It was the month of June, the morning sun was emerging from the clouds, and Alain was walking down a Paris street.
An edition of La Fête de l'insignifiance
(2007)
The Festival of Insignificance
A Novel
First edition
by Milan Kundera
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- 1 Currently reading
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Last edited by kucharczyk
February 6, 2022 | History
Casting light on the most serious of problems and at the same time saying not one serious sentence; being fascinated by the reality of the contemporary world and at the same time completely avoiding realism--that's The Festival of Insignificance. Readers who know Kundera's earlier books know that the wish to incorporate an element of the "unserious" in a novel is not at all unexpected of him. In Immortality, Goethe and Hemingway stroll through several chapters together, talking and laughing. And in Slowness, Vera, the author's wife, says to her husband, "You've often told me you meant to write a book one day that would have not a single serious word in it . . . I warn you: watch out. Your enemies are lying in wait."
Now, far from watching out, Kundera is finally and fully realizing his old aesthetic dream in this novel, which we may easily view as a summation of his whole work. A strange sort of summation. Strange sort of epilogue. Strange sort of laughter, inspired by our time, which is comical because it has lost all sense of humor. What more can we say? Nothing. Just read.
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Previews available in: German English French Chinese Spanish
Subjects
Philosophy, Friendship, City and town life, Fiction, Social life and customs, Manners and customs, FICTION / General, FICTION / Literary, Continental european fiction (fictional works by one author), Paris (france), fiction, Friendship, fiction, Male friendship, Fiction, general, Amistad, Novela, Hombres, Vida social y costumbresPeople
Joseph Stalin (1879-1953)Showing 5 featured editions. View all 16 editions?
| Edition | Availability |
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1
Das Fest der Bedeutungslosigkeit: Roman
2015, Carl Hanser Verlag
Hardcover
in German
- 1. Auflage
3446247637 9783446247635
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2
The Festival of Insignificance: A Novel
2015, HarperCollins, Harper
Hardcover
in English
- First edition
0062356895 9780062356895
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3
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4
Qing zhu wu yi yi
2014, Shanghai shi ji chu ban gu fen you xian gong si, Yi wen chu ban she
in Chinese
- Di 1 ban
7532766624 9787532766628
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5
La fiesta de la insignificancia
2013, Tusquet Editores
in Spanish
- 1a edición.
6074216142 9786074216141
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| February 6, 2022 | Edited by kucharczyk | Change title to French |
| February 6, 2022 | Edited by dcapillae | fix title |
| February 6, 2022 | Edited by dcapillae | Merge works |
| February 24, 2016 | Edited by lalala | title |
| September 20, 2014 | Created by Biblioteca Pública del Estado en Albacete | Added new book. |