Clovek Zahrada Sira
Very rare first edition of Kundera's first book.
An attractive copy preserved in publisher’s wrappers, as issued.
12mo of 69 pp, (1) f., original publisher’s wrappers and title page printed in red and black, woodcut illustration on cover by Bohdan Lacina.
213 x 136 mm.
Kundera. Clovek zahrada sira.
Ä eskoslovenský spisovatel, (Prague), 1953.
Very rare first edition of Kundera's first book.
His first book, Man, this vast garden (Člověk zahrada širá) in 1953, is a collection of 24 lyrical poems in which Kundera tries to adopt a critical attitude towards literature called « socialist realism ».
“Challenging rigid aesthetics and rigorous optimism, Kundera advocated for a design more open socialist art and claimed the right to sadness, to eroticism, to a freer form. Perhaps he already sensed that nothing was further from reality than socialist realism - proposal that he developed to the grotesque in “Life is Elsewhere”. Although he has endeavoured to remain within the framework of the literary means legally admitted, he was accused of individualism and the book aroused violent criticism” (A. Durand).
“We will agree with Holt Meyer on the fact that Kundera’s early texts are important to understand the literary evolution of the author, to better grasp the meaning of his work, to appreciate the literary means used. These texts are only available in Czech.
Kundera does not seek an external enemy (the petty bourgeois), but an inner enemy that he finds in frozen discourses. The sensitivity of Kundera, his annoyance at a hollow expression, mannered but also gregarious will become constant characteristics of his thought and will constitute a recurring theme in his later works. In his first collection of poems Člověk zahrada širá (Man, this vast garden), his critic focuses on empty phrases. He compares the communists who speak in Party jargon to « obscure priests » who « smother the flame of joy under the icy breath of slogans and orders ». A rigorous study of Kundera’s early writings would also show the coherence of his work, its evolution and its consistency” (J. Ceska).
Milan Kundera the author of "The Unbearable Lightness of Being", the most recognized, translated and discussed living Czech writer.
An attractive copy of Kundera’s first book preserved in publisher’s wrappers, as issued.
