[A lire **** 16] • Le Rideau

" Un rideau magique, tissé de légendes, était suspendu devant le monde.

Cervantes envoya don Quichotte en voyage et déchira le rideau. Le monde

s'ouvrit devant le chevalier errant dans toute la nudité comique de sa

prose... C'est en déchirant le rideau de la préinterprétation que Cervantes a

mis en route cet art nouveau ; son geste destructeur se reflète et se prolonge

dans chaque roman digne de ce nom ; c'est le signe d'identité de l'art du

roman. "

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In this entertaining and always stimulating essay, Kundera cleverly sketches

out his personal view of the history and value of the novel in Western

civilization. Too often, he suggests, a novel is thought about only within the

confines of the language and nation of its origin, when in fact the novel's

development has always occured across borders: Laurence Sterne learned from

Rebalais, Henry Fielding from Cervantes, Joyce from Flaubert, Garcia Marquez

from Kafka. The real work of a novel matter is its ability to reveal some

previously unknown aspect of our existence. In _The Curtain_ , Kundera

skillfully describes how the best novels do just that.