Franz Kafka

Virtually unknown during his lifetime, Franz Kafka is now one of the world’s most widely read and discussed authors. His nightmarish novels and short stories have come to symbolize modern man’s anxiety and alienation in a bizarre, hostile, and dehumanized world. This vision is most fully realized in Kafka’s masterpiece, “The Metamorphosis,” a story that is both harrowing and amusing, and a landmark of modern literature. Bringing together some of Kafka’s finest work, this collection demonstrates the richness and variety of the author’s artistry. “The Judgment,” which Kafka considered to be his decisive breakthrough, and “The Stoker,” which became the first chapter of his novel Amerika, are here included. These two, along with “The Metamorphosis,” form a suite of stories Kafka referred to as “The Sons,” and they collectively present a devastating portrait of the modern family. Also included are “In the Penal Colony,” a story of a torture machine and its operators and victims, and “A Hunger Artist,” about the absurdity of an artist trying to communicate with a misunderstanding public. Kafka’s lucid, succinct writing chronicles the labyrinthine complexities, the futility-laden horror, and the stifling oppressiveness that permeate his vision of modern life.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 0553213695 / 9780553213690 "As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. He was laying on his hard, as it were armor-plated, back and when he lifted his head a little he could see his domelike brown belly divided into stiff arched segments on top of which the bed quilt could hardly keep in position and was about to slide off completely. His numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of his bulk, waved helplessly before his eyes." With it's startling, bizarre, yet surprisingly funny first opening, Kafka begins his masterpiece, The Metamorphosis. It is the story of a young man who, transformed overnight into a giant beetle-like insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. A harrowing—though absurdly comic—meditation on human feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and isolation, The Metamorphosis has taken its place as one of the most widely read and influential works of twentieth-century fiction. As W.H. Auden wrote, "Kafka is important to us because his predicament is the predicament of modern man."

Written in 1914 but not published until 1925, a year after Kafka’s death, The Trial is the terrifying tale of Josef K., a respectable bank officer who is suddenly and inexplicably arrested and must defend himself against a charge about which he can get no information. Whether read as an existential tale, a parable, or a prophecy of the excesses of modern bureaucracy wedded to the madness of totalitarianism, The Trial has resonated with chilling truth for generations of readers.

The last book published during Kafka's lifetime, A Hunger Artist (1924) explores many of the themes that were close to him: spiritual poverty, asceticism, futility, and the alienation of the modern artist. He edited the manuscript just before his death, and these four stories are some of his best known and most powerful work, marking his maturity as a writer. In addition to "First Sorrow," "A Little Woman," and "Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse People" is the title story, "A Hunger Artist," which has been called by the critic Heinz Politzer "a perfection, a fatal fulfillment that expresses Kafka's desire for permanence." The three volumes Twisted Spoon Press has published: Contemplation, A Country Doctor, and A Hunger Artist are the collections of stories that Kafka had published during his lifetime. Though each volume has its own distinctive character, they have most often appeared in English in collected editions. They are presented here as separate editions, in new translations by Kevin Blahut, each with its own illustrator from the Prague community.

In no other work does Kafka reveal himself as in the Letters to Milena, which begin essentially as a business correspondence but soon develop into a passionate "letter love." Milena Jesenská was a gifted and charismatic woman of twenty-three. Kafka's Czech translator, she was uniquely able to recognize his complex genius and his even more complex character. For the thirty-six-year-old Kafka, she was "a living fire, such as I have never seen." It was to her that he revealed his most intimate self. It was to her that, after the end of the affair, he entrusted the safekeeping of his diaries. Newly translated, revised, and expanded, this edition contains material previously omitted because of its extreme sensitivity. Also included for the first time are letters and essays by Milena Jesenská, herself a talented writer as well as the recipient of these documents of Kafka's love, anxiety, and despair.

Kafka's first and funniest novel, Amerika tells the story of the young immigrant Karl Rossmann who, after an embarrassing sexual misadventure, finds himself "packed off to America" by his parents. Expected to redeem himself in this magical land of opportunity, young Karl is swept up instead in a whirlwind of dizzying reversals, strange escapades, and picaresque adventures. Although Kafka never visited America, images of its vast landscape, dangers, and opportunities inspired this saga of the "golden land." Here is a startlingly modern, fantastic and visionary tale of America "as a place no one has yet seen, in a historical period that can't be identified," writes E. L. Doctorow in his new foreword. "Kafka made his novel from his own mind's mythic elements," Doctorow explains, "and the research data that caught his eye were bent like rays in a field of gravity."

The Basic Kafka Mass Market Paperback FranzKafka PocketBooks

An essential new translation of the author’s complete, uncensored diaries—a revelation of the idiosyncrasies and rough edges of one of the twentieth century’s most influential writers. “An invaluable addition to Kafka’s oeuvre.”— The New York Times An essential new translation of Franz Kafka’s complete, uncensored diaries—a revelation of the idiosyncrasies and rough edges of one of the twentieth century’s most important, influential, and visionary writers Dating from 1909 to 1923, Franz Kafka’s Diaries contains a broad array of writing, including accounts of daily events, assorted reflections and observations, literary sketches, drafts of letters, records of dreams, and unrevised texts of stories. This volume makes available for the first time in English a comprehensive reconstruction of Kafka’s handwritten diary entries and provides substantial new content, restoring all the material omitted from previous publications—notably, names of people and undisguised details about them, a number of literary writings, and passages of a sexual nature, some of them with homoerotic overtones. By faithfully reproducing the diaries’ distinctive— and often surprisingly unpolished—writing as it appeared in Kafka’s notebooks, translator Ross Benjamin brings to light not only the author’s use of the diaries for literary invention and unsparing self-examination but also their value as a work of genius in and of themselves.

These diaries cover the years 1910 to 1923, the year before Kafka’s death at the age of forty. They provide a penetrating look into life in Prague and into Kafka’s accounts of his dreams, his feelings for the father he worshipped, and the woman he could not bring himself to marry, his sense of guilt, and his feelings of being an outcast. They offer an account of a life of almost unbearable intensity.From the Trade Paperback edition. The Diaries of Franz Kafka 1910-13 translated from the German by Joseph Kresh The Diaries of Franz Kafka 1914-23 translated from the German by Martin Greenberg with the cooperation of Hannah Arendt

In the bizarre world of Franz Kafka, salesmen turn into giant bugs, apes give lectures at college academies, and nightmares probe the mysteries of modern humanity’s unhappiness. More than any other modern writer in world literature, Kafka captures the loneliness and misery that fill the lives of 20th-century humanity. The Metamorphosis and Other Stories reveals the author’s extraordinary talent in a variety of forms—prose poems, short stories, sketches, allegories, and novelettes—and showcases the straight–faced humor, startling psychological insight, and haunting imagination for which he is revered as a modern master. This collection of new translations brings together the small proportion of Kafka's works that he thought worthy of publication. It includes "Metamorphosis", his most famous work, an exploration of horrific transformation and alienation; "Meditation", a collection of his earlier studies; "The Judgement", written in a single night of frenzied creativity; "The Stoker", the first chapter of a novel set in America and a fascinating occasional piece, and "The Aeroplanes at Brescia", Kafka's eyewitness account of an air display in 1909. Together, these stories reveal the breadth of Kafka's literary vision and the extraordinary imaginative depth of his thought.

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Kafka published two collections of short stories in his lifetime, A Country Doctor: Little Tales (1919) and A Hunger Artist: Four Stories (1924). Both collections are included in their entirety in this edition, which also contains other uncollected stories and a selection of posthumously published works that have become part of the Kafka canon. Enigmatic, satirical, often bleakly humorous, these stories approach human experience at a tangent: a singing mouse, an ape, an inquisitive dog, and a paranoid burrowing creature are among the protagonists, as well as the professional hunger artist. The tales are among Kafka's best-known, haunting and compelling satires on the human condition, on art and artists, and on life itself, which complement his major fictions.Translated by the award-winning Joyce Crick, the book includes an invaluable introduction, notes, and other editorial material by renowned Kafka scholar Ritchie Robertson. There is also a Biographical Preface, an up-to-date bibliography, and a chronology of Kafka's life. This volume completes an Oxford World's Classics set of five Kafka works, in distinctive complementary cover designs.About the Series For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Franz Kafka met Felice Bauer in August 1912, at the home of his friend Max Brod. Energetic, down-to-earth, and life-affirming, the twenty-five-year-old secretary was everything Kafka was not, and he was instantly smitten. Because he was living in Prague and she in Berlin, his courtship was largely an epistolary one--passionate, self-deprecating, and anxious letters sent almost daily, sometimes even two or three times a day. But soon after their engagement was announced in 1914, Kafka began to worry that marriage would interfere with his writing and his need for solitude. The more than five hundred letters Kafka wrote to Felice--through their breakup, a second engagement in 1917, and their final parting in the fall of that year, when Kafka began to feel the effects of the tuberculosis that would eventually claim his life--reveal the full measure of his inner turmoil as he tried, in vain, to balance his desire for human connection with what he felt were the solitary demands of his craft.

This is the bilingual edition with German verso, English recto.

Chronicles the tragicomic misadventures of Karl Rossmann, a young immigrant, who comes to New York to seek his fortune

Translated and with a preface by Mark HarmanLeft unfinished by Kafka in 1922 and not published until 1926, two years after his death, The Castle is the haunting tale of K.’s relentless, unavailing struggle with an inscrutable authority in order to gain access to the Castle. Scrupulously following the fluidity and breathlessness of the sparsely punctuated original manuscript, Mark Harman’s new translation reveals levels of comedy, energy, and visual power, previously unknown to English language readers.

Librarian's Note: this is an alternate cover edition - ISBN 10: 0805210555 (ISBN 13: 9780805210552) The Complete Stories brings together all of Kafka’s stories, from the classic tales such as “The Metamorphosis,” “In the Penal Colony,” and “A Hunger Artist” to shorter pieces and fragments that Max Brod, Kafka’s literary executor, released after Kafka’s death. With the exception of his three novels, the whole of Kafka’s narrative work is included in this volume. 

اولین بار ترجمۀ داستان «گروه محکومین» نوشتۀ فرانتس کافکا در سال ۱۳۲۷ در ایران منتشر شد. این کتاب در دو قسمت نوشته شده بود. بخش نخست به مقاله «پیام کافکا» نوشتۀ صادق هدایت اختصاص داشت -که به بررسی زندگی، اندیشه‌ها و آثار کافکا می‌پردازد- و بخش دوم به ترجمۀ حسن قائمیان از داستان «گروه محکومین». این ترجمه را انتشارات مختلفی همچون امیرکبیر و نگاه در طی سال‌های مختلف تجدید چاپ کرده‌اند.

Translated by PEN translation award-winner Joachim Neugroschel, The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, and Other Stories has garnered critical acclaim and is widely recognized as the preeminent English-language anthology of Kafka's stories. These translations illuminate one of this century's most controversial writers and have made Kafka's work accessible to a whole new generation. This classic collection of forty-one great short works -- including such timeless pieces of modern fiction as "The Judgment" and "The Stoker" -- now includes two new stories, "First Sorrow" and "The Hunger Artist."

Phantastisches und Unheimliches, Paradoxes und Absurdes: Kafka beschreibt die unglaublichsten Sachverhalte nüchtern und minutiös. Grenzbereiche werden ausgeleuchtet, existenzielle Grund- oder Ausnahmesituationen in unvergessliche Bilder gefasst. Seine Texte haben die gleiche Intensität wie Träume. »Es ist das Schicksal und vielleicht auch die Größe dieses Werks, dass es alle Möglichkeiten darbietet und keine bestätigt« (Albert Camus). Mit den Werkbeiträgen aus Kindlers Literatur Lexikon. Mit Daten zu Leben und Werk, exklusiv verfasst von der Redaktion der Zeitschrift für Literatur TEXT + KRITIK.

This edition contains the English and German text. (Letter to His Father / Brief an den Vater) Letter to Father is considered the key to the literary work of Franz Kafka (1883-1924). This impressive testimony of a dramatic father-son conflict is an exceptional document in world literature. At once an indictment and a self-analysis, it gives the reader an insight into the complex inner life of its author. In a vivid captivating style, Kafka attempts to settle accounts with his authoritarian father, who appeared to him so tyrannical and omnipotent that he could write: "Sometimes I imagine the map of of the world spread out and you stretched diagonally across it."

Unearthed by the master Kafka biographer and scholar Reiner Stach and translated by the peerless Michael Hofmann, this collection comes as a prize and a joy.  Some stories are several pages long; some run about a page; a handful are only a few lines long.  Lost to English-language readers until now, all are marvels: even the most fragmentary texts are revelations. Has any writer given so many pleasures and mysteries, and both so unstintingly.

Written in 1914, The Trial is one of the most important novels of the twentieth the terrifying tale of Josef K., a respectable bank officer who is suddenly and inexplicably arrested and must defend himself against a charge about which he can get no information. Whether read as an existential tale, a parable, or a prophecy of the excesses of modern bureaucracy wedded to the madness of totalitarianism, Kafka's nightmare has resonated with chilling truth for generations of readers. This new edition is based upon the work of an international team of experts who have restored the text, the sequence of chapters, and their division to create a version that is as close as possible to the way the author left it.

'When Gregor Samsa woke one morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed into some kind of monstrous vermin.'With a bewildering blend of the everyday and the fantastical, Kafka thus begins his most famous short story, The Metamorphosis. A commercial traveller is unexpectedly freed from his dreary job by his inexplicable transformation into an insect, which drastically alters his relationship with his family. Kafka considered publishing it with two of the stories included here in a volume to be called Punishments. The Judgement also concerns family tensions, when a power struggle between father and son ends with the father passing an enigmatic judgement on the helpless son. The third story, In the Penal Colony, explores questions of power, justice, punishment, and the meaning of pain in a colonial setting. These three stories are flanked by two very different works. Meditation, the first book Kafka published, consists of light, whimsical, often poignant mood-pictures, while in the autobiographical Letter to his Father, Kafka analyses his difficult relationship in forensic and devastating detail. For the 125th anniversary of Kafka's birth comes an astonishing new translation of his best-known stories, in a spectacular graphic package.Table of MeditationThe JudgementThe MetamorphosisIn the Penal Colony(Autobiographical) Letter to his Father

"Vad var det då för människor? Vad talade de om? Vilken myndighet tillhörde de? K. levde ju ändå i en rättsstat, överallt härskade fred, inga lagar var upphävda, vem vågade överfalla honom i hans bostad? Han var alltid böjd för att ta allting så lätt som möjligt, att inte tro det värsta redan var ett faktum, att inte träffa några anstalter för framtiden ens om allt tedde sig hotfullt. Men i detta syntes ett sådant beteende inte riktigt." Josef K häktas en dag utan att få veta vad han står anklagad för. Romanen igenom får vi följa hans väg genom rättsväsendets irrgångar och den alltmer absurda hanteringen av hans fall. Josef K:s desperation blir allt starkare och hans obegripliga rättsprocess och maktkampen på hans arbetsplats leder till en absurd och klaustrofobisk situation där han inte kan ta någonting för givet. Med förord av Steve Sem-Sandberg

La metamorfosis (Die Verwandlung, en su título original en alemán) es un relato de Franz Kafka, publicado en 1915 y que narra la historia de Gregorio Samsa, un comerciante de telas que vive con su familia a la que él mantiene con su sueldo, quien un día amanece convertido en un enorme insecto (aparentemente, un escarabajo, aunque no se identifica claramente en el texto).

About the Book "The Great Wall of China" ("Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer") is a short story written by Franz Kafka in 1917. It was not published until 1931, seven years after his death. Max Brod selected stories and published them in the collection Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer.

As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. He was laying on his hard, as it were armor-plated, back and when he lifted his head a little he could see his domelike brown belly divided into stiff arched segments on top of which the bed quilt could hardly keep in position and was about to slide off completely. His numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of his bulk, waved helplessly before his eyes.

As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. He was laying on his hard, as it were armor-plated, back and when he lifted his head a little he could see his domelike brown belly divided into stiff arched segments on top of which the bed quilt could hardly keep in position and was about to slide off completely. His numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of his bulk, waved helplessly before his eyes.

The aphorism eludes definition: it can appear to be a random jotting or a more polished observation. Whether arbitrary fragment or crystalline shard, an aphorism captures the inception of a thought. Franz Kafka composed aphorisms during two periods in his life. A series of 109 was written between September 1917 and April 1918, in Zürau, West Bohemia, while Kafka was on a visit to his sister Ottla, hoping for a brief respite following the diagnosis of the tuberculosis virus that would eventually claim his life. They were originally published in 1931, seven years after his death by his friend and literary executor Max Brod, under the title Betrachtungen über Sünde, Hoffnung, Leid, und den wahren Wag (Reflections on Sin, Hope, Suffering, and the True Way). The second sequence of aphorisms, numbering 41, originally appeared as entries in Kafka’s diary from January 6 to February 29, 1920. They, too, were published posthumously, under the title “Er”: Aufzeichnungen aus dem Jahr 1920 (“He”: Reflections from the Year 1920).   Kafka’s aphorisms are fascinating glimpses into the lure and the enigma of the form itself.

Nello scenario di una remota colonia penale, un illustre straniero – il Viaggiatore – viene condotto al cospetto di un macchinario all’apparenza singolare. Ancor più singolare è la sua funzione, che gli viene minuziosamente spiegata dall’Ufficiale incaricato di metterla in azione. L’apparecchio è il non plus ultra del concetto di giustizia, poiché attraverso un processo di scrittura è in grado di emettere una sentenza, a detta dell’esecutore, che più equa non si può: viene incisa sulla pelle del reo. A completare il quadro della situazione, il Soldato che tiene d’occhio l’ignaro Condannato, il quale assiste alla scena senza poter comprendere a cosa, a breve, andrà incontro. Un racconto che incarna l’essenza dell’immaginario kafkiano, carico di simbolismi e di richiami al complesso rapporto tra l’autore e la sua passione per la scrittura. Nella colonia penale in questione, la colpa e l’espiazione sfumano in una nube che intossica le credenze più radicate del Viaggiatore, nonché del lettore, in una spirale che lascia intravedere assurdità e turpitudini dell’animo umano.

THE METAMORPHOSIS (German: Die Verwandlung, also sometimes translated as The Transformation) is a novella by Franz Kafka, first published in 1915. It has been called one of the seminal works of fiction of the 20th century and is studied in colleges and universities across the Western world.The story begins with a traveling salesman, Gregor Samsa, waking to find himself trans¬formed (metamorphosed) into a large, monstrous insect-like creature. The cause of Gregor's transformation is never revealed, and Kafka himself never gave an explanation. The rest of Kafka's novella deals with Gregor's attempts to adjust to his new condition as he deals with being burdensome to his parents and sister, who are repelled by the horrible, verminous creature Gregor has become.

Esta no solo es una obra maestra de Kafka, es una novela clave, piedra de toque de la literatura del siglo XX.

New translation of the best stories by one of the twentieth century's greatest and most influential writers No one has captures the modern experience, its wild dreams, strange joys, its neuroses and boredom, better than Franz Kafka. His vision, with its absurdity and twisted humour, has lost none of its force or relevance today. This essential collection, newly selected and translated by Alexander Starritt, casts fresh light on Kafka's genius. Alongside brutal depictions of violence and justice are jokes and deceptively slight, mysterious fables. These unforgettable pieces reflect the brilliance at the core of Franz Kafka, arguably most fully expressed within his short stories. Together they showcase a writer of unmatched imaginative depth, capable of expressing the most profound reality with a wry smile.

El clima y la idea dramática que informan EL CASTILLO son los que nutren toda la obra narrativa de Franz Kafka (1883-1924): un mundo exterior que, pese a conservar todas las notas que lo hacen reconocible, es objeto de una mutación que lo transforma cualitativamente; una secuencia de acontecimientos incomprensible para quien la padece pero que esconde una necesidad ineluctable; la inoperancia, en fin, de la voluntad y el entendimiento humanos para comprender ese medio hostil y doblegarlo.

Uno de los documentos más curiosos y complicados que se hayan escrito jamás sobre un conflicto vital. Pese a su extensión de más de cien páginas, estaba destinada realmente al padre - la madre debía entregársela-; Franz alimentó durante un tiempo la esperanza de que esa carta aclararía su relación con el padre, penosamente interrumpida y dolorosamante cicatrizada. En realidad, antes se hubiera alcanzado lo contrario de los fines que llevaba la carta, y de ningún modo hubiera logrado Franz que el padre le entendiera. La madre, por su parte, tampoco entregó la carta a su destinatario, sino que la devolvió a Franz. acaso con algunas palabras de apaciguamiento..."

Il racconto più celebre di Kafka (edito nel ’16), è la storia grottesca del commesso viaggiatore Gregor Samsa che, un mattino, si ritrova trasformato in un insetto. Con estremo realismo Kafka (1883-1924) descrive l’irrompere, in un ambiente piccolo- borghese, di questo essere costretto a vivere sotto il letto e a nutrirsi di rifiuti. Un giorno, attirato dal suono del violino della sorella, Gregor compare tra i suoi. Il padre gli lancia una mela che lo ferisce. Dopo poco muore e finisce nella spazzatura.

Um belo dia, Josef K., um bem-sucedido gerente bancário, é subitamente preso no seu próprio quarto, sem saber porquê nem por quem. Vê-se então envolvido num labiríntico e absurdo processo que decorre secretamente em obscuras secretarias instaladas em sótãos, conduzido por juízes menores que têm a mera incumbência de o inquirir. Concebido em 1914, o romance O Processo constitui para Kafka a forma ideal para expressar a fragmentação do mundo e da realidade em que vive o homem moderno. A presente tradução é de Álvaro Gonçalves, a primeira em Portugal a ser feita a partir da versão alemã baseada no manuscrito original de Kafka, que anula as alterações introduzidas pelo amigo e testamenteiro do autor, Max Brod, na sua primeira edição de 1925.

In această nouă traducere în limba română, „Metamorfoza“ nu este doar un text esențial pentru cunoașterea și înțelegerea operei și a biografiei unui mare scriitor modern, ci este, mai degrabă, un manifest al poetului care cerea literaturii mai mult decât i se va cere vreodată. Ediția noastră cuprinde și un studiu introductiv despre „de ce nu trebuie desenată insecta” semnat de Lucian Pricop. În 1915, Kafka spunea că insecta nu trebuie desenată, nici măcar să nu se vadă la distanță. „Ca să fii poet trebuie să ai metafore puternice. Marii poeți au fost întotdeauna metaforici. Sunt cei care recunosc legăturile invizibile, chiar stabilesc legături între identitățile lucrurilor pe care nimeni nu ar fi capabil să le asocieze. Distanța și ținta unei metafore te fac mare poet.“ (Franz Kafka)

Aşa! strigă K. ridicînd braţele spre cer, căci descoperirea aceasta neaşteptată cerea spaţii ca să se exprime, sînteţi toţi, după cîte văd, funcţionari ai justiţiei, faceţi toţi parte din banda coruptă împotriva căreia vorbeam adineauri, v-aţi adunat toţi aici ca să mă auziţi şi să mă spionaţi, v-aţi prefăcut că sînteţi împărţiţi în două tabere ca să mă înşelaţi; m-aţi aplaudat numai ca să mă puneţi la încercare: aţi vrut să învăţaţi cum trebuie ademeniţi cei nevinovaţi. Ei bine, v-aţi ostenit degeaba: sau v-aţi amuzat văzînd cum cineva aştepta de la voi să apăraţi nevinovăţia, sau (dă-mi drumul, că te pocnesc! îi strigă K. unui bătrîn tremurător care se vîrîse prea mult în el) aţi învăţat realmente ceva. Oricum, vă felicit pentru frumoasa voastră meserie... Bandă de golani... vă dăruiesc toate interogatoriile!

A Metamorfose é a mais célebre novela de Franz Kafka e uma das mais importantes de toda a história da literatura. O texto coloca o leitor diante de um caixeiro-viajante - o famoso Gregor Samsa - transformado em insecto monstruoso. A partir daí, a história é narrada com um realismo inesperado que associa o inverosímil e o senso de humor ao que é trágico, grotesco e cruel na condição humana - tudo no estilo transparente e perfeito desse mestre inconfundível da ficção universal.

Kafka first made the acquaintance of Milena Jesenska in 1920 when she was translating his early short prose into Czech, and their relationship quickly developed into a deep attachment. Such was his feeling for her that Kafka showed her his diaries and, in doing so, laid bare his heart and his conscience. While at times Milena's 'genius for living' gave Kafka new life, it ultimately exhausted him, and their relationship was to last little over two years. In 1924 Kafka died in a sanatorium near Vienna, and Milena died in 1944 at the hands of the Nazis, leaving these letters as a moving record of their relationship.

«Alguien debía de haber calumniado a Josef K., porque, sin haber hecho nada malo, fue detenido una mañana.» Así empieza esta obra maestra de la literatura que fue publicada por primera vez en 1925 por Max Brod partiendo de los manuscritos que dejó Franz Kafka. Josef K., el protagonista, es acusado de un delito que nunca llegará a conocer y se ve envuelto en una maraña de la que no podrá salir. Nadie sabe quién dirige los engranajes que propician la detención y el posterior proceso. La situación en la que se encuentra el protagonista, a pesar de ser aparentemente absurda, se nos hace muy verosímil. En la novela aparecen abogados, jueces, ujieres, guardianes... que, en conjunto, dan una imagen impactante de los mecanismos de la Ley y del Estado. En Josef K. irá creciendo un sentimiento de culpa que conllevará su sumisión ante el proceso y que dará lugar al inesperado final del libro... Las ilustraciones son del artista alemán Bengt Fosshag.

Before the Law (German: Vor dem Gesetz) is a parable contained in the novel The Trial (German: Der Prozess), by Franz Kafka. Before the Law was published in Kafka's lifetime, first in the 1915 New Year's edition of the independent Jewish weekly Selbstwehr, then in 1919 as part of the collection Ein Landarzt (A Country Doctor). The Trial, however, was not published until 1925, after Kafka's death.

El desaparecido es la primera y menos conocida de las tres novelas —todas inacabadas— de Kafka. Escrita en su mayor parte entre finales de 1912 y comienzos de 1913, fue publicada póstumamente por Max Brod bajo el título de América, pero Kafka dejó claro su propósito de titularla El desaparecido, indicativo de la condición que determina la atribulada andadura de su protagonista, el joven Karl Rossman, que desde su llegada a Nueva York, expulsado del seno de su familia, se encuentra ya perdido, «desaparecido», no identificable para los demás ni para sí mismo. Según declaraciones de Kafka, esta es la novela más esperanzadora que había escrito. «El desaparecido no puede ser considerada en modo alguno una "novela de formación", sino una obra en la que se teje, página a página, una perplejidad inocente e inocua, sin meta ni compromisos morales de ningún tipo». —Jordi Llovet

XX a. austrų rašytojo romanas apie žmogaus ir visuomenės, žmogaus ir aplinkinio pasaulio santykį. Pagrindinis romano herojus Jozefas K., susidūręs su negailestinga teismo mašina, beprasmiškai žūsta.

La Métamorphose révèle une vérité méconnue, les conventions disparaissent, les masques tombent. Le récit qui porte ce titre est un des plus pathétiques et des plus violents que Kafka ait écrits ; les effets en sont soulignés à l'encre rouge, les péripéties ébranlent les nerfs du lecteur. C'est l'histoire, «excessivement répugnante», dit l'auteur, d'un homme qui se réveille changé en cancrelat. Cette transformation est un châtiment imaginaire que Kafka s'inflige. Et son personnage est celui qui ne peut plus aimer, ni être aimé : le conflit qui se déroule dans une famille bourgeoise prend une ampleur mythique. Seuls quelques éléments comiques ou grotesques permettent de libérer de l'oppression du cauchemar.

Oikeusjuttu kuvaa pienen ihmisen ahdistusta nimettömien, kasvottomien vallanpitäjien heiteltävänä – kokemusta jota yhä useampi tämän päivän ihminen elää. Franz Kafka (1883–1924) ei katsonut koskaan saaneensa Oikeusjuttua valmiiksi, vaan määräsi sen – muiden käsikirjoitustensa tavoin – poltettavaksi kuolemansa jälkeen. Kun hän kirjoitti teosta talvella 1916–17, hänen terveytensä heikkeni kriittisesti; sitemmin hän vietti pitkiä aikoja parantoloissa hakemassa apua tuberkuloosiinsa. Oikeusjutun käsikirjoitusta ei Kafkan kuoltua kuitenkaan hävitetty, ja romaani ilmestyi vuonna 1925.

Die Entstehung dieses nicht vollendeten Werkes – vom Sommer 1914 bis zum Ableben des Autors im Juni 1924 – war von besonders prägnanten Phasen in Kafkas Leben gekennzeichnet. Im Juli 1914 fand die Auflösung der Verlobung mit Felice Bauer statt. Sowohl die Verlobung als auch die Entlobung waren für Kafka mit starken Schuldgefühlen verbunden. Eine abschließende Aussprache hierzu im Berliner Hotel Askanischer Hof in Anwesenheit von Freunden hatte Kafka als „Gerichtshof“ empfunden. Unmittelbar danach begann er mit der Arbeit zum Process. Der Erste Weltkrieg brach aus. Ab dem Herbst 1914 wohnte Kafka erstmals unabhängig von seinen Eltern in einem eigenen Zimmer. Seine Arbeit schritt zunächst gut voran, in zwei Monaten entstanden rund 200 Manuskriptseiten, kam aber – wie bei ihm häufig – bald zum Erliegen. Er beschäftigte sich nun u. a. mit der Erzählung In der Strafkolonie. Der Process entstand nicht in linearer Abfolge: Es lässt sich nachweisen, dass Kafka zuerst das Eingangs- und das Schlusskapitel niederschrieb, danach schrieb er an einzelnen Kapiteln parallel weiter. Anfang 1915 wurde der Roman dann unvollendet beiseitegelegt und nie vollendet. Kafka schrieb den Process in Hefte, die er auch für die Niederschrift anderer Texte verwendete. Diese Blätter hat er später herausgetrennt und sie nach Kapiteln und Fragmenten neu sortiert, ohne dabei eine bestimmte Reihenfolge der Teile festzulegen. (aus wikipedia.de)

Esta no solo es una obra maestra de Kafka, es una novela clave, piedra de toque de la literatura del siglo XX.

Copertina alternativa qui. Mai come nella lettera al padre, scritta nel novembre del 1919, affidata alla madre senza tuttavia giungere al destinatario, Kafka ci ha dato un ritratto così lucido di sé. E molti dei motivi che vengono toccati in questa confessione anche spietata - primo fra tutti quello di "un immenso senso di colpa" - non possono che ricordare i suoi personaggi più famosi. Quello che qui viene messo in scena è un vero e proprio conflitto. Figura che incarna un'autorità assoluta, che "ha l'aspetto enigmatico dei tiranni, la cui legge si fonda sulla loro persona, non sul pensiero"; agli occhi di Kafka il padre appare come il tipico rappresentante di un mondo da cui egli invece si sente escluso: pratico, utilitaristico, ben lontano dalle sue aspirazioni. Così, in pagine di forte impatto emotivo, Kafka svela la sua natura di "figlio disederato" e proscritto, non compreso nella vocazione di scrittore, inquieto e in cerca di conferme quanto il suo avversario ostenta sicurezza. Nel saggio posto in appendice Georges Bataille indaga in modo provocatorio sui momenti di questa contesa. L'esperienza di Kafka diventa anche occasione per interrogarsi sul senso ultimo della letteratura. Forse nessun altro scrittore ha saputo mostrare come quel senso sia tutt'uno con la vita stessa.

»Allzu leicht ist man geneigt, auf den Wegen der Ausdeutungen zu vergessen, daß es sich im Fall Kafkas in erster Linie um einen Dichter handelt, um einen Prosakünstler - einem Kleist oder Hebel verwandt und vergleichbar -, der nur mit höchsten Maßstäben zu messen oder der, genauer, selber ein Maßstab ist. Seine Gestalten und ihr Verhalten sind bei aller Exzentrizität des Standpunktes, von dem aus sie gesehen werden, von einer so unmittelbar bezwingenden Richtigkeit und Evidenz, daß ihnen unerschöpfliche Sinnfülle zuzuströ-men scheint. Weit davon entfernt, einsinnig allegorisch oder symbolisch gemeint zu sein, stellen sie sich vielmehr als wunderbar genau erfundene Detektoren zur Erkundung des Verborgenen dar. Nur darf man sie nicht bei ihren Worten nehmen wollen, die jeweils bereits entstellt aufgefangene, nach einem fehlerhaften Code entschlüsselte Meldungen, immer nur Ansichten, Meinungen, Vermutungen sind. Ihre Zeugniskraft liegt allein in dem Anschein der Wahrheit, der an ihnen sichtbar wird: ›Unsere Kunst ist ein von der Wahrheit Geblendetsein: Das Licht auf dem zurückweichenden Fratzengesicht ist wahr, sonst nichts.‹« Friedhelm Kemp

En LA METAMORFOSIS Y OTROS RELATOS DE ANIMALES, Franz Kafka (1883-1924) manifiesta la desesperanza respecto a su destino personal y el pesimismo frente a lo humano entendido genéricamente. Para él, el hombre está inmerso en un círculo vicioso: la pérdida identidad (la animalización del hombre), síntoma de la técnica y la burocratización, produce como reacción, en un movimiento pendular, el abandono a lo instintivo, a lo irracional, a lo visceralmente comunitario (la humanización del animal). Sin embargo, al recurrir a animales, Kafka consigue distanciarse suficientemente de lo narrado como para mostrar el dolor, el aislamiento y la desorientación sin resultar patético. Si las fábulas del racionalismo y la ilustración tomaban a los animales como figuras alegóricas para transmitirnos una enseñanza útil y moral, aquí no se encuentran moralejas. Sin embargo, su ausencia no es el resultado de una búsqueda premeditada de oscuridad por parte del autor, sino la constatación de que el mundo ha tomado un cariz que ya no nos permite hallarlas.

Written by the author of The Metamorphosis and The Trial—one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century—between 1909 and 1924, these letters offer a unique insight into the workings of the Kafka family, their relationship with the Prague Jewish community, and Kafka's own feelings about his parents and siblings. "Kafka's touching letters to his sister, when she was a child and as a young married woman, are beautifully simple, tender, and fresh." —The New York Review of BooksA gracious but shy woman, and a silent rebel against the bourgeois society in which she lived, Ottla Kafka was the sibling to whom Kafka felt closest. He had a special affection for her simplicity, her integrity, her ability to listen, and her pride in his work. Ottla was deported to Theresienstadt during World War II, and volunteered to accompany a transport of children to Auschwitz in 1943. She did not survive the war, but her husband and daughters did, and preserved her brother's letters to her.  They were published in the original German in 1974, and in English in 1982.

"These magnificent letters, meticulously set up and annotated, show us aspects of Kafka that were only hinted at in earlier collections and help us trace his development from unhappy young law student and insurance administrator to novelist and short-story writer of originality and genius."--Publishers Weekly"When we turn from Kafka's books to his letters we have a series of self-portraits desperate and courageous, always eager and warm in feeling; the self is lit by fantasy and, of course, by drollery. His candor is of the kind that flies alongside him in the air. He was a marvelous letter writer."--V.S. Pritchett, The New York Review of Books"These letters are like messages from the underground, from the dark side of the moon, presenting aspects of Kafka that would have died with his friends. We meet alternately Kafka the artist, friend, son, father figure, marriage counselor, literary critic, insurance official. . . . A full portrait, and a significant contribution to Kafka scholarship."--Smithsonian Magazine"An inside view of a writer who, perhaps more than any other novelist or poet in our century, stands at the center of our culture."--Robert Alter, The New York Times Book Review

Josef K., condannato a morte per una colpa inesistente, è vittima del suo tempo. Sostiene interrogatori, cerca avvocati e testimoni, soltanto per riuscire a giustificare il suo delitto di "esistere". Ma come sempre avviene nella prosa di Kafka, la concretezza incisiva delle situazioni produce, su personaggi assolutamente astratti, il dispiegarsi di una tragedia di portata cosmica. E allora tribunale è il mondo stesso, tutto quello che esiste al di fuori di Josef K. è processo: non resta che attendere l'esecuzione di una condanna da altri pronunciata.

As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. He was laying on his hard, as it were armor-plated, back and when he lifted his head a little he could see his domelike brown belly divided into stiff arched segments on top of which the bed quilt could hardly keep in position and was about to slide off completely. His numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of his bulk, waved helplessly before his eyes.

A partir de la figura de George Orwell, la gran pensadora de nuestro tiempo nos insta a la reflexión en un libro urgente, hermoso y esperanzador. «En el año 1936, un escritor plantó unas rosas». Así comienza el nuevo libro de Rebecca Solnit, una reflexión sobre un jardinero apasionado que fue, además, la voz más importante del siglo XX frente a la mentira y el George Orwell. A partir de su inesperado encuentro con aquellas rosas que Orwell cultivó hace más de ochenta años y que siguen hoy rebosantes de vida en su jardín, la autora indaga en ese aspecto más desconocido de la vida del escritor para descubrir en qué medida su devoción por las flores puede iluminar sus compromisos éticos y estéticos como escritor y como luchador antifascista. Con su característica capacidad para establecer conexiones inesperadas, Solnit entremezcla la vida y la obra literaria del autor de 1984 , y su vínculo con la naturaleza y el mundo de los sentidos, con otras historias como las de las rosas de la fotógrafa Tina Modotti, la obsesión de Stalin por hacer crecer limones en condiciones de frío extremas, la Guerra Civil española, la crítica de Jamaica Kincaid al colonialismo o la industria del cultivo de rosas en Colombia, y da pie a una reflexión sobre el placer, la belleza, el lenguaje, la escritura, la esperanza y la verdad como actos de resistencia. ENGLISH DESCRIPTION Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction Finalist for the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography “An exhilarating romp through Orwell’s life and times and also through the life and times of roses.” —Margaret Atwood “A captivating account of Orwell as gardener, lover, parent, and endlessly curious thinker.” —Claire Messud, Harper's “Nobody who reads it will ever think of Nineteen Eighty-Four in quite the same way.” — Vogue A lush exploration of politics, roses, and pleasure, and a fresh take on George Orwell as an avid gardener whose political writing was grounded by his passion for the natural world “In the spring of 1936, a writer planted roses.” So be-gins Rebecca Solnit’s new book, a reflection on George Orwell’s passionate gardening and the way that his involvement with plants, particularly flowers, illuminates his other commitments as a writer and antifascist, and on the intertwined politics of nature and power. Sparked by her unexpected encounter with the roses he reportedly planted in 1936, Solnit’s account of this overlooked aspect of Orwell’s life journeys through his writing and his actions—from going deep into the coal mines of England, fighting in the Spanish Civil War, critiquing Stalin when much of the international left still supported him (and then critiquing that left) to his analysis of the relationship between lies and authoritarianism. Through Solnit’s celebrated ability to draw unexpected connections, readers are drawn onward from Orwell‘s own work as a writer and gardener to encounter photographer Tina Modotti’s roses and her politics, agriculture and illusion in the USSR of his time with forcing lemons to grow in impossibly cold conditions, Orwell’s slave-owning ancestors in Jamaica, Jamaica Kincaid’s examination of colonialism and imperialism in the flower garden, and the brutal rose industry in Colombia that supplies the American market. The book draws to a close with a rereading of Nineteen Eighty-Four that completes Solnit’s portrait of a more hopeful Orwell, as well as offering a meditation on pleasure, beauty, and joy as acts of resistance.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing many of these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

The Burrow" (German: "Der Bau") is an unfinished short story by Franz Kafka in which a mole-like being burrows through an elaborate system of tunnels it has built over the course of its life. The story was published posthumously in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer (Berlin, 1931). The first English translation appeared in The Great Wall of China. Stories and Reflections (New York: Schocken Books, 1946. Translated by Willa and Edwin Muir).

"Investigations of a Dog" (German: "Forschungen eines Hundes") is a short story by Franz Kafka written in 1922. It was published posthumously in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer (Berlin, 1931). The first English translation by Willa and Edwin Muir was published by Martin Secker in London in 1933. It appeared in The Great Wall of China. Stories and Reflections (New York: Schocken Books, 1946).[1] Told from the perspective of a dog, the story concerns the nature and limits of knowledge, by way of the dog's inquiries into the practices of his culture. "Investigations of a Dog" was written in September and October 1922, soon after Kafka ended work on his unfinished novel The Castle. Similar to other Kafka stories such as "A Report to an Academy", "Josephine the Singer", and "The Burrow", the protagonist is an animal.

Sul balcone della pensione Ottoburg di Merano, dove si era recato per un soggiorno di cura, Kafka scrisse, a partire dall'aprile del 1920, le prime lettere a Milena Jesenská Pollak, una giovane traduttrice ceca che aveva conosciuto a Praga. Amici e amiche così la descrivono: "Fu prodiga di tutto in misura incredibile: della vita, del denaro, dei sentimenti ... Non considerava vergogna avere sentimenti profondi. L'amore era per lei un che di chiaro, di ovvio". Kafka ne completa il ritratto: "Lei è un fuoco vivo come non ne ho mai visti". Prima di Milena ci furono altre donne nella vita di Kafka, ma nessun'altra riuscì a scandagliare così in profondità l'animo di un uomo costretto all'ascesi non per vocazione o come scelta di un atto eroico, ma per l'incapacità di scendere a compromessi. Le Lettere a Milena sono la cronistoria di un amore complesso, profondo e che già prima di iniziare sembrava destinato a finire.

لكنْ لمْ يَكُنْ قد جالَ بِبالِ غريغور أنّهُ سَيُخيفُ أحدًا ما، وعلى الخُصوص أختَه. فهو كان، فحسب، قد بدأ يَسْتدير ليلتحِقَ بغرفته، لكنّ حَرَكَتَه تلك نَتَجَ عنها أمر مثير، فنظرا لسوء حالته، وجد نفسَهُ مُضطرّا، من أجل إتمام نِصْف الدّورة، أنْ يَسْتعين بتحريكِ رأسِه، وهكذا كان يرْفعُه، المرّة تلو الأخرى، لكنّ رأسَه، في كلّ مرّة، كان يسقط ويرتطِم بالأرضِيّة. وتوقّف غريغور، وأجال بصرَه حواليه. وبدا له أنّ نواياه الحسنةَ قد اتّضَحتْ.

اولین بار ترجمۀ داستان «گروه محکومین» نوشتۀ فرانتس کافکا در سال ۱۳۲۷ در ایران منتشر شد. این کتاب در دو قسمت نوشته شده بود. بخش نخست به مقاله «پیام کافکا» نوشتۀ صادق هدایت اختصاص داشت -که به بررسی زندگی، اندیشه‌ها و آثار کافکا می‌پردازد- و بخش دوم به ترجمۀ حسن قائمیان از داستان «گروه محکومین». این ترجمه را انتشارات مختلفی همچون امیرکبیر و نگاه در طی سال‌های مختلف تجدید چاپ کرده‌اند.

De gedaanteverwisseling hoort tot het weinige werk dat Kafka zelf aan de drukpers heeft toevertrouwd, zij het na lange aarzeling. Eerst wilde hij een trits verhalen publiceren, De zoons, waarin behalve De gedaanteverwisseling ook De stoker en Het vonnis zouden figureren De stoker (het eerste hoofdstuk van de postume roman Amerika) werd vervolgens vervangen door In de strafkolonie, waarbij de titel in Straffen werd veranderd. Tenslotte heeft Kafka alle vier de verhalen toch maar apart laten verschijnen, naast zijn bundels Beschouwing, Een plattelandsdokter en Een hongerkunstenaar. De gedaanteverwisseling is dus eigenlijk een apart boek, en het verhaal van Gregor Samsa, die als straf voor een denkbeeldige schuld in een enorm insect verandert en vervolgens ook als zodanig wordt behandeld, is van zo'n verpletterende kracht dat er weinig romans tegenop kunnen.

In the bizarre world of Franz Kafka, salesmen turn into giant bugs, apes give lectures at college academies, and nightmares probe the mysteries of modern humanity’s unhappiness. More than any other modern writer in world literature, Kafka captures the loneliness and misery that fill the lives of 20th-century humanity. The Metamorphosis and Other Stories reveals the author’s extraordinary talent in a variety of forms—prose poems, short stories, sketches, allegories, and novelettes—and showcases the straight–faced humor, startling psychological insight, and haunting imagination for which he is revered as a modern master. In this brilliant new translation, prize–winning translator Joachim Neugroschel preserves the delicate balance, rich timbre, and wondrous language of Kafka’s original works. In addition to "The Metamorphosis", this collection includes "Early Stories", "Contemplation", "The Judgement", "The Stoker", "In the Penal Colony", and "A Country Doctor".

Written in 1914 but not published until 1925, a year after Kafka’s death, The Trial is the terrifying tale of Josef K., a respectable bank officer who is suddenly and inexplicably arrested and must defend himself against a charge about which he can get no information. Whether read as an existential tale, a parable, or a prophecy of the excesses of modern bureaucracy wedded to the madness of totalitarianism, The Trial has resonated with chilling truth for generations of readers.