Audio only
Length10h 19m
About this audiobook
"I will say no more about this lacerating book except to urge it upon all who care about literature in our difficult era." — Boston Globe
"A sly and merciless lampoon of revolutionary romanticism. . . Kundera commits some of the funniest literary savaging since Evelyn Waugh polished off Dickens in A Handful of Dust."— Time
Milan Kundera initially intended to call this novel The Lyrical Age. The lyrical age, according to him, is youth, and this novel, above all, is an epic of adolescence; an ironic epic that tenderly erodes sacrosanct values: childhood, motherhood, revolution, and even poetry.
Jaromil is in fact a poet. His mother made him a poet and accompanies him (figuratively) to his love bed and (literally) to his deathbed. A ridiculous and touching character, horrifying and totally innocent ("innocence with its bloody smile"!), Jaromil is at the same time a true poet. He's no creep, he's Rimbaud. Rimbaud entrapped by the communist revolution, entrapped in a somber farce.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 4.0 (24.4K)
Includes Goodreads, StoryGraph, LibraryThing, Amazon
GenreMystery and Thriller, General Fiction
Length10 hrs 19 mins
Narrated byRichmond Hoxie
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateAug 21, 2012
LanguageEnglish
More from Milan Kundera, Aaron Asher
EncounterMilan Kundera4h 21m3.8 (2.1K)$20 · $0.00
ImmortalityMilan Kundera11h 54m4.2 (50.9K)$29 · $0.00
The Art of the NovelMilan Kundera4h 31m4.2 (9.7K)$20 · $0.00
The Festival of InsignificanceMilan Kundera2h 33m3.5 (25.8K)$18 · $0.00
Farewell WaltzMilan Kundera7h 16m4.0 (20.7K)$24 · $0.00
The Book of Laughter and ForgettingMilan Kundera8h 20m4.0 (67.3K)$26 · $0.00
Laughable LovesMilan Kundera7h 3m4.0 (43.7K)$24 · $0.00
89 Words followed by Prague, A Disappearing PoemMilan Kundera2h 7m3.8 (208)$16 · $0.00
Testaments BetrayedMilan Kundera7h 37m4.2 (3.5K)$26 · $0.00
A Kidnapped WestMilan Kundera1h 25m4.3 (2.1K)$16 · $0.00
SlownessMilan Kundera3h 26m3.7 (26.4K)$18 · $0.00
The CurtainMilan Kundera4h 40m4.0 (3.8K)$20 · $0.00
Jacques and His MasterMilan Kundera1h 53m3.9 (2.1K)$16 · $0.00
The Unbearable Lightness of BeingMilan Kundera9h 36m4.2 (626.1K)$29 · $0.00
IgnoranceMilan Kundera4h 20m4.0 (33.6K)$20 · $0.00
IdentityMilan Kundera3h 53m3.8 (37.3K)$20 · $0.00
The JokeMilan Kundera11h 44m4.1 (45.7K)$29 · $0.00
Remarkably Bright CreaturesShelby Van Pelt11h 17m4.4 (1.7M)$29 · $0.00
The New Human Revolution, vol. 1Daisaku Ikeda7h 46m4.7 (669)$12 · $0.00
The ReunionJana Deleon6h 31m4.6 (1.6K)$26 · $0.00
To Hold and ProtectSandra Owens7h 59m4.6 (1.1K)$8 · $0.00
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Complete Edition)Arthur Conan Doyle12h 41m4.6 (286.7K)$1.99 · $0.00
Farewell My Lovely (Annotated)Raymond Chandler10h 37m4.6 (1.2K)$2 · $0.00
The Labyrinth of the SpiritsCarlos Ruiz Zafon27h 55m4.5 (77.2K)$53 · $0.00
Olympic Mountain PursuitJodie Bailey5h 55m4.6 (638)$12 · $0.00
Glen AffricKarine Giebel22h 51m4.5 (3.2K)$46 · $0.00
Deadly Badlands PursuitSharee Stover5h 53m4.6 (361)$12 · $0.00
Crime and Punishment (The Unabridged Garnett Translation) (Annotated)Fyodor Dostoevsky24h 25m4.5 (15.4K)$1.99 · $0.00
AngelAnita Waller10h 30m4.6 (672)$30 · $0.00
The BorderDon Winslow29h 8m4.5 (35.7K)$53 · $0.00
FlashpointCatherine Coulter11h 38m4.5 (11.6K)$29 · $0.00
Tracking Stolen SecretsLaura Scott5h 37m4.5 (2.2K)$12 · $0.00
The Gothic Works of Edgar Allan Poe (Illustrated Edition)Edgar Allan Poe21h 5m4.5 (2.9K)$1.99 · $0.00
The Man in the Brown Suit & They Came to BaghdadAgatha Christie15h 43m4.6 (495)$33 · $0.00
Fang Si-Chi's First Love ParadiseYi-Han Lin8h 25m4.5 (4K)$26 · $0.00
The Rose CodeKate Quinn16h 2m4.4 (493.7K)$33 · $0.00
No Woman Left BehindJulie Moffett8h 49m4.5 (3K)$25 · $0.00
WhistlerAnn Patchett10h 45m4.6 (4.6K)$29 · $0.00
Demon CopperheadBarbara Kingsolver21h 3m4.5 (949.4K)$46 · $0.00
To Kill a MockingbirdHarper Lee12h 18m4.5 (7.4M)$29 · $0.00
Remarkably Bright CreaturesShelby Van Pelt11h 17m4.4 (1.7M)$29 · $0.00
Desperate MeasuresBrenda Jackson8h 59m4.7 (670)$28 · $0.00
This Side of Paradise - The Original 1920 Edition (Annotated)F. Scott Fitzgerald11h 30m4.6 (1.6K)$2 · $0.00
War LordBernard Cornwell13h 21m4.6 (33.1K)$33 · $0.00
The Great Gatsby: Original 1925 Edition (An F. Scott Fitzgerald Classic NovelFrancis Scott Fitzgerald4h 45m4.6 (9.3K)$15 · $0.00
Something Like LoveBeverly Jenkins10h 21m4.6 (2.7K)$29 · $0.00
Black History CollectionFrederick Douglass, Harriet Ann Jacobs, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois27h 9m4.6 (2.6K)$15 · $0.00
The Old Man and the Sea (Annotated)Ernest Hemingway4h 27m4.6 (1.4K)$2 · $0.00
White HotIlona Andrews13h 18m4.5 (136.9K)$5 · $0.00
The Ghost by the Billabong (The Matilda Saga, #5)Jackie French14h 58m4.6 (773)$33 · $0.00
Cast in BloodMichelle Sagara16h 35m4.6 (607)$33 · $0.00
The Captain Blood Trilogy (Annotated)Rafael Sabatini29h 20m4.6 (1K)$3 · $0.00
Ship of the Line (Annotated)Cecil Louis Troughton Smith11h 13m4.6 (1K)$2 · $0.00
The George Orwell CollectionGeorge Orwell24h 46m4.5 (14.4K)$10 · $0.00
ShivajiRanjit Desai25h 13m4.6 (3.1K)$24 · $0.00
Time RegainedMarcel Proust15h 38m4.5 (9.2K)$2 · $0.00
Driving ForceElle James4h 58m4.6 (407)$20 · $0.00
You may also like
THE MAKING OF AMERICANS (Family Saga)Gertrude Stein53h 4m3.6 (1.2K)$2.99 · $0.00
A Death in the FamilyJames Agee10h 31m4.0 (21.5K)$20
ChildhoodLeo Tolstoy4h 8m3.9 (14K)$0.60 · $0.00
To the LighthouseVirginia Woolf7h 48m4.0 (262.3K)$1 · $0.00
My LifeRichard Wagner38h 33m4.1 (287)$1.99 · $0.00
ChildhoodLeo Tolstoy4h 10m3.9 (13.8K)$2.30 · $0.00
The Tragic MuseHenry James22h 43m4.2 (368)$2.30 · $0.00
WhiteoaksMazo de la Roche14h 38m4.2 (1.3K)$2 · $0.00
Period Piece. A Cambridge Childhood (Annotated)Gwen Raverat8h 2m4.6 (1.2K)$2 · $0.00
A Tale of Love and DarknessAmos Oz23h 51m4.2 (18.1K)$25 · $0.00
The Four FeathersA. E. W. Mason11h 42m4.0 (7.7K)$3
Leonardo da VinciSigmund Freud2h 45m3.8 (2.8K)$3.50 · $0.00
We The AnimalsJustin Torres3h 6m3.9 (38.8K)$18 · $0.00
The Last SeptemberElizabeth Bowen9h 4m3.6 (5.6K)$20 · $0.00
ChildhoodLeo Tolstoy4h 8m3.9 (2.9K)$4.70 · $0.00
Swann's WayMarcel Proust22h 6m4.2 (88.5K)$1.99 · $0.00
The Marriage Trap: The new 2026 story of rebellion and freedom from the bestselling author of The Radio Hour. For readers of Lessons in ChemistryVictoria Purman8h 55m4.0 (266)$29 · $0.00
DublinersJames Joyce8h 24m4.0 (230K)$1 · $0.00
THE MAKING OF AMERICANS (Family Saga) (Annotated)Gertrude Stein53h 14m3.5 (608)$2 · $0.00
Mahatma GandhiSantiago Machain6h 22m$19 · $0.00