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.