Novel
The Joke
Žert
Milan Kundera · 1967
Synopsis
In Stalinist Czechoslovakia, Ludvík Jahn, a student and zealous communist, writes to his comrade Markéta, away on a political training course, a postcard in which he mocks official optimism and salutes Trotsky; denounced, he is expelled from the party and the university. Years later, he returns to his native Moravia to take revenge on Zemánek, the former comrade who ruined him, by seducing his wife Helena.
Context
Begun in the early sixties and completed in December 1965, the novel remained more than a year with the censors before appearing in the spring of 1967 from Československý spisovatel; three printings, 117,000 copies in all, quickly sold out. The French translation by Marcel Aymonin appeared from Gallimard in September 1968, with a preface by Aragon; the author had it revised in 1980, then gave a definitive version in 1985, in which his own note replaced the preface. In early 1970, the book was withdrawn from sale and from public libraries.
Who it is for
A novel in seven parts, in which four narrators take turns. In French, the definitive 1985 version is the one the author recognises.
Prizes and reception
Prize of the Union of Czechoslovak Writers in spring 1968; ranked by readers of Le Monde among the fifty best books of the century.