The Joke by Milan Kundera

All too often, this brilliant novel of thwarted love and revenge miscarried has been read for its political implications. Now, a quarter century after The Joke was first published and several years after the collapse of the Soviet-imposed Czechoslovak regime, it becomes easier to put such implications into perspective in favor of valuing the book (and all Kundera 's work) as what it truly is: great, stirring literature that sheds new light on the eternal themes of human existence. The present edition provides English-language readers an important further means toward revaluation of The Joke. For reasons he describes in his Author's Note, Milan Kundera devoted much time to creating (with the assistance of his American publisher-editor) a completely revised translation that reflects his original as closely as any translation possibly can: reflects it in its fidelity not only to the words and syntax but also to the characteristic dictions and tonalities of the novel's narrators. The result is nothing less than the restoration of a classic.

- Google

The 2417th greatest fiction book of all time


This book is on the following lists:

  1. - 47th on Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century (Le Monde)

Buy This Book

Name Binding Sales Rank Lowest New Lowest Used Published
La broma (Spanish Edition) Paperback 2554232 $89.00 $30.00 2006
La Broma Paperback 13004401 $30.00
The Joke (Definitive Version) Paperback 82826 $8.13 $0.01 1993
The Joke Hardcover 1831713 $44.24 $0.24
The Joke Hardcover 1974248 $49.06 $3.00 1992
BROMA, LA Paperback 9575748 $36.86
La Broma (Spanish Edition) Paperback 13057222 $47.98
La broma (Spanish Edition) Paperback 786691 $17.99 $10.64 2008
The Joke [JOKE] Paperback 2942134 $3.41 $2.96
La broma (Coleccion Andanzas) (Spanish Edition) Paperback 3796142 $23.61 $18.41 2012
The Joke Paperback 3082437 $0.47 $0.01 1987
La broma (Spanish Edition) Paperback 3705914 $26.96 2012
La Broma / The Joke (Spanish Edition) Paperback 11714159 $24.95 $3.98 1998
The Joke Paperback 4187782 $5.74 $0.01 1998
La Broma (Spanish Edition) Paperback 12111612 $22.00