The Unbearable Lightness of Being : 3 Volume Set
Easton Press. Limited Signed. Hardcover. Books are all in Fine/As New condition / No dust jacket issued. Item #4912
A three volume set that includes "The Unbearable Lightness of Being," "The Book of Laughter and Forgetting," and "The Festival of Insignificance."
All three volumes are in Fine/As new condition with no noticeable flaws of any kind. The only edition opened from the publisher's shrinkwrap is "The Unbearable Lightness of Being." Opened only to authenticate/verify the signature and presence of collector's paperwork and for reference photographs. The other two volumes are still in their publisher issued shrinkwrap. All in Fine/As New condition and still in the original shipping package from the publisher. Comes with all the Easton Press printing points: inlaid 22kt gold with hubbed spine, gilt page edges, smyth-sewn pages for decades of durability, full leather and sewn in satin page marker and complete certificate of authenticity. Bound in the USA.
This signed set has become a scarce collectible.
In an interview with the New England Review, writer Milan Kundera reflected on his early 30s: “I can’t even begin to imagine writing a novel before the age of 30…there is not enough experience, but especially there isn’t the experience of time.” He was 55 when he wrote his well-known novel “The Unbearable Lightness of Being”, which had its origins in his earlier work “The Book of Laughter and Forgetting."
Kundera felt that he had not achieved the right balance of narrative in “Laughter and Forgetting” and that he had found it in “The Unbearable Lightness of Being." He had lived under the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, where he faced censorship and persecution for his political satire. He also had a musical background, having studied under Pavel Haas, a brilliant Czech composer who was killed in the Holocaust.
Kundera faced many difficulties in publishing his books in his homeland. “The Unbearable Lightness of Being”, which came out in 1984, before the Velvet Revolution of 1989, was not released in Czech until 1985, and the second Czech edition took 18 years for him to approve. The novel follows the lives of two men, two women, and a dog during the 1968 Prague Spring and the subsequent Soviet invasion. It explores the idea that human lives are infinitely insignificant in the vastness of the universe, and that this gives them a “lightness” of being that can be both liberating and burdensome. The novel also depicts the erotic pleasures, youthful joys, and human sufferings of its characters.
Kundera’s work brought international attention to the Eastern Bloc literature and earned him critical acclaim, including the Jerusalem Prize for Literature on the Freedom of Man in Society. He was very dissatisfied with the 1988 film adaptation of his novel, directed by Philip Kaufman and starring Daniel Day-Lewis, and refused to allow any further adaptations of his writings.
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