Testaments Betrayed: An Essay in Nine Parts Audiobook

Quotes

• “A fascinating idiosyncratic meditation on the moral necessity of preserving the artist’s work from destructive appraisal…One reads this book to come into contact with one of the most stimulating minds of our era.”

  — Boston Globe

• “Effervescent…The excitement of reading Mr. Kundera is that he unpredictably touches down almost everywhere, on rock music and on how characters are defined in fiction, on the nature of Josef K.’s guilt in The Trial and on Chopin’s attraction to shorter forms. Best of all, his sallies lead to fresh readings of such diverse writers as Rabelais, Cervantes, Tolstoy, Mann, Hemingway, Faulkner, Musil, Kafka, and Salman Rushdie.”

  — New York Times

• “His insights prove deeper, his connections more daring and profound, the book itself more cohesive as Kundera illuminates in essay after essay the betrayed testaments of music and literature.”

  — Seattle Times

• “Kundera once again celebrates the art of the novel, from its birth in a spirit of humor unique to European culture and sensibility—illustrated by some wonderful examples from the work of Rabelais and Cervantes—through its flowering in successive centuries. He celebrates the particular wisdom the novel offers about human existence.”

  — Amazon.com, editorial review

• “In this stimulating, free-form essay, Czech novelist Kundera traces the evolution of the novel from Rabelais to Kafka and draws parallels between literature and music as he shuttles effortlessly among Tolstoy, Nietzsche, Chopin, Thomas Mann, Bach, and Andre Breton.”

  — Publishers Weekly

• “Kundera, whose talents as a literary and music critic almost match his formidable gifts as a novelist, defends the artist against obtuse or perverse critics, disciples, and allies…Though he offers keen insights into music and literature, it is in his celebration of humor in the European novel that Kundera’s genial brilliance burns most brightly.”

  — Booklist

• “Kundera skims along gracefully as a skater, touching several high points—in music and philosophy as much as literature—in a wholly original discussion of how fiction functions and how it is implicated in the fabric of Western culture.”

  — Library Journal

• “A wide and engagingly erudite plea for keeping the faith and honoring the wishes of the illustrious dead, rather than insisting on our own self-serving agendas.”

  — Kirkus Reviews