num_pages: 288
description: All too often, this brilliant novel of thwarted love and revenge miscarried has been read for its political implications. Now though, 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.
language: English
title: The Joke
titlecomplete: The Joke
genres: 20th Century, Literature, Classics, Literary Fiction, Novels, Czech Literature, Philosophy, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Contemporary
ratings_count: 34133
places: Slovakia
publisher: Penguin Books