Two tales of seduction, separated by more than 200 years, interweave and oscillate between the sublime and the comic in this, Milan Kundera`s lightest novel. In the 18th century, the marvellous Madame de T. summons a young nobleman to her chateau and gives him an unforgettable lesson in the art of seduction and the pleasures of love. In the same chateau at the end of the 20th century, a hapless intellectual, distracted by his desire to be the center of attention at a convention of entomologists, misses the opportunity to be with a beautiful stranger and suffers the ridicule of his peers. Ruminating on how the pleasures of slowness have disappeared in today`s fast-paced, future-shocked world, Kundera explores the secret bond between slowness and memory and the connection between our era`s desire to forget and the way we have given ourselves over to the demon of speed.