''Immortality'' ( cs, Nesmrtelnost) is a

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself ...

in seven parts, written by

Milan Kundera Milan Kundera (, ; born 1 April 1929) is a Czech writer who went into exile in France in 1975, becoming a naturalised French citizen in 1981. Kundera's Czechoslovak citizenship was revoked in 1979, then conferred again in 2019. He "sees himsel ...

in 1988 in Czech. It was first published in 1990 in French, and then translated into English by Peter Kussi and published in the UK in 1991. The story springs from a casual gesture of a woman, seemingly to her swimming instructor. ''Immortality'' is the last of a trilogy that includes ''

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting ''The Book of Laughter and Forgetting'' ( cs, Kniha smíchu a zapomnění, Kniha smíchu a zapomnění) is a novel by Milan Kundera, published in France in 1979. It is composed of seven separate narratives united by some common themes. The boo ...

'' and '' The Unbearable Lightness of Being.''

Plot

Divided into seven parts, the novel centers on Agnes, her husband Paul, and her sister Laura. Several of the storylines involve real historical figures. # ''The Face'' establishes these characters. # ''Immortality'' describes

Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as tr ...

's fraught relationship with Bettina, a young woman who aspires to create a place for herself in the pantheon of history by controlling Goethe's legacy after his death. # ''Fighting'' describes Agnes and Laura fight, while focusing on the deteriorating state of Laura's relationship with Bernard Bertrand. # ''Homo Sentimentalis'' describes Goethe's afterlife and postmortem friendship with

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century f ...

. # ''Chance'' describes Agnes' death, intersecting with a conversation between Kundera and Professor Avenarius. # ''The Dial'' introduces a new character, Rubens, who had an affair with Agnes years prior to the onset of the main events in the plot. # ''The Celebration'' concludes the novel in the same health club where Kundera first observed the inspirational

wave In physics, mathematics, and related fields, a wave is a propagating dynamic disturbance (change from equilibrium) of one or more quantities. Waves can be periodic, in which case those quantities oscillate repeatedly about an equilibrium (re ...

gesture. The novel is at times narrated by a self-insertion of Kundera. At the start, this narrator sees a woman wave and creates the character of Agnes: "I was strangely moved. And then the word Agnes entered my mind. Agnes. I had never known a woman by that name." Later, the Kundera character says: "A novel shouldn't be like a bicycle race but a feast of many courses. I am really looking to Part 6. A completely new character will enter the novel. And at the end of that part he will disappear without a trace. He causes nothing and leaves no effects. That is precisely what I like about him. Part 6 will be a novel within a novel, as well as the saddest erotic story I have ever written."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Immortality (Novel) Novels by Milan Kundera 1988 Czech novels 20th-century Czech novels Cultural depictions of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe