Milan Kundera Signed Firsts: A Reference

Milan Kundera (1929–2023) was the Czech-born, Paris-based novelist whose works explore the intersections of politics, philosophy, and sexuality with a playful, essayistic style. The Unbearable Lightness of Being made him one of the most widely read “serious” novelists of the 1980s. Kundera famously insisted on controlling his own translations and forbade biographical criticism, making him as distinctive a literary personality as a prose stylist.

Key Titles

• The Joke (Žert, 1967 / English 1969, revised 1992) — His debut novel.
• The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (1979 / English 1980)
• The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984) — The Kundera trophy.
• Immortality (1990)
• Slowness (1995) — First novel written in French.
• Identity (1998), Ignorance (2000), The Festival of Insignificance (2014)

Signed Copy Market Values

Kundera’s death in 2023 fixed the supply. He was notoriously private and signed infrequently.

• Signed Unbearable Lightness English first: $300–$800
• Signed other English firsts: $100–$300
• Signed French editions: $150–$400
• Unsigned English firsts: $20–$60