Kafka, Franz

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We Live in a Kafkaesque World
Let's start with the end.
"without having done anything wrong, he was arrested one fine morning'
Engrossing but Empty
The Law Is a Gas

The Trial
Franz Kafka
Manufacturer: Schocken
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

The Castle: A new translation based on the restored text
The Complete Stories
The Metamorphosis (Bantam Classics)
The Plague
Amerika

ASIN: 0805210407
Release Date: 1995-03-28

Amazon.com

A terrifying psychological trip into the life of one Joseph K., an ordinary man who wakes up one day to find himself accused of a crime he did not commit, a crime whose nature is never revealed to him. Once arrested, he is released, but must report to court on a regular basis--an event that proves maddening, as nothing is ever resolved. As he grows more uncertain of his fate, his personal life--including work at a bank and his relations with his landlady and a young woman who lives next door--becomes increasingly unpredictable. As K. tries to gain control, he succeeds only in accelerating his own excruciating downward spiral.

Book Description

Written in 1914, The Trial is one of the most important novels of the twentieth century: 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.

But until this edition, English-speaking readers have been able to read Kafka's masterpiece only in a translation of the 1925 German edition that was edited by Kafka's friend and literary executor, Max Brod, from an unfinished manuscript. Both Brod's edition and its 1937 translation by Willa and Edwin Muir have long been considered flawed.

This new edition is based upon the widely acclaimed 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.

In his brilliant translation, Breon Mitchell masterfully reproduces the distinctive rhythms and wordplays of Kafka's prose, revealing a novel that is as full of energy and power as it was when it was first written.

From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews:

We Live in a Kafkaesque World.......2007-05-27

I thought The Trial worked well as a commentary about the oppressiveness of the legal system in a corrupt society or as a commentary about someone's guilt that keeps bothering them. It shows the Kafkaesque world as being an oppressive, absurd one in which the accused becomes helpless before a court that makes decisions by personal influence, rather than on objective evidence. The court attempts to make K. helpless by keeping him off balance with many baffling situations which do not make sense and by frustrating him with their slothful pace. Furthermore, the court is all pervasive and owns everything. The accused becomes dependent on lawyers and spends all his time on the case. A Kafkaesque world is one of helplessness brought on by absurdity, oppressiveness, and unpredictability that weakens the will of the accused.

Personal influence on and experience with the court officials and lawyers is what will determine the outcome of the case, not what the evidence is. Uncle Leni suggests K. should use his "influential friends" to help his case. He complains that Joseph has been rude by leaving the presence of the lawyer and head clerk of court to seduce the lawyer's mistress while he tries to influence them to his nephew's favor. He says that K. is dependent on the lawyer for the outcome of his case. What really matters is "...counsel's personal connection with officials of the Court; in that lay the chief value of the defense" . In another scene, the painter explains that K.'s case will be determined by the influence his helpers have on the court, not on the evidence that he brings to the court. The painter urges K. not confuse personal experience with the written law; the painter's personal experience is what really matters, not what is written in the law about the innocence of the accused.

Secrecy, ambiguity, confusion, and indefiniteness are strategies used by the court to keep the accused helpless, off-kilter, and anxious. The accused wonders when the trial will ever begin or end. The lawyer Huld admits that he does not know what the charges are and will not be able to find out what they might be until later. The court is based on secrecy and "remoteness from the populace" which leads to absurdity and corruption. It is impossible to determine the hierarchy of the court as a whole and the subordinate officials do not know what is going on in the higher courts because of secrecy. This makes it hard to understand individual cases because of the disjointed nature of the system. The judges do not know what happens to the case after they have ruled on it and it is sent to the higher offices. Keeping the accused unsure of how they stand with the court leads to a feeling of helplessness. Accused people learn early on that is better to conform to the procedures of the court rather than urge reform because this would upset the vengeful officials and would possibly make the system more ruthless. Officials are unforgiving of a trifle offense and then suddenly forgiving over a bold jest.

The wheels of justice turn so slowly that the final destination is never reached; all attempts to speed up the process are fruitless, even as the accused concentrates more time and effort on his case. Nothing is ever firmly completed; even lawyers may have the cases taken away from them after reaching a desired point. Then the accused would be out of the reach of the lawyer in some remote higher court and all the pleas that were completed become waste paper. In K.'s case, "...progress had always been made, but the nature of the progress could never be divulged". K. becomes dissatisfied with the slow process with which his case is proceeding and blames it on the lawyer. K. decides that he will fire the lawyer and petition the court daily to conclude his case with a "not guilty" verdict. K. becomes so engrossed in the case that he can no longer concentrate on his job.

The court is everywhere and owns everyone, especially those who are guilty. The painter says that the accused is always considered guilty by the court and nothing will change their minds. The painter also says that "...everything belongs to the court". The painter then says that his studio and all attics are part of the court as he shows him the doorway to the court that is part of his studio. K. concludes that he should "never be caught napping" because the court can appear in the most unlikely places.

The Trial seems to be the guilt-ridden hallucinations that come from Joseph K.'s own psyche. That would explain why courtrooms are in attics and punishment is carried out in an office closet. Joseph K. functions normally for a while and then suddenly a new improbable situation occurs regarding the guilt that he feels, but cannot justify. The priest tells K. a parable in which a man sits by the doorkeeper for the rest of his life by his own free will. Perhaps this refers to K's situation; he is caught in the legal system because he wants to be. Secondarily, the novel is a satire on the "injustice system" in which an innocent person is arrested and gets trapped in something he will never get out of.

Let's start with the end........2007-05-23

What is the story? K. is "arrested", "sentenced" and put to "death". I'm not spoiling anything because this novel is not really a story but a dreamlike description of an ordeal. What happens in the end is more or less irrelevant except for one thing. The last scene of the novel where K. is stabbed dead by two members of the "law enforcement", contains 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.

"without having done anything wrong, he was arrested one fine morning'.......2007-03-26

If Kafka is the greatest revealer of anxiety and guilt that Literature has ever known it is best exemplified in this novel. For the K. who is arrested one fine morning and about whom lies must have been told is the human being guilty and condemned, thrust into a universe of absurd judgment without having committed any crime commensurate to what he feels inside about himself.
The meanings of this text multiply as we think about them. They demand our rereading and reinterpretation without ever fully understanding them.
We are all guilty of original sin though none of us has committed any crime. And the way we live out our lives is the sentence and punishment for what we are not certain that we have not done.

Engrossing but Empty.......2007-01-26

I tend to like psychological books such as this, the exploration of human nature, whatever. I don't need a lot of action, in fact I'd prefer otherwise- I'd much rather have some in depth character development. On that account, this book is massively successful. There are few book that delve so thoroughly into the mindset of one character. The problem is, I never feel like there's a significant development or transformation of Josef's character. Each time he seems on the verge of enlightenment or personal realization, the narration turns to a new mundane description or detail. I kept waiting for something to happen, but it never did. No major plot occurence. No major character development. I hardly empathised with Josef because Kafka never gives you a real reason to. In the end, you're not really sure what the Trial was, but you don't care either.

The Law Is a Gas.......2007-01-25

Kafka was a master of examining the human condition through the surreal and the absurd, and here he delivers stark insight on the origins and legitimacy of law and order. Unfortunately, this novel was incomplete at the time of Kafka's death, and it shows. The book gets off to a stirring and disturbing start as the protagonist, Josef K, has been arrested by unidentified officers who refuse to tell him the nature of the charges, and he embarks on a bizarre quest through a barely legitimate legal system, not just trying to learn his fate but trying to figure out what he did to displease the authorities. Via the surreal legal apparatus as described in the story, Kafka effectively satirizes the weak foundations of legal and political power in modern societies, along with the human weaknesses of those who profess to have authority over others.

Unfortunately, after the brutal satire and mind-bending surrealism of the early parts of the novel, things begin to unravel for the reader, as it becomes fairly obvious that Kafka had not adequately fleshed out several thematic ideas and character developments. Conversations become interminable and directionless, while characters such as Block the businessmen and Huld the lawyer are poorly drawn mouthpieces for philosophical discussions, rather than empathetic human characters. The tail end of the novel also becomes unorganized with a very long detour into the fable of the gatekeeper (the "In the Cathedral" chapter) that badly disrupts the reader's interest in K's fate. The climax and conclusion as presented here return to the spooky surreality of the early portions of the novel, but are also under-written as compared to the more robust earlier chapters, leading to the suspicion that Kafka may not have meant for the book to be released in such an incomplete form. But aside from such readability issues, there's a reason this book is a classic, and that's because K's struggle through an absurdly unfair judicial process really casts a harsh light on how absurd real legal authority can be. [~doomsdayer520~]

Average customer rating:

Kafka's Complete Shorter Works
Kafka had it right
not bad, maybe kind of superfluous
An avid student's perspective
A review of the book, not the author.

The Complete Stories
Franz Kafka
Manufacturer: Schocken
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

The Trial
The Castle: A new translation based on the restored text
The Trial
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The Diaries of Franz Kafka (Schocken Classics Series)

ASIN: 0805210555
Release Date: 1995-11-14

Amazon.com

How many writers get their own adjective? The work of this terminally alienated master narrator of the subconscious demanded a new descriptor; I guess they gave up and just settled on "Kafkaesque." But if you ever wonder what the original Kafkaesque work was, take a look here. The book contains all of Kafka's short and longer stories -- everything but his three novels. Most of these stories weren't even published during the author's lifetime. The widely-anthologized The Metamorphosis is here, wherein Gregor Samsa awakes from uneasy dreams to find himself insectoidally transformed, as are equally lovely pieces like A Hunger Artist, A Country Doctor and A Little Woman.

Book Description

The only available collection that brings together all of Kafka's stories--those published during his lifetime and those released after his death.

Customer Reviews:

Kafka's Complete Shorter Works.......2007-04-11

This book contains almost all of Kafka's literary works, save his full length novels.

Kafka's writing is representative for a large portion of modern literature. Although one can classify his works as dealing with alienation, assimilation, inferiority, and insecurities, they are, on some level, impenetrable by interpretors. His prose is clear and easily readeable; however, the implications of his story remain troubelsome and confounding.

Kafka's writing style betrays expected norms of literature. In the metamorphisis, the protaganist Gregor Samsa awakens from his sleep to find himself changed into a beetle. The story is about the ramifications of the event, and the expected pinnacle, his transformation itself, is barely attended too. Furthermore, Samsa seems to take his transformation in stride. He recognizes the uniqueness of his case, but thoughts of his own insanity, nor the impossibility of the situation are hardly voiced. By giving us the absurd and simultaneously sidelining it, Kafka is able to focus on other issues. Samsa's "otherness" as a beetle, now being an existential given, leads us to explore how being "other" works in relationship to family and other acquantices.

Kafka is a truly marvelous writer, and if his writing seem paranoid and absurd, it adds to their literary quality. His concerns are not so unique as the positions his literary creations often find themselves in, and he provides an interesting voice on the conditions of modernity.

Kafka had it right.......2006-12-13

This is the most authoritative collection of Kafka's immortal short fiction; it includes the most respected translations of each story (mostly by Willa and Edwin Muir), and a fair introduction from John Updike.

Kafka was the greatest writer of short fiction of the modern era. Such stories as 'The Metamorphosis,' 'In the Penal Colony,' 'The Hunger Artist,' and 'The Great Wall of China' encapsulate the tyrannical, dehumanizing regimentation of the modern world. Kafka may be difficult to read, and the allegorical form is not enjoyable for everyone. However, it is impossible to not be drawn into the strange madness of 'The Hunger Artist,' or 'The Country Doctor,' surely two of the most terrifying works of literature of the period.

In many ways, Kafka was a precursor to the sort of self-reflexive artistry that would later be found in Beckett, Sartre, and Brecht; Kafka is always aware that he is working within the literary realm, and he knows that he cannot escape it. Therefore, (brilliantly), he turns it into an advantage, by intoning the mystical, the metaphysical, and the surreal. His characters are often animals, metaphors, or simply moods. This approach has its strengths, but only in the hands of a true master. Fortunately for us, Kafka was just that, in the truest sense: a master of form, and unity of content.

not bad, maybe kind of superfluous.......2006-08-16

I've had this Kafka volume for about six months now and I've enjoyed it thoroughly. The Metamophosis alone warrants high marks, but this collection thankfully includes countless stories from the breadth of Kafka's career, in essence providing context for his most famous work.

I can't corroborate reports of binding issues, mind has lasted perfectly. There's not much one can say about Kafka that has not already been said, really. The avid fan will, however, appreciate the depth of this volume, which, if anything, helps to better elucidate the contents of the Metamorphosis itself, an indispensible story that seems, at times, a bit obfuscated.

An avid student's perspective.......2005-12-16

As a student of the German language, I must say that I view this text from a different perspective than most of its other readers. I selected this book merely to give me a broader understanding of Kafka's work in the short time available to me. It is an infinitely useful resource, gracefully translated and sturdily bound. I give it four stars simply because no English translation could possibly compare to the original German texts. For example, the German word "Gesetz" is translated "law" in the foundational parable "Before the Law." Though it is a literally accurate term, it does not capture the sense of the Gesetz as a semi-personal metaphysical absolute concerning the condition of the Universe. ("Gesetz" is something of a German equivalent for the Greek "Logos" with a capital "L".) Such slight aberrations are certainly common as they are an ineluctable consequence of translation; this aside, it is an excellent text that will always sit next to my German edition on the shelf of Modern Literature.

A review of the book, not the author........2005-12-11

Let me preface this very negative review with this: I love Kafka. He's a great author and the shortcomings of this book, this book in particular, are not his.

That said, DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK! Whatever archaic methods the publisher, Schocken, uses to bind its books is in desperate need of revitalization. Within 1 week of purchasing this book it was threatening to fall to pieces. Within 2 weeks it became 4 volumes--it yet threatens to break into a weekly series.

If you enjoy breaking the binding on your paperbacks for easy reading beware, this book is poorly bound and breaking the binding, or even opening it much past 180 degrees, will cause the book to break asunder.

Buy these stories, just don't buy them in this book. Look elsewhere even if you must buy 2 or 3 other books to get everything.

The Castle: A new translation based on the restored text

Average customer rating:

A contrarian viewpoint
Beware! This page refers to the Muir translation
Kafka's World
a good short story turned into an overlong novel
Motivation

The Castle: A new translation based on the restored text
Franz Kafka
Manufacturer: Schocken
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

The Trial
The Complete Stories
Amerika
The Trial
The Diaries of Franz Kafka (Schocken Classics Series)

ASIN: 0805211063
Release Date: 1998-12-15

Amazon.com

They are perhaps the most famous literary instructions never followed: "Dearest Max, my last request: Everything I leave behind me ... in the way of diaries, manuscripts, letters (my own and others'), sketches, and so on, [is] to be burned unread...." Thankfully, Max Brod did not honor his friend Franz Kafka's final wishes. Instead, he did everything within his power to ensure that Kafka's work would find publication--including making some sweeping changes in the original texts. Until recently, the world has known only Brod's version of Kafka, with its altered punctuation, word order, and chapter divisions. Restoring much of what had previously been expunged, as well as the fluid, oral quality of Kafka's original German, Mark Harman's new translation of The Castle is a major literary event.

One of three unfinished novels left after Kafka's death, The Castle is in many ways the writer's most enduring and influential work. In Harman's muscular translation, Kafka's text seems more modern than ever, the words tumbling over one another, the sentences separated only by commas. Harman's version also ends the same way as Kafka's original manuscript--that is, in mid-sentence: "She held out her trembling hand to K. and had him sit down beside her, she spoke with great difficulty, it was difficult to understand her, but what she said--." For anyone used to reading Kafka in his artificially complete form, the effect is extraordinary; it is as if Kafka himself had just stepped from the room, leaving behind him a work whose resolution is the more haunting for being forever out of reach.

Book Description

Arriving in a village to take up the position of land surveyor for the mysterious lord of a castle, the character known as K. finds himself in a bitter and baffling struggle to contact his new employer and go about his duties. As the villagers and the Castle officials block his efforts at every turn, K.’s consuming quest–quite possibly a self-imposed one–to penetrate the inaccessible heart of the Castle and take its measure is repeatedly frustrated. Kafka once suggested that the would-be surveyor in The Castle is driven by a wish “to get clear about ultimate things,” an unrealizable desire that provided the driving force behind all of Kafka’s dazzlingly uncanny fictions.

Translated by Willa and Edwin Muir

From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews:

A contrarian viewpoint.......2007-06-22

"And what did we do meanwhile?" (page 212)

If anything, this is what the book is about - not the bureaucracy that serves as an existentialist "MacGuffin" ( a plot device that motivates the characters but otherwise has little relevance to the story). This unfinished novel is about the daily, almost interminable, actions & interactions that take place while K. is waiting for some sort of recognition from the Castle officials - and even he is not at all clear what this would entail: "the only possible solution is that everything is unclear and insoluble...".

The novel could be amusingly retitled: "How to Not Win Friends & Influence People" - the narrative is a catalog of K.'s pettiness, his jealousies that often seem deranged, his self-centered rudeness to others, his Herculean abilities to misread just about every situation that he is involved in, his clumsy sexuality (rolling on the floor of the taproom with Frieda, just outside of Klamm's office).

The supposed enigma is that K. is searching for the "key" to the Castle - a key which probably does not exist. Whether he admits it to himself or not, K. is another one, like those he belittles around him, who are more interested in "stories about the Castle". And there are times when he seems to acknowledge this about himself - and yet, his pride, and his schemes to be recognized as worthy of the Castle, return.

As character after character tells K., in more or less the same words, "You are misinterpreting everything".

Beware! This page refers to the Muir translation.......2006-12-16

The reviews on this page refer to the newest edition and translation of The Castle, but the publication being advertised on this page is the old, error-filled Muir translation. Look inside the book and check the copyright information to avoid ordering by error. I made the mistake of ordering from this page and received the Muir translation, which I already had in an older printing.

Kafka's World.......2006-12-05

Based upon re-collections of Kafka's own experiences in Prague where a castle towers above the city, the seat of the government. Kafka made a trip to a small village in the mountains covered in snow and this is how the story begins. The characters and situations inspired by Kafka's real life relationships with his father and lovers, tenuous occupation as a lawyer and the plight of the Jews who feel alienated and persecuted from the Ghetto Josefov are all portrayed in The Castle.

K's dream nightmare is simply the dire poverty and humiliation which he and many of the villagers find themselves ensconced. Whether this is a result of the oppressive system or of a flaw in the villager's themselves is never made clear. The fragments of stories have unsatisfactory conclusions and still touch on interesting ideas, some of it is a very tedious read. However as Kafka skillfully evokes fear and pity, his game is to obfuscate and he discovers there are no answers to his questions.

The novel was meant to end in K's sickness and death and, just as in real life, Kafka never achieves his desire to become a full-time writer and becomes mired in a bureaucratic desk occupation.

a good short story turned into an overlong novel.......2006-08-27

Although I think many of the positive reviews accurately described this book, I felt like I got the point after one or two hundred pages. Certainly, this book describes how incomprehensible and annoying bureaucracy can be - but it wasn't all that readable.

Motivation.......2006-08-02

There are numerous ways to look at a work of Kafka, some of which have yet to be explored. Because Kafka's works were published post-mortem, we may never know his intended message. This should not detract from us finding our own meaning in the work.

Many people have sat for hours wondering what the benefit of their meaningless job is. K.'s nightmare is more in depth because he does not even know what his job is. He is a "land surveyor", yet he can not penetrate the walls of the castle he is supposed to survery. Nor, despite being called to survey land, does he have an assignment or an idea for the reason of his calling. Adding to this problem is the alterior motives of those around him. Even his own apparent girlfriend has a greater motive than K.'s love. With the hidden agendas that swirl around K. like a twister, nobody seems to know who is really in charge. In much the same way as K. is confused, the reader is certain to feel confusion.

The world that Franz Kafka created has never been duplicated by another writer. When you experience the endless maze of doors to nowhere that is Kafka's literary world, you will experience that unique nightmare of an isolated society and bureaucracy that haunted his dreams.

Average customer rating:

Let's start with the end.
oh so influential
Yaaawwwnnnnnnn...
Harrowing Portrait of Insane Man
New Translation Captures Humor of Kafka

The Trial
Franz Kafka
Manufacturer: Schocken
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

The Castle: A new translation based on the restored text
The Complete Stories
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Amerika: The Man Who Disappeared

ASIN: 0805209999
Release Date: 1999-05-25

Amazon.com

The story of The Trial's publication is almost as fascinating as the novel itself. Kafka intended his parable of alienation in a mysterious bureaucracy to be burned, along with the rest of his diaries and manuscripts, after his death in 1924. Yet his friend Max Brod pressed forward to prepare The Trial and the rest of his papers for publication. When the Nazis came to power, publication of Jewish writers such as Kafka was forbidden; Kafka's writings, many of which have distinctively Jewish themes, did not find a broad audience until after World War II. (Hannah Arendt once observed that although "during his lifetime he could not make a decent living, [Kafka] will now keep generations of intellectuals both gainfully employed and well-fed.") Among the current crop of Kafka heirs is Breon Mitchell, the translator of this edition of The Trial. Rather than tidying up Kafka's unconventional grammar and punctuation (as previous translators have done), Mitchell captures the loose, uneasy, even uncomfortable constructions of Kafka's original story. His translation technique is the only way to convey the comedy and confusion of this narrative, in which Josef K., "without having done anything truly wrong," is arrested, tried, convicted and executed--on a charge that is never disclosed to him. --Michael Joseph Gross

Book Description

Customer Reviews:

Let's start with the end........2007-05-24

oh so influential.......2007-02-05

Kafka's writing is like taking a trip into the most terrifying nightmare you have ever experienced.. He was so concious of the guilt that dominated the personality of modern man.. There is always someone watching always someone observing your every move - and to take it further there is a man watching that man who is watching you and so on infinitely.. This trial of man kind is the symptom of a successful marketing economy and its greatest disease to the nature of humanity..
K is a man who does not know what he did wrong or who accusses him - it appears that the beaurocratic chain is stretched so far that there is no direct access to the facts.. (think of Kafka's own occupation - and it becomes evident why his writing focuses so much on beaurocracy).. But, like 'the stranger' by albert camus, 'the trial' seems to address the spiritual sickness of modern man.. To think of Kafka as a spiritual writer seems almost preposterous - but I am not talking of the ordinary judeao-christian meaning of the word.. Kafka's world is a world where no man knows himself let alone his neighbor.. He can't see the tree for all of its leaves - he is blind and inept..
'the trial' hits like a ton of bricks and is a modern classic.. Another book you should read if you like 'the triral' is 'the castle' which I believe is even more dream-like.

Yaaawwwnnnnnnn..........2006-11-27

The opening sentence is the only thing I found interesting about this Novel. After the second chapter I get sick of the Qestions followed by almost next to no answers. I will try this book again when I am 30.

Harrowing Portrait of Insane Man.......2006-07-12

The Trial tells the story of a half balding post office clerk who questions his own existence after having lost an eye in a terrible tram accident. Terrifying, for its vivid portrayl of office clerks in Vienna in 1908, this story follows the realist tradition of many great writers. Fred, who is a middle aged man with dementia and an unknown skin disease, imagines a life away from the crumbling empire, which is about to enter World War 1 but he can not get away from the post office because of his stamp licking addiction. Great scene includes when he smashes a portrait of the king on the floor, realizing it was actually a painting by Renoir and when he imitates a squirrel in the park.

New Translation Captures Humor of Kafka.......2006-04-14

What startled me as I read this new translation, 20 years after reading the older one, is irony and humor Kafka suffused in his paranoid narrative. The Trial is my favorite piece of Kafka's fiction, including his shorter works, because it deals with a social reality and not metaphysical metaphor.

The farcical social reality reminds me of Thomas Berger's novels, especially Neighbors, Meeting Evil, and The Houseguest. If you want to read "Kafkaesque" fiction with a light touch set in contemporary America, check out those Berger masterpieces.

Average customer rating:

Classic bit of surreallist black humor
I'm speechless
Will the Real "Monstrous Vermin" Please Stand Up?
What if bugs have already built the bomb?
Strangely Kafkaesque

The Metamorphosis
Peter Kuper , and Franz Kafka
Manufacturer: Crown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts

ASIN: 1400047951
Release Date: 2003-08-05

Book Description

A brilliant, darkly comic reimagining of Kafka’s classic tale of family, alienation, and a giant bug.

Acclaimed graphic artist Peter Kuper presents a kinetic illustrated adaptation of Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. Kuper’s electric drawings—where American cartooning meets German expressionism—bring Kafka’s prose to vivid life, reviving the original story’s humor and poignancy in a way that will surprise and delight readers of Kafka and graphic novels alike.

Customer Reviews:

Classic bit of surreallist black humor.......2007-03-18

I just recently read this and am still attempting to digest and understand what Kafka was getting at with this story. Many other reviewers have weighed in with their opinions - please do go through them. I think what I feel to be the fact is that the story is indeed an indictment of the bourgeois lifestyle; Gregory literally becomes a bug after years of being treated like such by his boss and managers. This is a must-have for anyone reading/studying classical literature.

I'm speechless.......2007-03-16

I'm speechless. I've never seen a more interesting edition of Metamorphosis! There's 9 essays in that little volume besides the story itself and documents! I love it!
Actually, I don't like Kafka, he's nightmarish and anguishing, but I can't help admiring his imagination and his originality and his style. He describes our humanity so well.

Marilyn Grandi, Rosario, Argentinia

Will the Real "Monstrous Vermin" Please Stand Up?.......2007-02-20

Kafka's darkly comic masterpiece is sometimes reduced to just a flat, sentimental conflict between egocentric parents and a self-sacrificing son. While it's true that Gregor's parents and also his sister are in their self-centeredness morally "monstrous vermin," it's important to see that Kafka's irony doesn't completely exempt from probing that literally "monstrous vermin," the good son Gregor himself. The ironic Kafka reveals how willing a victim the undeniably used, neglected, and finally betrayed Gregor can be. To cite a signal instance, when Gregor misinterprets as true parental prudence his father's actually self-serving behavior in having secreted away some money after the failure of his business, we are meant to savor the irony of a too obedient son's blindness, not just his goodness.

While the Samsa family is made up of bourgeois knaves, the good Gregor is to a certain extent a bourgeois fool, not simply a put-upon, one-dimensional hero. In short - and I'd argue by artistic design - Gregor's intelligence is shown to inadequately match his filial piety. While his parents and ultimately his sister are regarded with a savage irony, he himself is the recipient of a subtler sort, a gentle irony easier to miss, though directed at him nevertheless.

"The Metamorphosis" is a comic tale of modern family life, though its underlying vision is markedly bleak. Looking out of his window at the city on display, Gregor sees "a desert." Lovelessness in such a place is the order of the day. Just about every other character in the text is his own carver or at best a tribalist of sorts. Shared community standards, humane or divine, which might work to break down the walls separating people, are conspicuously absent. Gregor's true singularity, that which sets him apart much more than his metamorphosis into a "monstrous vermin," is his capacity for love and loyalty, despite his living in such a world. At the root of Kafka's comic but unsettling vision is the clear intimation that in such a world and among its families and businesses a love and loyalty like Gregor's would never properly be valued nor find a worthy recipient.

What if bugs have already built the bomb?.......2007-01-21

Am I supposed to take this obvious ploy to garner sympathy for bugs at face value? I'm supposed to go, "Oh, I can't kill that bug because that might be a friend of mine just going through a funk right now." That's bug propoganda! If it's gotten this far -- and we're talking some 70-odd years at this point -- does that mean the bugs have already infiltrated our governments? I propose we make a point to go out and kill twice as many bugs as we have been. But what if that just accelerates our inevitable demise?

Strangely Kafkaesque.......2007-01-13

Kafka's Metamorphosis is more than a story. It is an exhibition of the existential and often absurd condition we experience as life.

Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning to find himself transformed into an unwanted creature, not an insect. This is an important distinction to make, as most reviewers will slavishly insist that Gregor woke up as a insect. The original German reads:

"Als Gregor Samsa eines Morgens aus unruhigen Träumen erwachte, fand er sich in seinem Bett zu einem ungeheueren Ungeziefer verwandelt."

Literally translated, Ungeziefer means vermin in German. Why is this an important distinction to make? The Metamorphosis centers around a man ostracized from society due to him not being wanted. Thus, portraying him merely as an insect, is an incomplete way of looking at Gregor's situation. Who wants vermin? Certainly not Gregor's family.

If you have not yet read The Metamorphosis, I envy you. The experience of reading the Metamorphosis for the first time was for me a seminal event in my life. Many of my preconceived ideas and insights regarding my own position in society have been influenced by this simple story. Even though Kafka wrote this short story in 1915, it is as relevant today as it was when Kafka conceived of the idea.

I have read the Metamorphosis at many times different phases in my life and it still amazes me that the story has the ability to address certain aspects of the human condition as accurately as it does. Each time I pick up the book, it is with a certain sense of dread, knowing that I will be forced to look within myself and confront some uncomfortable truths.

The Metamorphosis is open to many different interpretations and I'm sure you will find your own parallel as you are afforded a glimpse into the psyche of one of the most brilliant writers of any age.

Enjoy your existential crisis.

Best Short Stories (Dual-Language) (Dual-Language Book)

Average customer rating:

If you know some German and you like Kafka
A must for students of German literature
Great for German Students
Useful for students of both German and English
Great way to read Kafka's original writing

Best Short Stories (Dual-Language) (Dual-Language Book)
Franz Kafka
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0486295613

Book Description

Students of German language and literature will welcome this collection of 5 stories by one of the greatest modern writers. Included are "The Metamorphosis," "The Judgment," "In the Penal Colony," "A Country Doctor" and "A Report to an Academy." Original German texts accompanied by new, literal English translations on facing pages.

Customer Reviews:

If you know some German and you like Kafka.......2004-12-04

This book provides five short stories, with English and German versions provided side-by-side: German on the left hand side, English on the right. This can definitely save time with a dictionary (but can also be a crutch - so watch out and discipline yourself).

I'm assuming that you will be reading this to help study German. After about two years of a language you should be able to read a book on your own (slowly but surely), but many books will still be too complex. The stories here are at a level that could be read during a German 3 class, or higher. I don't recommend this book during a German 1 or 2 class. Instead try Graded German Reader by Cossgrove during German 1. (It is expensive, but is very good if you know almost no German.) At a German 2 level move onto comic books like Tintin and Asterix, which have more complex grammar but use pictures to reinforce. Oh and by the way try replacing .com with .de on large websites for the German version. (This works on Amazon!) Especially look for fashion pages and "light" reading. You can understand more than you think!

However, if you are a fan of Kafka then this is a good book for you. First you know about Kafka and what you are getting into. Second you can refer to the English for better understanding. So it allows you to read Kafka at any level. Metamorphosis (the guy turns into a huge bug) was the hot story for a bit in high school because of the subject matter, and you will probably want to read it at some point.

A must for students of German literature.......2002-07-01

This edition offers a sample of Kafka's best short stories with the original German and English translation on facing pages. It is a wonderful sort of "training wheels" for those who are ready to tackle German literature in the original.

The stories themselves are highly challenging. Kafka is regarded as a profit of modern alienation, but that doesn't capture the complexity of his thought. His masterpiece, The Metamorphosis, is here. In it Gregor Samsa awakes one morning to find he has turned into a giant bug. With that simple, but startling device, Kafka has a vehicle for exploring the inner dynamic of a family, and the mix of selfishness and altruism which informs our relationships with one another. On the surface, it would seem that Kafka is affirming the increasingly common notion that all altruism is really disguised selfishness - yet the story's bleakness suggests that Kafka himself knows that the vision is incomplete. This is the truth, he says. But is it the whole truth?

In another great story, In the Penalty Colony, Kafka presents us with a society that was once ordered around a great torturing device. The society is in the process of moving away from the torture device, and that would seem to be a good thing. But Kafka is more challenging than that. Does a vision of the world which imagines no role for suffering really speak to our deepest selves? We are repulsed by the old order, but the new order seems to be missing something.

So in one neat package, you can learn some German and struggle with a challenging vision of the world. That's a bargain, in my book!

Great for German Students.......2002-02-15

The most enjoyable aspect of language learning, for me, is the experience of reading literary masterpieces in the original. The side-by-side format is perfect for those intermediate students of German who would like something more substantial than the usual textbook fare. I would like to have seen more stories printed, or perhaps a second volume, but I do appreciate the variety available in this edition. The English translations tend to be more literal and wooden than the better all-English versions in print, but that is all the better. Once you've read Kafka in the original, you won't want to go back.

Useful for students of both German and English.......2000-05-13

I have used this book at our university in a German class (Introduction to German Literature) and in a Literature in Translation class. Students appreciated the duel langauge format. For my students of German, the facing translation aids in setting the context so that they can deal mor quickly with the German text. I would recommend this book for those with some German who are interested in Kafka's short fiction. I would have liked having the " Hunger Artist" in the collection as well as a German vocabulary section (as one finds in other Dover texts), but otherwise I found the book most helpful. The entire series offers excellent books at wonderful prices!

Great way to read Kafka's original writing.......2000-04-19

I am not a huge fan of Kafka's style of writing but I did enjoy reading this book due to the side by side english and german wording. I found myself hopping back and forth to see how the German was translated into English. And, since my German is not perfect and Kafka writes with a complex sentence structure, the dual set up was perfect for me. These are some of Kafka's best stories, particularly the Metamorphisis.

The Diaries of Franz Kafka (Schocken Classics Series)

Average customer rating:

A Writer's Writer
The Indispensable Kafka
I am now in love with Franz Kafka
Incredible, Underrated.
Genius at work

The Diaries of Franz Kafka (Schocken Classics Series)
Franz Kafka
Manufacturer: Schocken
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0805209069
Release Date: 1988-10-30

Book Description

It is likely that these journals will be regarded as one of [Kafka's] major literary works; his life and personality were perfectly suited to the diary form, and in these pages he reveals what he customarily hid from the world." -- New Yorker

"What seems to hold [the diaries] together is a kind of ruthless honesty and self-awareness." -- New York Times

Though Franz Kafka is one of the greatest and most widely read and discussed authors of the twentieth century, and continues to be a tremendous influence on artists of our time, he remains an elusive figure, his life and work open to endless interpretation.

These diaries reveal the essential Kafka behind the enigmatic artist. Covering the period from 1910 to 1923, the year before Kafka's death at the age of forty, they provide a penetrating look into Kafka's world -- notes on life in Prague, accounts of his dreams, his feelings for the father he worshipped and for the woman he could not bring himself to marry, his sense of guilt and of being an outcast, and his struggles and triumphs in expressing himself as a writer.

Now, for the first time in this country, the complete diaries of Franz Kafka are available in one volume. They are not only indispensable to an understanding of Kafka the man and the artist, but are a compulsively readable, haunting account of a life of almost unbearable intensity.

Customer Reviews:

A Writer's Writer.......2006-10-15

Franz Kafka's diaries were never meant to be published. Yet his diaries are spread across the internet, the actual published diaries translated into many languages and countless printings. These dairies are very personal, and the gentle Prague Jew would certainly be appalled.

Why do we continue to find these writings so fascinating?

Well, simply, they're terribly honest. Kafka never meant for these diary entries to be published, let alone read by another person. For those interested in the mechanics and soul of writing, Kafka's diaries are a source of true wonder. A confessional of a gentle soul, a man trapped in an insurance job, staying up through the night writing his heart-out, his thoughts, pains and acute observations of a time on the brink of great and terrible change, the death and cruelty of two world wars.

When reading Kafka, there is an overwhelming darkness, loneliness, a strong shadow that continually hovered around him, a "something" he tried to rid himself of through intense self reflection, which the reader of these diaries will discover.

Kafka's life story is, for the most part, a tragedy. A painful experience as one, sometimes, can feel his self consciousness, that subtle pain at the back of the neck, when, you know, you're being stared at...and his continued bad health.

I've attempted to read Kafka's diaries many times, and only now, for some reason, can withstand the pain of his perceptions, his precarious relationship with his father, and the few women he loved and the true love he never married.

Kafka is a man that loved writing for writing's sake, an artist who experimented daily, till dawn most nights, to pick up his little brief case and begin his work as an insurance lawyer in a semi-official insurance institute.

A strange yet moving entry:

21 February 1911
I live my life here as if I were entirely certain of a second life, as if for example I had entirely gotten over the failed time spent in Paris, since I will strive to return soon. Connected to this, the sight of the sharply divided light and shadow on the street paving.
For a moment I felt myself covered in armour.
How distant, for example, are the muscles of my arms

Kafka's writing was for the act itself without pretension or grandious dreams, (though his success during his 40 year lifetime was no disappointment) an act of instinct, pure and natural. Kafka is the true writer's writer.

The Indispensable Kafka.......2006-09-23

Franz Kafka's 1910-23 diary entries are essential reading for anyone who seeks a better understanding of the author's literary world. This 1988 printing contains all the surviving Kafka diaries in one comprehensive volume. More revelatory than any biography, the diaries remain as compelling as his fictional work.

I am now in love with Franz Kafka.......2005-07-27

The diaries reveal that Kafka was not only the one-dimensional character of the disturbed, alienated, and melancholic man that contemporary literary analysis presents him as, but a person with a complexity of feeling, humor, and distinct moments of happiness and joy.
The segment where he vacillates, through an organized list, as to whether he should marry his fiancé or not I found most enjoyable, and it is also fascinating to watch the diaries darken as Kafka ages, and to long for the unfinished fragments of stories and the gaps in narrative as he struggles against tuberculosis.
History claims that he was the prophetic bearer of images of totalitarianism and social suppression, but it is often forgotten that Kafka was also an ordinary man leading a rather ordinary, if not emotionally tempestuous, life.
These diaries are indispensable in understanding the underlying philosophy and thought behind his literary works, and in coming to know more intimately the author who created them, rather than relying upon a preconceived notion of Kafka as an isolated, miserable apparition.

Incredible, Underrated........2005-07-23

The Diares of Franz Kafka reveal him to not just be the disturbing and clever author, but a genuine philosopher in his own right. Because he never published huge tomes of philosophy, he is completely overlooked. Kafka tends to address only himself in his diary, but he grapples with universal problems of the human condition. My copy of the Diaries is underlined, highlighted, and circled on almost every page. He puts into words, even in the translation, so many important and elegant ideas that have not been adequately expressed before or after him. If you have even the slightest interest in Kafka or philosophy, or alienation, buy this book. Buy two copies, in case you lose the first one. Once you've read it, you will not want to be without access to it, ever. Incredible.

Genius at work .......2004-10-10

Kafka was the kind of unique genius who could not help expressing that genius in every line he wrote. These diaries contain not only the record of much of his daily anxiety but also many of his brilliant poetic perceptions of the world and of his own mind. There is an uncanny beauty in this work which reminds of the phrase of Emerson crossing Boston Common ' glad to the brink of fear' Kafka in a diary entry spoke of ' writing as prayer ' and it is clear too that Kafka was most alive, and most praying when writing .
This work is most highly recommended especially for those who are able to bear the torments and fears involved in the life of creation of one of world literature's great geniuses at work.

Average customer rating:

Lost in Amerika
Interesting
They've all come to look for America....
Amerika
A few impressions

Amerika
Franz Kafka , Willa Muir , Edwin Muir , and E. L. Doctorow
Manufacturer: Schocken
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0805210644
Release Date: 1996-07-02

Customer Reviews:

Lost in Amerika.......2007-03-27

By the author's own admission, "Amerika" is a much more optimistic piece than Kafka's other works. Since Kafka was never able to finish this work, the reader is unable to read the final "happy ending" that the plot is leading toward fulfilling. Even without the afterword which alleges the eventual ending, the lack of angst and thinning sense of confusion point toward resolution.

After fathering a child in his teenage years, Karl Rossman is shipped to America to begin his life free of stigma. But getting off of the ship that brings him to America becomes a challenge that leads him to a wealthy family member in America. However, Karl's life of luxury is short-lived. After offending his uncle, he is cast out on his own. Falling in allegiance with a pair of out of work tramps, Karl hopes to start anew. Delamarche and Robinson continually take advantage of Karl's resources until work finds Karl. These two men cost Karl his job of stature and try to force him into the servitude of the obese singer that employs Robinson and Delamarche. We never learn how Karl escaped this predicament, but find Karl in the last chapter finding an apparently great opportunity in Oklahoma.

Since this is an unfinished work, there are some gaps in the story as pointed out in my review. Many have dismissed this work of Kafka as it does not fit the typical mold of his work. While the gaps in the story make it difficult for me to give this book five stars, I would recommend this book to fans of Kafka.

Interesting.......2006-01-30

Kafka's "Amerika" was the first of his novels that I read following a survey of his short stories. It's a witty and charming book, even if the America Kafka presents is completely unlike any America I've ever heard of. Still, I didn't find it that engaging. I felt as if Karl, the main character, was something of a pinball, bouncing from one place and situation to another as a consequence of the seeminly random decisions of those around him. He spends an awful lot of time thinking and thinking and thinking, but in the end all his thoughts don't amount to much and he's kicked to the next event.

Also, please remember this is an unfinished novel! Unlike many of Kafka's unfinished stories, it doesn't cut off at any particular final point, it just sort of stops, and now I'm frustrated! ;-)

They've all come to look for America...........2005-11-08

Franz Kafka's 'Amerika' started off, to me, with a great premise, but in the end I found the tale less than entertaining.

Karl Rossman, a teenage boy shipped off to America by his parents following an 'indiscretion' with a servant girl, finds himself in the company of an American uncle, who quickly shuns him for accepting the hospitality of one of the uncle's friends.

Rossman then 'disappears' into the poor working class landscape of America, where he encounters many less than scrupulous characters.

Much of this novel is devoted to the this 'disappearance', though the action, to me, never quite moved along...and made the story quite stale to me...

While I have not read any other works by Franz Kafka, I hope that other novels were better paced and executed. His prose is enjoyable, just not very 'lively' in this offering.

Amerika.......2005-08-31

Without ever having visited America, the German-speaking Czech author, Franz Kafka, wrote a novel based on research which included an autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, travel brochures, and the stories of Europeans who had traveled to America and returned to Europe. The result was the novel, Amerika, his unique and often very unrealistic interpretation of life in America. Amerika follows an almost sixteen-year-old boy through a series of experiences and adventures. Due to misbehavior at home, Karl Rossmann is sent by his parents to New York to live with his uncle in America . Kafka's skewed view of America is immediately demonstrated as Karl is greeted by the statue of liberty holding a raised sword. Karl meets many people and discovers a life quite different than any he has ever known in Europe. Karl meets his uncle and finds himself in the midst of people who are well-off in society. Later, on his own, he discovers a different side of American life. From houses the size of castles, to unfair treatment by his employer, to an out-of-control political rally, Karl is constantly surprised by America as he experiences many bizarre occurrences. Because Kafka did not finish Amerika, the reader is left disappointed in not knowing what happens to Karl, but also hopeful for Karl's future. This book is an interesting portrayal of America from the point of view of an early twentieth-century European who had never visited America. This makes the book intriguing.

A few impressions .......2005-07-12

There is an excellent review of this book on 'The Amazon site' by AJ Feinsinger that captures the story of this work, and much of its strangeness.
I am only adding a few impressions of my own.
First I concur with the observation that this is a book written by a person who has never been in America. I remember reading it years ago, and how it seemed to me the very opposite of everything America stands for.
America in my mind then, was brightness and optimism , a new hope and a new dream. It was moving Westward, and pioneering. It was clear and simple and beautiful
Kafka's 'Amerika' is complicated and mind- ridden. It is filled with paradoxes and absurdities, with strange cruel meetings .The atmosphere of nightmare and difficulty that pervades Kafka's work was felt by me then as in absolute contradiction to the American spirit.
Of the novels , 'The Castle ' 'The Trial' and this one I find this one the least satisfying, the most incoherent. It is very much a super- incomplete work. 'Incompleteness' is of course part of Kafka's legacy and gift .But here it seems often as if there simply has not been enough time given to the text.
I am in any case a reader of Kafka's diaries, parables, stories, shorter works more than I am of his novels which I find somehow tiresome.
This is to my mind the least satisfactory of all of Kafka's work.
And yet as Kafka reveals to us our own contradictions, paradoxes and fears in a way no one else can- this work too has its meaning and instruction.

The Metamorphosis (Norton Critical Editions)

Average customer rating:

Kafka's writing works at many levels
This is how all classics should be treated.
Excellent Translation, Annotation, and Critical Essays
Excellent Translation, Annotation, and Critical Essays

The Metamorphosis (Norton Critical Editions)
Franz Kafka
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0393967972

Customer Reviews:

Kafka's writing works at many levels.......2007-01-17

Kafka's writing works at many levels. I am sure almost every school of Literary Criticism makes its own special narrative of Gregor Samsa's transformation into an insect, and the subsequent trials and tribulations he knows.
On one level Samsa is Kafka and he is telling us the story of his own self- contempt, the world of his own family relations, the world in which a powerful dominating father reduces his son to nothing more than an object of disturbance and villification.
On another level Samsa is clearly the artist seeking his own form of transformation and expression. He is the outcast in a Society which refuses to recognize him for what he is.
On a third level we are seeing a historical prophecy for what is to happen to Kafka's world and family - that they are to be destroyed mercilessly by those ' superior beings' who morally are most evil.
One of the startling elements in the story is seeing how once its premise is given, and Samsa is an insect, how he operates on that basis. The tremedous seriousness with which he takes himself indicates perhaps Kafka's questioning of the possibility of truly making ' redeemed lives' lives of blessedness given the circumstances of the social and political milieu given here.
Kafka imagines himself, imagines his own being crushed, and yet continues beyond this story to others.
There is a sense as I write this that I have not gotten it right. I have the feeling that I missed the story in a certain way.
Perhaps this too is part of the experience the reading of Kafka gives. The world does not only fail to meet our specifications for it, even those parts of it we choose to focus on have their own strange pathways to different kinds of meaning.
These multiple readings taken together perhaps provide some ense of who Kafka is , and what his work means.
But do they really?

This is how all classics should be treated........2001-08-17

For the reader new to Kafka as a writer, there is a lot of baggage to be thrown off: everything implied by the cliche 'Kafkaesque' we've gathered from films, other books and the like (alienation, angst, modern man and the Absurd, the terror of totalitarian bureaucracy, etc.); everything, in other words, that has made a caricature of an original vision.

So, for the first-time reader of Kafka, there are some pleasant surprises in 'the Metamorphosis'. The novella is often very funny - Gregor's orientation to his condition (he enjoys running up the walls and hanging off the ceiling) and the reaction of his family and manager provoke some priceless farcical set-pieces. It is a Gothic story - about a salesman who turns into a monstrous vermin, and the aghast reaction of his family; there are some unexpected frissons in the story we would normally expect from the horror genre. It is a portrait of a complacent middle-class family in decline, a la Galsworthy, or a study of the artist in an impoverished family with a weak but aggressive father, like Joyce's 'Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'. There are even elments of sentimental melodrama in the way Kafka loads up the sympathy for his monster in the face of almost caricatured hostility - I found myself welling up once or twice.

This is not to diminish Kafka's dark and frightening vision, just to suggest how much of his art depends on play, with narrative modes and genres, with narration, with reader's expectations. The horror, anxiety, unease, if you like, is actually quite marginal on the surface - the oppressive vastness of his familiar bedroom as perceived by Gregor in his new form; the endless vista of an adjacent hospital. It's under this surface that the true anxiety lies - the gaps in the narration, the unreliability of Gregor's perceptions and interpretations, the ambiguity of Kafka's language, the witholding and gradual unfolding of details. There don't seem to be any mirrors in the Samsa household, but the story is full of mirror-like tableaux - the portrait of the lady in furs; the photo of Gregor as a young soldier; the image of domestic life viewed every evening by Gregor in darkness.

If only all classics were treated with the respect of this edition. the translation is mostly smooth and fresh, with occasionally clumsy constructions and jarring Americanisms (are there really trolleys and foyers in Kafka's world?). The critical apparatus provides endless intellectual nourishment - manuscript revisions revealing the precision of Kafka's writing; an account of the story's genesis, creation and background through letters, diaries and related Kafka works; and seven critical essays from perspectives as varied as feminism, psychoanalysis, new-historicism and linguistics, some infected by the usual blights of literary criticism (e.g. undigested globs of French theory making argument and prose impenetrable; distortion of text to produce biased interpretaions), but which insightfully open up the astonishing density and ambiguity of a 40-page fable, offering ingenious, mutually excluxive, even contradictory readings that are all very plausible, and yet ultimately miss Kafka's elusive enigma.

Excellent Translation, Annotation, and Critical Essays.......2000-10-01

Professor Stanley Korngold translates Franz Kafka's novella, "The Metamorphosis" (1915), and edits this Norton Critical Edition. Even though Korngold's translation was done in 1971, it stands as an excellent idiomatic rendition of the original German manuscript. Korngold includes in this volume a section entitled "Kafka's Manuscript Revisions," which reflects more recent German scholarship. Korngold's page-by-page annotations to the novella elucidate details which serve to clarify the text for close readings. Following the novella, ("Die Verlandlung," in German), is a section of pertinent exerpts of Kafka's Letters and Diaries. The next section of the volume, "Criticism," contains a collection of seven essays, which were written between 1970-1995. A Chronology of Kafka's life and work and a Selected Biography are also included.

Professor Korngold has done a masterful job with this edition of "The Metamorphosis." Kafka's masterpiece, according to Korngold, "...is perfect, even as it incessantly provokes criticism." For the transformation of Gregor Samsa into the "monstrous vermin" disturbs readers who want and need to "control" the text. To do otherwise is to accept the hopelessness that is at the center of Samsa's existence. For the uninitiated readers, who are often first-year university students in required literature courses, "The Metamorphosis" often defies facile interpretation. Thus, the critical essays, which include poststructuralist, psychoanalytic, feminist, cultural, and historicist literary theories about the novella, are very helpful to frustrated students who may have been given essay assignments. Of particular note is Korngold's critical discussion of Kafka's "literalization of the metaphor."

My suggestion is to read "The Metamorphosis" first (in this excellent Korngold translation) and to note one's immediate reactions to the text. Then, one can explore the other sections of this critical edition at one's leisure. Finally, one can re-read the text again. ("The Metamorphosis" is short enough that it can easily be read in one sitting.)

Excellent Translation, Annotation, and Critical Essays.......2000-10-01

Book Description

Acclaimed graphic artist Peter Kuper presents a brilliant, darkly comic reimagining of Kafka’s classic tale of family, alienation, and a giant bug. Kuper’s electric drawings—which merge American cartooning with German expressionism—bring Kafka’s prose to vivid life, reviving the original story’s humor and poignancy in a way that will surprise and delight readers of Kafka and graphic novels alike.

“A brilliant illustrated adaptation of Franz Kafka’s famous story. It’s a real pleasure to read and one in which everyone will recognize the existential drama and uncanny wit of the original text."—Susan Bernstein, associate professor of comparative literature and German studies, Brown University

Customer Reviews:

Viviana's Book Review on The Metamorphosis.......2007-03-05

This version of Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis is an adaptation by Peter Kuper. What I found unique about this book was that it is written in comic book form. Kuper created Metamorphosis in this way so that it could keep the reader's interest. This book kept my interest because it had detailed pictures, interesting characters, and the text was written in different forms. The pictures are very interesting because the characters emotions are shown in detail and the text boxes were different shapes and designs for each character. On some pages the text in a zig-zag design and on others it is in a spiral. Plus, the storyline was wonderful...awesome.

The Metamorphosis is about a man named Gregor, who was always focused on work so that he could support his family, pay off their debts, and send his sister to music school.
Until one morning Gregor wakes up and finds that he is a huge dung beetle. Gregor thinks it is just a bad dream. He does not get freaked out but is worried about being late for work. He puts all his energy into trying to get out of bed so that he can to get to work on time. Gregor's family was worried about him because he did not come out of his room on time to catch the train for work. His family knows it is not his usual behavior to sleep in and when they checkup on him; they realize that they could not understand him because he sounded like an animal.

The problem with Gregor becoming a bug was that no one could understand him, he could not go to work to support the family, and for once he was forced to depend on his family for his care. Before Gregor turned into a bug he feed his family, gave them money, and they never thanked him for his hard work, but went about their daily routine. Gregor's family use to stay home all day, no one worked, his mother was sick, and his sister was too young to work. In the end Gregor's family gets tired of supporting him, taking care of him and start to feel that he is a burden because he is not doing anything. This is funny because before when Gregor worked; they did not do anything. Now that Gregor is a bug his father is forced to work again, they rent out rooms for money, the mother is now cooking and cleaning, and his sister works. I would recommend this book because it is very dramatic, ironic, and hopeful. Even though Gregor died; his family went through a metamorphosis and became more independent.

perfect visual representation of the original.......2006-12-20

this graphic novel version of kafka's metamorphosis does every bit of justice to the original novella. the artwork is heavy on the black ink, giving it the perfect amount of darkness, yet gregor's antagonists are portrayed comically -- their facial expressions fit their shallow characters perfectly.

i dont know much about kafka's original intent with metamorphosis (as another reviewer pointed out, it is supposed to be a "comedy") but the theme of alienation, existentialist despair, and injustice are consistent with his other works, most notably the trial. gregor samsa, like josef k, is turned into a "vermin": for no obvious reason, he is condemned to be the victim of hostility and rejection. both protagonists have done nothing to deserve their fate. this existentialist theme reoccurs in camus' the stranger, sartre's the flies, and hamson's hunger, just to name a few.

the "absurd" should not be miscontrued as "comic."

The Metamorphosis.......2006-06-25

It's a very good book and what I liked the best was that the story started right off the first sentence. I couldn't stop reading the book. Of course it wouldn't happen to any of us, but it was still interesting to see how people reacted to him when he changed. I didn't not expect the ending to be what it was. I felt sorry for Gregor. It has a very good moral to the story.

TRAGICOMEDY IN COMICBOOK FORMAT.......2005-07-28

I love "SPY vs SPY", and so do my kids. I bought this version of The Metamorphosis as I saw it advertised and thought it could be an entertaining illumination of Kafka's novel. I had read Kafka's Metamorphosis in the distant past in Spanish, translated from the German by Borges (I gave it away years ago and wish now I could retrieve a copy). At that time I realized it was very funny and thought it strange people currently consider it a nightmarish tale. A recent review of a biography of Kafka confirmed to me, two decades later, that in fact it WAS comedy and meant to be so by Kafka an his clique of writer buddies. I had started reading the English translation to my twin 8-yr-olds with the comic zest it deserves. I switched to this comicbook version halfway but found it impossible to overcome the gloomy, darkened tragic flavor of the obviously tragic comicbook version. I have tried now to encourage my boys to make a truly comic version of The Metamorphosis in comicbook form with bright colors, especially metallic for the salesman-turned-bug. Such a version would do justice to The Metamorphosis.

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