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A Plight of Not Belonging
A classic short story which metaphoralizes the protaganist as a person transformed into an entity which no longer fits into the world in which he lives.It tells the story of a sudden outcast in such a way that allows the reader to interpret in one's own way, a deeper meaning. ... Read more

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This letter is the closest that Kafka came to setting down his autobiography. He was driven to write it by his father's opposition to his engagement with Julie Wohryzek. The marriage did not take place; the letter was not delivered. ... Read more

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A letter to his father and to himself
I believe Kafka's never saw this letter. I believe Kafka gave it to his mother. In it though he unravels the relationship which more than any other shaped his life and his work. Kafka was the only son in a family in which there were three daughters. There were tremendous expectations of him, many of which he details in the letter, which he by his nature and character could not respond to and realize. His father was a giant of energy, a masterful strong rude and overpowering business- person. Beside him Franz Kafka was the perpetual child and weakling the paralyzed one. In this letter Kafka not only interprets his father's expectations and understanding of the son- he indicates how and why his own path must necessarily diverge from that of his father. He is on the surface explaining the relationship to his father but he is also unraveling it to himself. He is trying that is to come to terms with who he himself is, and put this in a form that his father would be able to understand. But again Kafkalike the letter is not delivered and the writer is never to be understood. And yet what aching and beauty what wisdom and depth of thought there is in the analysis.
For myself this letter opened in some ways a gate to understanding my relationship with my own father. The Letter has always meant a tremendous amount to me, and seemed to me one of the truly great personal communications in world - literature.
A masterpiece in its revelation of the father- son relationship, in all its pain difficulty fear, guilt and love.

Essential reading to understand Kafka's works
This translation should be required reading for anyone interested in the works of Kafka. It contains the keys to unlock a new level of understanding; how Kafka's relationship with his father shaped both Kafka himself and everything that he wrote. Kafka sees his father as a raging authoritarian figure from whom he can never escape, and whose strength of character and sense of irreproachableness leaves Kafka crushed. In Franz's own words: "my writing dealt with you."

On another level, the letter carries a thought-provoking message to fathers everywhere. Kafka ably demonstrates how in both small incidents and in traits of character, the way that a father relates to his son can have a profound impact on the son that may affect him for his whole life.

On a third level, this new translation succeeds wonderfully in conveying the emotion and hurt that Kafka feels. It is hard not to be moved when reading it. The spirit of the letter is perfectly captured, and the flow of the prose allows it to shine through the logical arguments presented. For many of us, this is as close to Kafka as we're ever likely to get.

See also the following independent review in the New York Sun: http://www.nysun.com/arts/man-and-his-maker-kafkas-letter-to-my-father/81457/ ... Read more

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An original and insightful study
Marthe Robert Kafka 's principal translator into French has written an original and insightful study of his work. She calls it a ' psychological biography' Its chapters are: The Censored Name, the Identity Crisis, the Road Back, the Thorbush, Before the Law, Escape , Fiction and Reality.
Here is a small sample of her analysis"If one attempts to deal with him from the standpoint of a theologician, of a philosopher, of even of a literary critic, it turns out that Kafka is never where the concepts want him tobe; he never quite corresponds to one's view of his interests and aims, especially not in the realm , so inadequately described, of his relations with Judaism and the Jews, where every writer tends to appropriate him according to the writer's own requirements. Assimilated Jew, anti- Jewish Jew, anti- Zionist, Zionist, believer, atheist- Kafka was indeed all of these at different times in his development, sometimes all at once( he wrote Investigations of a Dog in 1922 at a time when he had almost become a militant Zionist) but none of these characteizations throw the least light on the underlying reasons for his struggle , or the form it took, or explains how it was possible for the pathological indecision of a constantly torn man to give rise to the most rigorous modern art, the only art, perhaps in which modernity and rigor have really been combined. " p.27
One more point . In her first chapter Robert connects Kafka's hiding , censoring of his name not only with his Jewish identity but with the Biblical prohibition of writing the Divine Name, of spelling it out explicitly. This is the kind of suggestive insight that makes this work a valuable one. ... Read more

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Das Urteil ist eine 1912 entstandene Erzählung von Franz Kafka. Das Werk stellt einen Vater-Sohn-Konflikt im Zusammenhang mit der bevorstehenden Heirat des Sohnes dar. Ein erfolgreicher junger Kaufmann wird von seinem Vater nicht anerkannt. Der Vater spricht ein Todesurteil über den Sohn aus und dieser vollzieht es tatsächlich. ... Read more

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The Heart of the Wood
"One of a handful of the most consistently interesting and insightful books on Kafka ever written. More than a study of Kafka's writing, this book is informed by a powerful, lucid philosophy for the interpretation of literature. It deserves the widest possible readership." -Geoffrey Waite

"In American German Studies today, there is simply no one at all comparable to Corngold in either intensity of theoretical breadth. This book is an absolutely central work of criticism, one which restlessly and fruitfully re-combines those old terms 'theory' and 'practice.' helping us to conceptualize what the act of reading involves now."

Hardback: cloth over boards with a sewn binding in dustjacket. 321 pp. Index. ... Read more

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Franz Kafka (3. Juli 1883 in Prag, damals Österreich-Ungarn;3. Juni 1924 in Kierling bei Klosterneuburg, Österreich; selten auch tschechisch František Kafka) war ein deutschsprachiger Schriftsteller, der aus einer bürgerlichen jüdischen Kaufmannsfamilie stammt. Sein Hauptwerk bilden neben drei Romanen bzw. Romanfragmenten (Der Process, Das Schloss und Der Verschollene) zahlreiche Erzählungen sowie der Briefwechsel mit Felice Bauer und Milena Jesenská. Zum größeren Teil wurden Kafkas Werke erst nach seinem Tod und gegen seinen erklärten Willen von Max Brod, einem Schriftstellerkollegen und engen Freund, veröffentlicht. Sie übten bleibenden Einfluss auf die Weltliteratur des 20. Jahrhunderts aus.

Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was one of the major fiction writers of the 20th century. He was born to a middle-class German-speaking Jewish family in Prague, Austria-Hungary, presently the Czech Republic. His unique body of writing—much of which is incomplete and which was mainly published posthumously—is considered to be among the most influential in Western literature. His stories, such as The Metamorphosis (1915), and novels, including The Trial (1925) and The Castle (1926), concern troubled individuals in a nightmarishly impersonal and bureaucratic world. Biographers have said that it was common for Kafka to read chapters of the books he was working on to his closest friends, and that those readings usually concentrated on the humorous side of his prose. Milan Kundera refers to the essentially surrealist humour of Kafka as a main predecessor of later artists such as Federico Fellini, Gabriel García Márquez, Carlos Fuentes and Salman Rushdie. For García Márquez, it was as he said the reading of Kafka's The Metamorphosis that showed him "that it was possible to write in a different way."- Wikipedia ... Read more

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Als Josef K. am Morgen seines 30. Geburtstags in seinem Zimmer aufwacht, bringt ihm die Köchin seiner Zimmervermieterin nicht sein Frühstück, wie sie es sonst jeden Tag tut. K. wird stattdessen von zwei Männern überrascht und festgehalten. Die beiden wenig auskunftsfreudigen Zeitgenossen teilen ihm mit, dass er von nun an verhaftet sei. Die beiden Männer geben an, von einer Behörde zu kommen, und behaupten, sie könnten und dürften ihm nicht sagen, warum er verhaftet sei.

Trotz seiner Verhaftung darf K. sein Leben in vermeintlicher Freiheit fortführen, da laut beider Männer keinerlei Fluchtgefahr bestehe. K. nimmt zunächst einen üblen Scherz seiner Kollegen an. Im Laufe der Zeit bemerkt er jedoch, dass dies nicht der Fall ist. K. wird zu Gerichtsverhandlungen vorgeladen, bekommt Besuche an seinem Arbeitsplatz und wird zu Hause angerufen. Immer tiefer gerät K. in ein (für Kafka typisches) alptraumhaftes Labyrinth einer surrealen Bürokratie. Im Laufe der Kapitel dringt K. immer tiefer in dieses System ein, er erfährt einiges über die Hierarchien der „Gerichte“, doch nie gelangt er zur höchsten Instanz, nie erfährt er, worin seine „Schuld“ besteht. Gleichzeitig dringt das System immer weiter in K.s Leben ein. Auch entpuppen sich nach und nach immer mehr Menschen in K.s Leben als Teile dieses Räderwerks, wie K. selbst. Er lernt außerdem andere Personen kennen, von denen er sich Auskunft erhofft über das „Gericht“, das ihn anklagt. Immer mehr beschäftigt K. sich mit seinem Prozess, obwohl er das Gegenteil beabsichtigt. In der Realität tun sich Abgründe auf, die sich ausdehnen. Scheinbare Zufälle führen K. weiter von einem Glied im System zum nächsten. ... Read more

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Franz Kafka's visionary fiction is an unforgettable rendering of the anxiety and alienation prevalent in 20thcentury Western society. The Trial and Metamorphosis are among the works discussed in this volume.

This title, Franz Kafka, part of Chelsea House Publishers’ Modern Critical Views series, examines the major works of Franz Kafka through full-length critical essays by expert literary critics. In addition, this title features a short biography on Franz Kafka, a chronology of the author’s life, and an introductory essay written by Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities, Yale University. ... Read more

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His best letters
These are Kafka's best letters . He pours forth his broken soul to the woman who can and does understand him. His language is painful and beautiful. Milena the Czech woman married to another Jewish man is too trapped by her life. Their love is impossible also because Kafka within himself is impossible. The letters are powerful and bring a sense of compassion and loss for these two remarkable people who each in his own way ( Kafka through his tuberculosis) Milena ( in a concentration camp) lose their lives when young.

Kafka wrote as a way of not 'turning aside into nothingness'
These letters written by Franz Kafka to Milena comprise my most loved Kafka letters. Writing to Felice, his former fiancée, he was less mature - could he be said to have been less himself? In 'Letters to Milena' he asks at one point (I paraphrase) 'Is it you I really love or the existence that you give to me?' Couldn't any of us ask this question of the person we really love and of ourselves when we really love? I think Milena, whom his biographers considered a far more fitting companion for Kafka than Felice; Milena who in Berlin, years younger than the ageless Franz, living desperately and often pennilessly with her loved hurtful husband (who frequently withheld money from her, so that at one point she worked as a railway porter) - this woman who 'lived her life down to the depths' and who was a writer in her own right - really did give Kafka existence in the years they wrote and too infrequently met. She did not let the nervous, procrastinating and intensely self referential Kafka hide from her - which may be part of why he loved her - and when he is finally prevailed upon to visit her, deliciously drolly reassuring her that if he does get onto a train he will likely as not get off it at the right stop, she does not wait until they each arrive at the much discussed meeting point to actually meet him, but goes unflinchingly to his hotel, cutting off Kafka's apprehensions, making everything in their meeting easy, amicable and precious to him.

'If only it were possible to go to Berlin, to become independent, to live from one day to the next, even to go hungry, but to let all one's strength pour forth instead of husbanding it here, or rather - instead of one's turning aside into nothingness!' Kafka wrote in his diaries in 1914 whilst still engaged to Felice. Milena, for a little while, allowed him to feel he was living, the tragedy was that concurrently Kafka's terrible illness was progressing, depriving him of time and physical energy. He was a man who needed so much time, and who had so painfully little, but, notwithstanding his not infrequent sensation of 'turning aside into nothingness', Kafka lived, he lived his whole life as few, very few, ever do, these letters are a testimony to his intense aliveness and to his genius as a writer. I envy Milena, even though she knew eventually she could not leave her husband for Kafka, she was still the woman who received the treasure of these letters. And yet - a reader has to, bewildered, witness and realize the inevitability and sadness of the eventual cessation of Kafka and Milena's communication, witness Kafka poignantly losing his plans for their future and the idea that Milena can live with him, witness both withdrawing and both mourning.

'M was here', Kafka wrote (again in his diaries, 8th May 1922, when he was more or less housebound with his illness) 'won't come again; probably wise and right in this, yet there is perhaps still a possibility whose locked door we both are guarding lest we open it, for it will not open of itself.'

I treasure this book. I've read and reread it so that the pages are all dog-eared, falling out and closely annotated all over. To anyone who finds themselves drawn to Kafka I'd say get your hands on a copy or two. ... Read more

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Not for the fainthearted or impatient
Dark and quirky, but worth watching.The Deal, by Lewis Black, is a chilling view of deal making at a level where all the obvious rewards have already been attained. The extremes to which they are willing to go to experience something new would shock even the Epicureans.

... Read more

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Five classic stories by Kafka with an active table of contents. Works include:

Before the Law
The Hunter Gracchus
Up in the Gallery
An Imperial Message
Jackals and Arabs ... Read more

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Let's start with the end.
Near the end of the novel there is a
very important clue to understand the novel. K.'s last words are 'Like a dog!' That's right, like a dog and not like a human being. At the very last moment K. finally understands that during his whole life he was only interested in what he could GET from other people and he never was concerned with what he could GIVE to other people. He lived like an animal so to speak, like a dog.

And that's the reason why he's "arrested". Let's not forget that the word "arrest" also means that someone has ceased to grow up and to develop his character. In a certain way K. is still a child. This second meaning of the word arrest is the reason why no one can tell him why he's arrested, every time that K. asks that question. K. himself is the only person who can answer that question: I'm too selfish and I have to change my ways. There is a chapter that illustrates what I mean.

When K. and his uncle arrive at the house of K.'s lawyer, the door is opened by the lovely maid Leni. K. is obviously very keen on her. There is also a senior clerk of the Court. He has taken a special interest in the trial of K.. They all meet in the bedroom of the lawyer who has a weak heart and has to stay in bed. When the important discussion is about to begin, a noise is heard from the kitchen. K. says that he will go to the kitchen to see what's wrong. With a sigh of relief he closes the door behind him. He sees pretty Leni and forgets all about the important meeting. K. likes to flirt with Leni. At a given moment she says:"All you have to do is to confess that you are guilty". With feminine insight she knows what is wrong with K.. He's guilty of childish egoism. Meanwhile the three others are still waiting in the bedroom of the lawyer.

Another important moment in the novel is when a priest hails K. in the church where he was supposed to meet someone. The priest is a symbol for K's conscience. At a certain moment during their conversation K. asks: "Are you angry with me?" and the priest answers: "I'm not angry with you, but can't you see what lies ahead of you?" At this point K. is very close to his redemption, his problems could be solved at this very moment, if only he had the nerve or the courage to continue this conversation. But no, he says "it's time for me to go back to my work. I'm already late.
Now K. is inexorably doomed. ... Read more

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One of the great works of the twentieth century, Kafka's The Trial has been read as a study of political power, a pessimistic religious parable, or a crime novel where the accused man is himself the problem. In it, a man wakes up one morning to find himself under arrest for an offence which is never explained. Faced with this ambiguous but threatening situation, Josef K. gradually succumbs to its psychological pressure. One of the iconic figures of modern world literature, Kafka writes about universal problems of guilt, responsibility, and freedom. He offers no solutions, but provokes his readers to arrive at meanings of their own. Mike Mitchell's translation captures Kafka's distinctive style. Based on the best available German text, it includes not only the main text but the chapters Kafka left incomplete. In his Introduction, Ritchie Robertson considers the many puzzles in the novel and the different interpretations to which the novel has been subjected. The book also includes a Biographical Preface, an up-to-date bibliography, and a chronology of Kafka's life. ... Read more

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"The Metamorphosis" (original German title: "Die Verwandlung") is a short novel by Franz Kafka, first published in 1915. It is often cited as one of the seminal works of fiction of the 20th century and is widely studied in colleges and universities across the western world.The story begins with a traveling salesman, Gregor Samsa, waking to find himself transformed into an insect. ... Read more

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this is a great story
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

Kindle edition of Kafka's philosophical novel. Great ebook!
... Read more