mean 'MAN') is borderline laughable.
    • 5/5
      Yes, with this book and Kundera's other essay collections "The Curtain" and "The Art of the Novel", one could absorb a knowledge of world literature- what it is, where it came from, where it is going- worthy of two years of University lectures. I would add some coffee to the other reviewer's grocery list. And some cigars. Peppery ones.
    • 4/5
      Kundera begins with a riff on Rabelais and leads us on a wild tour of European literature from Cervantes to Gombrowicz, with special attention to authors that I love including Musil and Broch. I found this plus his continual focus on the ideas of literature attractive enough; but he essays music as well. There is a wonderful chapter on Janacek and thought-provoking discussion of Stravinsky's place in European music. And with this embedded references to literature, great literature, and his own work, most of which I've yet to read. And did I mention his exceptional essay on Kafka. This is a relatively short book, but one of great depth and breadth. It is simultaneously brilliant music criticism, elegant literary criticism, commentary on the art of writing and translation, and a guide to the great literature of modern Europe. With this book, a loaf of bread and some wine (along with dozens of other texts) one could while away a year or two.