When I was but thirteen or so
I went into a golden land,
Chimborazo, Cotopaxi
Took me by the hand.
It wasn't quite like that for me. I'd have to rewrite it as follows:
When I was but fourteen or so
I went into a troubled land,
Josef K., Gregor Samsa
Took me by the hand.
That "Romance" poem has always struck me as a bit off, in any case. That idea of the genocidal conquest of the Americas by the Spanish conquistadors acting as a cheap source of thrills for European romantics seems crass, to say the least. Though of course that may be the point that Turner is trying to make:
My father died, my brother too,
They passed like fleeting dreams,
I stood where Popocatapetl
In the sunlight gleams.
Clearly this "great golden dream" is not being endorsed as altogether a
good thing.
Most people start with
The Trial, but in my case it was
The Castle which first pulled me into Franz Kafka's sinister and baffling world. I had a mania for being "well-read" in those days, just after advancing to High School. I'd heard the phrase somewhere and was not yet canny enough to know what a
fata morgana such an ambition could be. In any case, I read on the back of the Penguin edition pictured above that it was widely considered one of the most important modern novels, so that was enough for me.
Some things in it were immediately recognisable. The idea of being constantly, insidiously thwarted in everything you set out to do: that was familiar enough as a simple description of my everyday life as the last in line of four children - not to mention the youngest in my class at school. Other details of the book's background would not start to resonate with me until I finally visited Prague, many years later. I hadn't realised the extent to which the Castle there literally dominates the whole city.
It looks picturesque enough in the tourist photo above, but on a midwinter morning it can seem as grim and threatening as any Transylvanian peak. And of course 'the Castle' has always been shorthand there for the government, just as 'the Beehive' is for us. For a young Jewish man belonging to one of the subject races of the profoundly anti-semitic Austro-Hungarian Empire, seeing it glowering down on you can hardly have been a happy experience.
But there remains something mysterious and unknowable about Kafka's genius. Many writers before and since have expressed themselves in this fable-like, hyper-real manner, but there's a unique gravity and inevitability to the situations he creates. Jorge Luis Borges, Italo Calvino, Primo Levi - all have been influenced by Kafka, but none have surpassed him. Stories such as "Metamorphosis," "In the Penal Settlement," or (my favourite) "The Burrow" continue to speak to us more than a century after he wrote them.
Though the situation isn't really as simple as that. The facts of his life have become, in their own way, as emblematic as his fiction. The story, after all, is a famous one. He died from tuberculosis at the age of 40, and left all his writings, both published and unpublished, to his friend and fellow-writer
Max Brod, with the following request:
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.
It depends on your own point of view on these matters whether it makes him a hero or a villain, but Brod ignored these instructions, and printed not only the three incomplete novels Kafka had been working on for so long, but also a mass of unpublished stories, letters, and other material.
Posterity could be said to have vindicated Max Brod. Kafka's work has never been out of print from that day to this, and he would make any list of the top ten twentieth-century German writers with ease. Possibly his greatest influence has been exerted abroad, in translation, however.
Kafka had the good fortune to fall into the hands of one of Scotland's finest modern poets, Orkneyman Edwin Muir, and his wife Willa Muir (née Anderson), who gradually translated the three novels -
The Castle (1930),
The Trial (1937), and
America (1938) - as well as most of the canonical stories -
The Great Wall of China and Other Pieces (1933), and
The Metamorphosis (1935) - into clear and elegant English prose.
There's no doubt that Willa was the superior linguist and the senior partner in the enterprise. Here's her own description of how it went, from her memoir
Belonging (1968):
We divided the book in two, Edwin translated one half and I the other, then we went over each other's translations as with a fine-tooth comb.
Elsewhere in her journals, she clarified that he "only helped."
One can't help feeling that something in the lives and backgrounds of these two Scots in exile contributed to their instinctive understanding of Kafka. Though born in Montrose, on the mainland, Willa Anderson's parents were both born in the Shetlands, and she grew up speaking Shetland dialect as well as English.
Edwin, too, born in the Orkney islands, grew up speaking the Orcadian variant of Scots before being forced to move to Glasgow when he was fourteen. All of his work was dominated by this contrast between the 'Eden' of his earliest experiences, and the grimness and despair of life in an industrial slum.
Kafka, too, though Czech by birth, wrote only in literary German. His position as an outsider to the language in which he was forced to express himself can find parallels not only in the experience of the Muirs and other Scots writers, but also in that of Irish writers such as James Joyce and John Synge.
It's become rather fashionable to denounce the work of these two pioneers, working (as they did) from inadequate texts, with insufficient information, in favour of the more scholarly efforts of later translators. Here's the first sentence of
The Trial in the Muirs' 1937 translation:
Someone must have been telling lies about Joseph K., for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one fine morning.
What was my surprise, on purchasing the (so-called) 1956 "definitive" edition of the novel, "revised, with additional chapter and notes, by Professor E. M. Butler," to find that this sentence had been recast as follows:
Someone must have traduced Joseph K., for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one fine morning.
"Traduced"! Of all the clumsy, latinate words one could possibly have selected! The simple expressiveness of that "telling lies about" is ruined, along with the entire rhythm of the sentence, out of pure pedantry. So much for Professor Butler as a prose stylist ...
But wait a second, you may interject at this point, what did Kafka actually say? The original opening sentence reads as follows:
Jemand Mußte Josef K. verleumdet haben, denn ohne daß er etwas Böses getan hätte, wurde er eines Morgens verhaftet.
A literal translation of this would read more or less as follow:
Somebody must Josef K. have slandered, because without that he anything wicked had done, was he one morning arrested.
Or, in more normal English:
Somebody must have slandered Josef K., because he was arrested one morning without having done anything bad.
Even "slandered" is better than that word "traduced" - but what's wrong with "telling lies about"? It's far more expressive, and brings the whole sentence to life.
The whole subject is discussed at length by
Breon Mitchell, whose translation of
The Trial was published in 1998. He's worried that both the Muirs and Butler fail to allow for the uncertain nature of that statement of Josef K.'s innocence. Their smoothing out of "
getan hätte," a subjunctive tense, in his view renders too absolute the claim that he'd done no wrong. Mitchell's own version reads as follows:
Someone must have slandered Josef K., for one morning, without having done anything truly wrong, he was arrested.
"Truly wrong"! Not only is this a clumsy expression, but it also swings the pendulum too far in the opposite direction. Now we're being set up to regard Josef K. with a certain suspicion - thus obscuring the generally accepted point of Kafka's book.
The Muirs were fascinating people, and they were already accomplished writers before turning to translation as a means of making extra income. Both wrote fiction, and memoirs, and they had a clear sense of just how a novel should work. You
can't retain all the possible niggles of meaning in your own head, let alone in a phrase from a foreign language, when you're setting the tone for an entire narrative with your opening sentence.
Perhaps Breon Mitchell is right. I'm sure he knows far more about the German subjunctive - and the complex state of Kafka's texts - than I ever will. But he clearly doesn't know much about writing good English prose. His own sentence is clumsy, ill-balanced, and contains too many subordinate clauses. It's more use as a crib than as a translation.
It's interesting, too, how little this quibble over tenses seems to have influenced the other five or six translators who've made their own complete versions of
The Trial. Were they all wrong? Or is it just a way of justifying monkeying around further with one of the most famous opening sentences in modern literature?
I'm sure that there are many things that require revision in these early translations, especially given the extra materials which have since been unearthed, and the inexorable succession of newly edited critical editions so beloved of German scholars (each new one requiring a new English translation, naturally).
But don't criticise Edwin and Willa Muir for a lack of style. They'll run rings around you unless you, too, are in the habit of publishing original literary works on a regular basis. There are things you learn when constructing your own poems and stories which come as a great help when you're trying to make a translated author sound natural and idiomatic in a new linguistic matrix.
At least there's a certain fixity to these three novels, however. There are, unequivocally, three of them. Nor have the 'extra chapters' and 'abandoned drafts' which have been soldered more or less awkwardly into Brod's original versions from time to time altered the main lines of each of the narratives.
There have, admittedly, been a few irritating attempts to alter the title of
America (or
Amerika, if you prefer) to some variation on its alternative name
Der Verschollene [The Man Who Disappeared]. This culminated in Michael Hofmann's 1996 translation entitled
The Man Who Disappeared (Amerika). Honestly, who cares?
The real issue for completists such as myself is the short stories. Or the sketches and short stories. Or the short stories, sketches, and parables. How many are there? How are they to be defined? Which editions have which of them? Are any of the various collections of them to date actually "complete"? What
is a story - in Kafkaesque terms - anyway?
The whole thing started inoccuously enough. In his lifetime Kafka published three small collections of stories - or sketches - or parables. They are as follows (you can find complete, bilingual lists of their contents in the bibliography below):
- Betrachtung [Contemplation]. Leipzig: Rowohlt Verlag, 1912 [or, rather, printed at the end of 1912, but with a title page listing it as "1913," hence the use of both dates in different bibliographies]. A collection of 18 stories.
- Ein Landarzt [A Country Doctor]. Leipzig: Kurt Wolff, 1919. A collection of 14 stories.
- Ein Hungerkünstler [A Hunger Artist]. Leipzig: Verlag Die Schmiede 1924. A collection of four stories, prepared for publication by Kafka, but published a few months after his death.
He also published the following stories, some of his most famous among them, in periodicals here and there:
- Das Urteil [The Judgment] (1913)
- Die Verwandlung [The Metamorphosis] (1915)
- Der Heizer [The Stoker] (1913) [Included in Amerika (1927)]
- In der Strafkolonie [In the Penal Colony] (1919)
You can find all of these "authorised" stories collected conveniently in the following volume:
Stories 1904-1924. Trans. J. A. Underwood. Foreword by Jorge Luis Borges. 1981. A Futura Book. London: Macdonald & Co, 1983.
After that, however, things get a bit more complicated. Max Brod found a great many stories among Kafka's papers, some of which he published in the volume
Beim Bau der chinesischen Mauer [The Great Wall of China] in 1931. The Muirs translated it in 1933.
Successive attempts to publish the remainder of the stories resulted in a number of overlapping collections in English over the next couple of decades. Here's a selection of the major ones - three in the Secker & Warburg "definitive edition", and three similar but not identical collections in the Penguin Classics:
- In the Penal Settlement: Tales and Short Prose Works. Definitive Edition. 1935. Trans. Willa & Edwin Muir. London: Secker & Warburg, 1949.
- Wedding Preparations in the Country and Other Posthumous Prose Writings: Definitive Edition. 1953. Trans. Ernst Kaiser & Eithne Wilkins. London: Secker & Warburg, 1954.
- Description of a Struggle and The Great Wall of China: Definitive Edition. 1933. Trans. Willa & Edwin Muir and Tania & James Stern. 1958. London: Secker & Warburg, 1960.
- Metamorphosis and Other Stories. Trans. Willa & Edwin Muir. 1933 & 1958. Penguin Modern Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974.
- Wedding Preparations in the Country and Other Stories. Trans. Ernst Kaiser & Eithne Wilkins. 1953. Penguin Modern Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1978.
- Description of a Struggle and Other Stories. Trans. Willa & Edwin Muir, Malcolm Pasley, Tania & James Stern. 1973. Penguin Modern Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1979.
Between them, these two sets of three volumes contain virtually everything publishable from Kafka's
Nachlaß, or literary remains.
The situation in the USA is quite different, however. There the diffusion of Kafka's short stories is dominated by two books, both compiled and edited by Nahum Glatzer. They are:
- Parables and Paradoxes (Parabeln und Paradoxe). Ed. Nahum N. Glatzer. Trans. Clement Greenberg; Ernst Kaiser & Eithne Wilkins; Willa & Edwin Muir; Tania and James Stern. New York: Schocken Books, 1961.
- The Complete Stories. Ed. Nahum N. Glatzer. New York: Schocken Books, 1971.
Between them, these two books contain virtually everything in Kafka's literary remains which could possibly be regarded as a 'story', including pieces taken from novel drafts, diaries, and other miscellaneous sources.
In the following list (cribbed mainly from the
Wikipedia page devoted to
Franz Kafka's Bibliography) you can see the inclusiveness of Glatzer's two collections:
[bold = included in Complete Stories (1971) /
underlined = included in Parables and Paradoxes (1961)]
- Betrachtung [Contemplation] (1912)
- Kinder auf der Landstraße [Children on a Country Road]
- Die Bäume [The Trees]
- Kleider [Clothes]
- Der Ausflug ins Gebirge [Excursion into the Mountains]
- Die Abweisung [Rejection]
- Das Gassenfenster [The Street Window]
- Der Kaufmann [The Tradesman]
- Zerstreutes Hinausschaun [Absent-minded Window-gazing]
- Der Nachhauseweg [The Way Home]
- Die Vorüberlaufenden [Passers-by]
- Der Fahrgast [On the Tram]
- Zum Nachdenken für Herrenreiter [Reflections for Gentlemen-Jockeys]
- Wunsch, Indianer zu werden [The Wish to be a Red Indian]
- Unglücklichsein [Unhappiness]
- Das Unglück des Junggesellen [Bachelor's Ill Luck]
- Entlarvung eines Bauernfängers [Unmasking a Confidence Trickster]
- Der plötzliche Spaziergang [The Sudden Walk]
- Entschlüsse [Resolutions]
- Ein Landarzt [A Country Doctor] (1919)
- Der neue Advokat [The New Advocate]
- Ein Landarzt [A Country Doctor]
- Auf der Galerie [Up in the Gallery]
- Ein altes Blatt [An Old Manuscript]
- Vor dem Gesetz [Before the Law]
- Schakale und Araber [Jackals and Arabs]
- Ein Besuch im Bergwerk [A Visit to a Mine]
- Das nächste Dorf [The Next Village]
- Eine kaiserliche Botschaft [A Message from the Emperor]
- Die Sorge des Hausvaters [The Cares of a Family Man]
- Elf Söhne [Eleven Sons]
- Der Mord / Ein Brudermord [A Fratricide]
- Ein Traum [A Dream]
- Ein Bericht für eine Akademie [A Report to an Academy]
- Miscellaneous:
- Der Unredliche in seinem Herzen [Shamefaced Lanky and Impure in Heart] (1902) [Included in Letters to Friends, Family & Editors (1959)]
- Beschreibung eines Kampfes [Description of a Struggle] (1909)
- Gespräch mit dem Beter [Conversation with the Supplicant]
- Gespräch mit dem Betrunkenen [Conversation with the Drunk]
- Hochzeitsvorbereitungen auf dem Lande [Wedding Preparations in the Country] (1907-1908)
- Das Urteil [The Judgment] (1913)
- Die Verwandlung [The Metamorphosis] (1915)
- Der Heizer [The Stoker] (1913) [In Amerika (1927)]
- In der Strafkolonie [In the Penal Colony] (1919)
- Der Dorfschullehrer / Der Riesenmaulwurf [The Village Schoolmaster / The Giant Mole] (1915)
- Blumfeld, ein älterer Junggeselle [Blumfeld, an Elderly Bachelor] (1913)
- Der Gruftwächter [The Warden of the Tomb] (1916-17)
- Der Jäger Gracchus [The Hunter Gracchus] (1917)
- Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer [The Great Wall of China] (1917)
- Die Abweisung [The Refusal] (1920)
- Ein Hungerkünstler [A Hunger Artist] (1922)
- Forschungen eines Hundes [Investigations of a Dog] (1922)
- Eine kleine Frau [A Little Woman] (1924)
- Der Bau [The Burrow] (1931)
- Josefine, die Sängerin oder Das Volk der Mäuse [Josephine the Singer, or The Mouse Folk] (1924)
- Die Brücke [The Bridge]
- Der Kübelreiter [The Bucket Rider] (1917)
- Der Schlag ans Hoftor [The Knock at the Manor Gate]
- Der Nachbar [My Neighbour] (1917)
- Eine Kreuzung [A Crossbreed]
- Eine alltägliche Verwirrung [A Common Confusion]
- Die Wahrheit über Sancho Pansa [The Truth about Sancho Panza]
- Das Schweigen der Sirenen [The Silence of the Sirens]
- Prometheus [Prometheus] (1917-23)
- Das Stadtwappen [The City Coat of Arms]
- Poseidon [Poseidon] (1920)
- Gemeinschaft [Fellowship]
- Nachts [At Night]
- Zur Frage der Gesetze [The Problem of Our Laws]
- Die Truppenaushebung [The Conscription of Troops]
- Die Prüfung [The Test]
- Der Geier [The Vulture]
- Der Steuermann [The Helmsman]
- Der Kreisel [The Top]
- Kleine Fabel [A Little Fable]
- Heimkehr [Home-Coming]
- Erstes Leid [First Sorrow] (1921-22)
- Der Aufbruch [The Departure] (1920-21)
- Fürsprecher [Advocates] (1922)
- Das Ehepaar [The Married Couple] (1922)
- Gibs auf! [Give It Up!]
- Von den Gleichnissen [On Parables]
- Der Kaiser von Peking [Peking and the Emperor]
- Die Chinesische Mauer und der Turmbau von Babel [The Great Wall and the Tower of Babel]
- Das Paradies [Paradise]
- Der Turm zu Babel [The Tower of Babel]
- Der Schacht von Babel [The Pit of Babel]
- Abraham [Abraham]
- Der Berg Sinai [Mount Sinai]
- Der Tempelbau [The Building of the Temple]
- Das Tier in der Synagoge [The Animal in the Synagogue]
- Der Wächter [The Watchman]
- Das Kommen des Messias [The Coming of the Messiah]
- Die Sirenen [The Sirens]
- Leoparden in Tempel [Leopards in the Temple]
- Alexander der Grosse [Alexander the Great]
- Diogenes [Diogenes]
- Der Bau einer Stadt [The Building of a City]
- Der Kaiserliche Oberst [The Imperial Colonel]
- Der Kaiser [The Emperor]
- In der Karawanserei [In the Caravansary]
- Die Zelle [The Cell]
- Die Erfindung des Teufels [The Invention of the Devil]
- Die Wilden [The Savages]
- Der Grüne Drache [The Green Dragon]
- Der Tiger [The Tiger]
- Kuriere [Couriers]
- Ein Geduldspiel [A Chinese Puzzle]
- Robinson Crusoe [Robinson Crusoe]
- Die Quelle [The Spring]
- Die Unersättlichsten [The Hunger Strike]
- Das Ziel [My Destination]
No doubt volumes such as the above - with its tantalising promise of "seventy-four pieces ... lost to sight for decades ... two of them [never] translated into English before," will continue to appear.
However, if you just want to read Kafka but have been unsure where to start - and you should: Kafka's shorter work is a revelation! - I'd advise either trying to obtain the two Nahum Glatzer edited collections mentioned above, or else the three readily available Penguin Classics compilations.
Unless you're lucky enough to be able to read German, that is, in which case you could probably content yourself with this:
Novels:
- The Trial. ['Der Prozess', 1925]. Trans. Willa and Edwin Muir (1937). In The Trial / America / The Castle / Metamorphosis / In the Penal Settlement / The Great Wall of China / Investigations of a Dog / Letter to His Father / The Diaries 1910-1923. Trans. Willa & Edwin Muir et al. London: Secker & Warburg / Octopus, 1976.
- The Trial: Definitive Edition. 1925. Trans. Willa & Edwin Muir. 1937. Rev. E. M. Butler. 1956. London: Secker & Warburg, 1963.
- The Trial. 1925. Trans. Douglas Scott & Chris Waller. Introduction by J. P. Stern. 1977. London: Picador, 1980.
- The Castle. ['Das Schloss', 1926]. Trans. Willa and Edwin Muir (1930). In The Trial / America / The Castle / Metamorphosis / In the Penal Settlement / The Great Wall of China / Investigations of a Dog / Letter to His Father / The Diaries 1910-1923. Trans. Willa & Edwin Muir et al. London: Secker & Warburg / Octopus, 1976.
- The Castle: Definitive Edition. 1926. Trans. Willa & Edwin Muir. 1930. Rev. Eithne Wilkins & Ernst Kaiser. 1953. London: Secker & Warburg, 1961.
- America. ['Amerika oder Der Verschollene', 1927]. Trans. Willa and Edwin Muir (1938). In The Trial / America / The Castle / Metamorphosis / In the Penal Settlement / The Great Wall of China / Investigations of a Dog / Letter to His Father / The Diaries 1910-1923. Trans. Willa & Edwin Muir et al. London: Secker & Warburg / Octopus, 1976.
- Amerika: Roman. 1935. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1985.
- America: Definitive Edition. 1927. Trans. Willa & Edwin Muir. 1938. Rev. ed. London: Secker & Warburg, 1949.
- The Man Who Disappeared (Amerika). 1927. Trans. Michael Hofmann. Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1996.
Collections:
- Sämtliche Erzählungen. Ed. Paul Raabe. 1970. Hamburg: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1983.
I. Die vom Autor veröffentlichten Bücher
- Betrachtung (1913)
- Kinder auf der Landstraße
- Entlarvung eines Bauernfängers
- Der plötzliche Spaziergang
- Entschlüsse
- Der Ausflug ins Gebirge
- Das Unglück des Junggesellen
- Der Kaufmann
- Zerstreutes Hinausschaun
- Der Nachhauseweg
- Die Vorüberlaufenden
- Der Fahrgast
- Kleider
- Die Abweisung
- Zum Nachdenken für Herrenreiter
- Das Gassenfenster
- Wunsch, Indianer zu werden
- Die Bäume
- Unglücklichsein
- Das Urteil (1913)
- Der Heizer (1913)
- Die Verwandlung (1915)
- In der Strafkolonie (1919)
- Ein Landarzt (1919)
- Der neue Advokat
- Ein Landarzt
- Auf der Galerie
- Ein altes Blatt
- Vor dem Gesetz
- Schakale und Araber
- Ein Besuch im Bergwerk
- Das nächste Dorf
- Eine kaiserliche Botschaft
- Die Sorge des Hausvaters
- Elf Söhne
- Ein Brudermord
- Ein Traum
- Ein Bericht für eine Akademie
- Ein Hungerkünstler (1924)
- Erstes Leid
- Eine kleine Frau
- Ein Hungerkünstler
- Josefine, die Sängerin oder Das Volk der Mäuse
II. Zerstreut veröffentlichte, nicht von Kafka in Bücher aufgenommene Erzählungen
- Gespräch mit dem Beter
- Gespräch mit dem Betrunkenen
- Großer Lärm
- Der Kübelreiter
III. Die Erzählungen aus dem Nachlaß
- Beschreibung eines Kampfes
- Hochzeitsvorbereitungen auf dem Lande
- Der Dorfschullehrer
- Blumfeld, ein älterer Junggeselle
- Die Brücke
- Der Jäger Gracchus
- Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer
- Der Schlag ans Hoftor
- Der Nachbar
- Eine Kreuzung
- Eine alltägliche Verwirrung
- Die Wahrheit über Sancho Pansa
- Das Schweigen der Sirenen
- Prometheus
- Das Stadtwappen
- Poseidon
- Gemeinschaft
- Nachts
- Die Abweisung
- Zur Frage der Gesetze
- Die Truppenaushebung
- Die Prüfung
- Der Geier
- Der Steuermann
- Der Kreisel
- Kleine Fabel
- Heimkehr
- Der Aufbruch
- Fürsprecher
- Forschungen eines Hundes
- Das Ehepaar
- Gibs auf!
- Von den Gleichnissen
- Der Bau
- The Great Wall of China and Other Pieces. Trans. Willa & Edwin Muir. 1933. Rev. ed. London: Secker & Warburg, 1946.
Longer Stories:
- Investigations of a Dog [Forschungen eines Hundes]
- The Burrow [Der Bau]
- The Great Wall of China [Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer]
- The Giant Mole [Der Riesenmaulwurf]
Shorter Stories and Fables:
- The Hunter Gracchus [Der Jäger Gracchus]
- The Married Couple [Das Ehepaar]
- My Neighbour [Der Nachbar]
- A Common Confusion [Eine alltägliche Verwirrung]
- The Bridge [Die Brücke]
- The Bucket Rider [Der Kübelreiter]
- A Crossbreed [Eine Kreuzung]
- The Knock at the Manor Gate [Der Schlag ans Hoftor]
- The City Coat of Arms [Das Stadtwappen]
- The Silence of the Sirens [Das Schweigen der Sirenen]
- Prometheus [Prometheus]
- The Truth about Sancho Panza [Die Wahrheit über Sancho Pansa]
- The Problem of Our Laws [Zur Frage der Gesetze]
- On Parables [Von den Gleichnissen]
- A Little Fable [Kleine Fabel]
Aphorisms:
- "He"
- Reflections on Sin, Pain, Hope and the True Way [Betrachtungen über Sünde, Hoffnung, Leid und den wahren Weg]
- The Metamorphosis / Die Verwandlung. 1935. Trans. Willa & Edwin Muir. 1968. New York: Schocken Books, 1974.
- In the Penal Settlement: Tales and Short Prose Works. Definitive Edition. 1935. Trans. Willa & Edwin Muir. London: Secker & Warburg, 1949.
- Two Dialogues (From a work later destroyed: 'Description of a Struggle' [Beschreibung eines Kampfes])
- Conversation with the Suppliant [Gespräch mit dem Beter]
- Conversation with the Drunken Man [Gespräch mit dem Betrunkenen]
- Meditation [Betrachtung]
- Children on a Country Road [Kinder auf der Landstraße]
- Unmasking a Confidence Trickster [Entlarvung eines Bauernfängers]
- The Sudden Walk [Der plötzliche Spaziergang]
- Resolutions [Entschlüsse]
- Excursion into the Mountains [Der Ausflug ins Gebirge]
- Bachelor's Ill Luck [Das Unglück des Junggesellen]
- The Tradesman [Der Kaufmann]
- Absent-minded Window-gazing [Zerstreutes Hinausschaun]
- The Way Home [Der Nachhauseweg]
- Passers-by [Die Vorüberlaufenden]
- On the Tram [Der Fahrgast]
- Clothes [Kleider]
- Rejection [Die Abweisung]
- Reflections for Gentlemen Jockeys [Zum Nachdenken für Herrenreiter]
- The Street Window [Das Gassenfenster]
- The Wish to be a Red Indian [Wunsch, Indianer zu werden]
- The Trees [Die Bäume]
- Unhappiness [Unglücklichsein]
- The Judgement [Das Urteil]
- The Transformation [Die Verwandlung]
- A Country Doctor [Ein Landarzt]
- The New Advocate [Der neue Advokat]
- A Country Doctor [Ein Landarzt]
- Up in the Gallery [Auf der Galerie]
- An Old Manuscript [Ein altes Blatt]
- Before the Law [Vor dem Gesetz]
- Jackals and Arabs [Schakale und Araber]
- A Visit to a Mine [Ein Besuch im Bergwerk]
- The Next Village [Das nächste Dorf]
- A Message from the Emperor [Eine kaiserliche Botschaft]
- Troubles of a Householder [Die Sorge des Hausvaters]
- Eleven Sons [Elf Söhne]
- A Brother's Murder [Ein Brudermord]
- A Dream [Ein Traum]
- A Report to an Academy [Ein Bericht für eine Akademie]
- In the Penal Settlement [In der Strafkolonie]
- A Hunger Artist [Ein Hungerkünstler]
- First Sorrow [Erstes Leid]
- A Little Woman [Eine kleine Frau]
- A Fasting Showman [Ein Hungerkünstler]
- Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse-folk [Josefine, die Sängerin oder Das Volk der Mäuse]
Appendix:
- First Chapter of the Book Richard and Samuel, by Max Brod and Franz Kafka
- Foreword [Vorwort]
- The First Long Train Journey [Die erste lange Eisenbahnfahrt]
- Epilogue (Publisher's Note)
- Wedding Preparations in the Country and Other Posthumous Prose Writings: Definitive Edition. 1953. Trans. Ernst Kaiser & Eithne Wilkins. London: Secker & Warburg, 1954.
- Wedding Preparations in the Country [Hochzeitsvorbereitungen auf dem Lande]
- Reflections on Sin, Pain, Hope and the True Way [Betrachtungen über Sünde, Hoffnung, Leid und den wahren Weg]
- The Eight Octavo Notebooks [Oxforder Oktavhefte]
- Letter to His Father [Brief an den Vater]
- Fragments from Note-books and Loose Pages
- Paralipomena
- Description of a Struggle and The Great Wall of China: Definitive Edition. 1933. Trans. Willa & Edwin Muir and Tania & James Stern. 1958. London: Secker & Warburg, 1960.
- Introduction by Edwin Muir to The Great Wall of China
- Description of a Struggle [Beschreibung eines Kampfes]
- The Great Wall of China [Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer]
- The Refusal [Die Abweisung]
- The Problem of Our Laws [Zur Frage der Gesetze]
- The City Coat of Arms [Das Stadtwappen]
- On Parables [Von den Gleichnissen]
- Poseidon [Poseidon]
- The Hunter Gracchus [Der Jäger Gracchus]
- The Knock at the Manor Gate [Der Schlag ans Hoftor]
- A Crossbreed [Eine Kreuzung]
- The Bridge [Die Brücke]
- The Vulture [Der Geier]
- The Departure [Der Aufbruch]
- Give it Up! [Gibs auf!]
- At Night [Nachts]
- The Helmsman [Der Steuermann]
- The Top [Der Kreisel]
- A Little Fable [Kleine Fabel]
- The Bucket Rider [Der Kübelreiter]
- The Married Couple [Das Ehepaar]
- My Neighbour [Der Nachbar]
- The Test [Die Prüfung]
- Advocates [Fürsprecher]
- Home-coming [Heimkehr]
- Fellowship [Gemeinschaft]
- Blumfeld, an Elderly Bachelor [Blumfeld, ein älterer Junggeselle]
- The Burrow [Der Bau]
- The Giant Mole [Der Riesenmaulwurf]
- Investigations of a Dog [Forschungen eines Hundes]
- "He"
- The Warden of the Tomb [Der Gruftwächter]
- Fragments of 'A Report to an Academy' [Ein Bericht für eine Akademie]
- Fragment of 'The Great Wall of China' [Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer]
- The Conscription of Troops [Die Truppenaushebung]
- Fragment of 'The Hunter Gracchus' [Der Jäger Gracchus]
- Postscript by Max Brod to the German Edition
- Metamorphosis and Other Stories. Trans. Willa & Edwin Muir. 1933 & 1958. Penguin Modern Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974.
- Metamorphosis [Die Verwandlung]
- The Great Wall of China [Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer]
- Investigations of a Dog [Forschungen eines Hundes]
- The Burrow [Der Bau]
- In the Penal Settlement [In der Strafkolonie]
- The Giant Mole [Der Riesenmaulwurf]
- Wedding Preparations in the Country and Other Stories. Trans. Ernst Kaiser & Eithne Wilkins. 1953. Penguin Modern Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1978.
- Wedding Preparations in the Country [Hochzeitsvorbereitungen auf dem Lande]
- Letter to His Father [Brief an den Vater]
- Two Dialogues (From a work later destroyed: 'Description of a Struggle' [Beschreibung eines Kampfes])
- Conversation with the Suppliant [Gespräch mit dem Beter]
- Conversation with the Drunken Man [Gespräch mit dem Betrunkenen]
- Meditation [Betrachtung]
- Children on a Country Road [Kinder auf der Landstraße]
- Unmasking a Confidence Trickster [Entlarvung eines Bauernfängers]
- The Sudden Walk [Der plötzliche Spaziergang]
- Resolutions [Entschlüsse]
- Excursion into the Mountains [Der Ausflug ins Gebirge]
- Bachelor's Ill Luck [Das Unglück des Junggesellen]
- The Tradesman [Der Kaufmann]
- Absent-minded Window-gazing [Zerstreutes Hinausschaun]
- The Way Home [Der Nachhauseweg]
- Passers-by [Die Vorüberlaufenden]
- On the Tram [Der Fahrgast]
- Clothes [Kleider]
- Rejection [Die Abweisung]
- Reflections for Gentlemen Jockeys [Zum Nachdenken für Herrenreiter]
- The Street Window [Das Gassenfenster]
- The Wish to be a Red Indian [Wunsch, Indianer zu werden]
- The Trees [Die Bäume]
- Unhappiness [Unglücklichsein]
- The Judgement [Das Urteil]
- A Country Doctor [Ein Landarzt]
- The New Advocate [Der neue Advokat]
- A Country Doctor [Ein Landarzt]
- Up in the Gallery [Auf der Galerie]
- An Old Manuscript [Ein altes Blatt]
- Before the Law [Vor dem Gesetz]
- Jackals and Arabs [Schakale und Araber]
- A Visit to a Mine [Ein Besuch im Bergwerk]
- The Next Village [Das nächste Dorf]
- A Message from the Emperor [Eine kaiserliche Botschaft]
- Troubles of a Householder [Die Sorge des Hausvaters]
- Eleven Sons [Elf Söhne]
- A Brother's Murder [Ein Brudermord]
- A Dream [Ein Traum]
- A Report to an Academy [Ein Bericht für eine Akademie]
- A Hunger Artist [Ein Hungerkünstler]
- First Sorrow [Erstes Leid]
- A Little Woman [Eine kleine Frau]
- A Fasting Showman [Ein Hungerkünstler]
- Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse-folk [Josefine, die Sängerin oder Das Volk der Mäuse]
- Description of a Struggle and Other Stories. Trans. Willa & Edwin Muir, Malcolm Pasley, Tania & James Stern. 1973. Penguin Modern Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1979.
- Description of a Struggle [Beschreibung eines Kampfes]
- Blumfeld, an Elderly Bachelor [Blumfeld, ein älterer Junggeselle]
- The Warden of the Tomb [Der Gruftwächter]
- The Bridge [Die Brücke]
- The Hunter Gracchus [Der Jäger Gracchus]
- Fragments of 'A Report to an Academy' [Ein Bericht für eine Akademie]
- The Bucket Rider [Der Kübelreiter]
- The Knock at the Manor Gate [Der Schlag ans Hoftor]
- My Neighbour [Der Nachbar]
- A Crossbreed [Eine Kreuzung]
- An Everyday Occurrence [Eine alltägliche Verwirrung]
- The Truth about Sancho Panza [Die Wahrheit über Sancho Pansa]
- The Silence of the Sirens [Das Schweigen der Sirenen]
- Prometheus [Prometheus]
- The City Coat of Arms [Das Stadtwappen]
- Poseidon [Poseidon]
- Fellowship [Gemeinschaft]
- At Night [Nachts]
- The Refusal [Die Abweisung]
- The Problem of Our Laws [Zur Frage der Gesetze]
- The Conscription of Troops [Die Truppenaushebung]
- The Test [Die Prüfung]
- The Vulture [Der Geier]
- The Helmsman [Der Steuermann]
- The Top [Der Kreisel]
- A Little Fable [Kleine Fabel]
- Homecoming [Heimkehr]
- The Departure [Der Aufbruch]
- Advocates [Fürsprecher]
- The Married Couple [Das Ehepaar]
- A Comment [Gibs auf!]
- On Parables [Von den Gleichnissen]
- Parables and Paradoxes (Parabeln und Paradoxe). Trans. Clement Greenberg; Ernst Kaiser & Eithne Wilkins; Willa & Edwin Muir; Tania and James Stern . Ed. Nahum N. Glatzer. New York: Schocken Books, 1961.
- On Parables
I
- An Imperial Message
- Peking and the Emperor
- The News of the Building of the Wall: a Fragment
- The Great wall and the Tower of Babel
II
- Paradise
- The Tower of Babel
- The Pit of Babel
- The City Coat of Arms
- Abraham
- Mount Sinai
- The Building of the Temple
- The Animal in the Synagogue
- Before the Law
- The Watchman
- The Coming of the Messiah
III
- Prometheus
- Poseidon
- The Silence of the Sirens
- The Sirens
- Leopards in the Temple
- Alexander the Great
- Diogenes
- The New Attorney
IV
- The Building of a City
- The Imperial Colonel
- The Emperor
- In the Caravansary
- The Cell
- The Invention of the Devil
- The Savages
- The Hunter Gracchus + Fragment
- The Vulture
- The Green Dragon
- The Tiger
- The Problem of Our Laws
- The Refusal
- Couriers
- A Chinese Puzzle
- The Truth about Sancho Panza
- The Test
- Robinson Crusoe
- The Spring
- The Hunger Strike
- My Destination
- The Complete Stories. Ed. Nahum N. Glatzer. 1971. New York: Schocken Books, 1976.
Two Introductory Parables:
- Before the Law [from The Trial]
- An Imperial Message [from "The Great Wall of China"]
The Longer Stories:
- Description of a Struggle
- Wedding Preparations in the Country
- The Judgment
- The Metamorphosis
- In the Penal Colony
- The Village Schoolmaster (The Giant Mole)
- Blumfeld, an Elderly Bachelor
- The Warden of the Tomb
- A Country Doctor
- The Hunter Gracchus + fragment
- The Great Wall of China + fragment
- A Report to an Academy + two fragments
- The Refusal
- A Hunger Artist
- Investigations of a Dog
- A Little Woman
- The Burrow
- Josephine the Singer, or The Mouse Folk
The Shorter Stories:
- Children on a Country Road
- The Trees
- Clothes
- Excursion into the Mountains
- The Rejection
- The Street Window
- The Tradesman
- Absent-minded Window-gazing
- The Way Home
- Passers-by
- On the Tram
- Reflections for Gentlemen-Jockeys
- The Wish to be a Red Indian
- Unhappiness
- Bachelor's Ill Luck
- Unmasking a Confidence Trickster
- The Sudden Walk
- Resolutions
- A Dream
- Up in the Gallery
- A Fratricide
- The Next Village
- A Visit to a Mine
- Jackals and Arabs
- The Bridge
- The Bucket Rider
- The New Advocate
- An Old Manuscript
- The Knock at the Manor Gate
- Eleven Sons
- My Neighbor
- A Crossbreed
- The Cares of a Family Man
- A Common Confusion
- The Truth about Sancho Panza
- The Silence of the Sirens
- Prometheus
- The City Coat of Arms
- Poseidon
- Fellowship
- At Night
- The Problem of Our Laws
- The Conscription of Troops
- The Test
- The Vulture
- The Helmsman
- The Top
- A Little Fable
- Home-Coming
- First Sorrow
- The Departure
- Advocates
- The Married Couple
- Give it Up!
- On Parables
Postscript, by Nahum N. Glatzer
- Stories 1904-1924. Trans. J. A. Underwood. Foreword by Jorge Luis Borges. 1981. A Futura Book. London: Macdonald & Co, 1983.
- Looking to See [Betrachtung]
- Children in the lane [Kinder auf der Landstraße]
- Unmasking a confidence trickster [Entlarvung eines Bauernfängers]
- The spur-of-the-moment stroll [Der plötzliche Spaziergang]
- Decisions [Entschlüsse]
- The excursion into the mountains [Der Ausflug ins Gebirge]
- The bachelor's lot [Das Unglück des Junggesellen]
- The businessman [Der Kaufmann]
- Wool-gathering at the window [Zerstreutes Hinausschaun]
- The way home [Der Nachhauseweg]
- Passers-by [Die Vorüberlaufenden]
- The passenger [Der Fahrgast]
- Dresses [Kleider]
- The rebuff [Die Abweisung]
- For jockeys to ponder [Zum Nachdenken für Herrenreiter]
- The window on the street [Das Gassenfenster]
- Wanting to be a Red Indian [Wunsch, Indianer zu werden]
- The trees [Die Bäume]
- Unhappiness [Unglücklichsein]
- The Judgement [Das Urteil]
- The Stoker [Der Heizer]
- The Metamorphosis [Die Verwandlung]
- In the Penal Colony [In der Strafkolonie]
- A Country Doctor [Ein Landarzt]
- The new attorney [Der neue Advokat]
- A country doctor [Ein Landarzt]
- In the gallery [Auf der Galerie]
- A leaf from the past [Ein altes Blatt]
- At the door of the law [Vor dem Gesetz]
- Jackals and Arabs [Schakale und Araber]
- A mine visit [Ein Besuch im Bergwerk]
- The next village [Das nächste Dorf]
- A message from the emperor [Eine kaiserliche Botschaft]
- The householder's concern [Die Sorge des Hausvaters]
- Eleven sons [Elf Söhne]
- A case of fratricide [Ein Brudermord]
- A dream [Ein Traum]
- A report for an academy [Ein Bericht für eine Akademie]
- A Fasting-Artist [Ein Hungerkünstler]
- First sorrow [Erstes Leid]
- A little woman [Eine kleine Frau]
- A fasting-artist [Ein Hungerkünstler]
- Josephine the singer, or The mouse people [Josefine, die Sängerin oder Das Volk der Mäuse]
- Metamorphosis and Other Stories. Trans. Michael Hoffman. Modern Classics. London: Penguin, 2007.
- Contemplation [Betrachtung] (1913)
- Children on the Road [Kinder auf der Landstraße]
- Unmasking a Confidence Trickster [Entlarvung eines Bauernfängers]
- The Sudden Walk [Der plötzliche Spaziergang]
- Resolutions [Entschlüsse]
- The Excursion into the Mountains [Der Ausflug ins Gebirge]
- The Plight of the Bachelor [Das Unglück des Junggesellen]
- The Businessman [Der Kaufmann]
- Looking out Distractedly [Zerstreutes Hinausschaun]
- The Way Home [Der Nachhauseweg]
- The Men Running Past [Die Vorüberlaufenden]
- The Passenger [Der Fahrgast]
- Dresses [Kleider]
- The Rejection [Die Abweisung]
- For the Consideration of Amateur Jockeys [Zum Nachdenken für Herrenreiter]
- The Window on to the Street [Das Gassenfenster]
- Desire to be a Red Indian [Wunsch, Indianer zu werden]
- The Trees [Die Bäume]
- Being Unhappy [Unglücklichsein]
- The Judgement: A Story for F. [Das Urteil] (1913)
- The Stoker: A Fragment [Der Heizer] (1913)
- Metamorphosis [Die Verwandlung] (1913)
- In the Penal Colony [In der Strafkolonie] (1919)
- A Country Doctor: Short Prose for my Father [Ein Landarzt] (2020)
- The New Advocate [Der neue Advokat]
- A Country Doctor [Ein Landarzt]
- In the Gallery [Auf der Galerie]
- An Old Journal [Ein altes Blatt]
- Before the Law [Vor dem Gesetz]
- Jackals and Arabs [Schakale und Araber]
- A Visit to the Mine [Ein Besuch im Bergwerk]
- The Neighbouring Village [Das nächste Dorf]
- A Message from the Emperor [Eine kaiserliche Botschaft]
- The Worries of a Head of Household [Die Sorge des Hausvaters]
- Eleven Sons [Elf Söhne]
- A Fratricide [Ein Brudermord]
- A Dream [Ein Traum]
- A Report to an Academy [Ein Bericht für eine Akademie]
- A Hunger-Artist: Four Stories [Ein Hungerkünstler] (1924)
- First Sorrow [Erstes Leid]
- A Little Woman [Eine kleine Frau]
- A Hunger-Artist [Ein Hungerkünstler]
- Josefine, the Singer, or The Mouse People [Josefine, die Sängerin oder Das Volk der Mäuse]
- Appendix
- Aeroplanes in Brescia [Die Aeroplane in Brescia] (1909)
- Great Noise [Großer Lärm] (1912)
- The Coal-Scuttle Rider [Der Kübelreiter] (1921)
- Abandoned Fragments: The Unedited Works of Franz Kafka, 1897-1917. ["Nachgelassene Schriften und Fragmente", Vol. 1 of 2, 1992]. Trans. Ida Pfitzner. USA: Sun Vision Press, 2012.
- Investigations of a Dog & Other Creatures. Trans. Michael Hofmann. New York: New Directions Press, 2017.
- The Lost Writings. ["Nachgelassene Schriften und Fragmente", 2 vols, 1992-93]. Ed. Reiner Stach. Trans. Michael Hoffman. A New Directions Paperbook. New York: New Directions Publishing Corporation, 2020.
Essays:
- Die Aeroplane in Brescia [Aeroplanes in Brescia] (1909)
- [with Max Brod] Die erste lange Eisenbahnfahrt [The First Long Train Journey] (1912)
- Eine entschlafene Zeitschrift [Review of Hyperion]
- Ein Roman der Jugend: Felix Sternheim, Die Geschichte des jungen Oswald [Review of A Novel about Youth]
- Über Kleist's Anekdoten [On Kleist's "Anecdotes"]
- Franz Kafka: The Office Writings. Ed. & Trans. Eric Patton & Ruth Hein. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008.
Diaries:
- "Reflections on Sin, Pain, Hope and the True Way." ['Die Zürauer Aphorismen' oder 'Betrachtungen über Sünde, Hoffnung, Leid und den wahren Weg', 1931]. In The Great Wall of China and Other Pieces. Trans. Willa & Edwin Muir. 1933. Rev. ed. London: Secker & Warburg, 1946. 142-59.
- The Zürau Aphorisms. Ed. Roberto Calasso. London: Harvill Secker, 2014.
- The Diaries of Franz Kafka: 1910-23. ['Tagebücher 1910–1923', ed. Max Brod, 1948]. Trans. Joseph Kresh and Martin Greenberg with Hannah Arendt. 2 vols. 1948 & 1949. Peregrine Books. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1964.
- "The Eight Octavo Notebooks." ['Oxforder Oktavhefte', 1953]. In Wedding Preparations in the Country and Other Posthumous Prose Writings: Definitive Edition. 1953. Trans. Ernst Kaiser & Eithne Wilkins. London: Secker & Warburg, 1954. 54-156.
Letters:
- Letters to Milena. ['Briefe an Milena', ed. Willy Haas, 1952]. Trans. Tania & James Stern. 1953. London: Corgi Books, 1967.
- Letter to His Father. ['Brief an den Vater', 1953]. Trans. Ernst Kaiser & Eithne Wilkins (1954). In Wedding Preparations in the Country and Other Posthumous Prose Writings: Definitive Edition. 1953. Trans. Ernst Kaiser & Eithne Wilkins. London: Secker & Warburg, 1954. 157-217.
- Letters to Friends, Family and Editors. ['Briefe 1902–1924', 1959]. Trans. Richard & Clara Winston. 1977. Richmond, Surrey: Alma Classics Ltd., 2014.
- Letters to Felice. ['Briefe an Felice und andere Korrespondenz aus der Verlobungszeit, ed. Erich Heller & Jürgen Born, 1967]. Trans. James Stern & Elizabeth Duckworth. 1973. With Elias Canetti: Kafka’s Other Trial. 1969. Trans. Christopher Middleton. 1974. Penguin Modern Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1978.
- Letters to Ottla and the Family. ['Briefe an Ottla und die Familie', 1974]. Trans. Robert Boettcher (1982)
- I Am a Memory Come Alive: Autobiographical Writings. Ed. Nahum N. Glatzer. 1974. New York: Schocken Books Inc., 1977.
Secondary:
- Brod, Max. Franz Kafka: A Biography. 1937. Trans. G. Humphreys Roberts. 1947. Rev. Richard Winston. 1960. New York: Schocken Books, 1973.
- Janousch, Gustav. Conversations with Kafka. 1953. Rev. ed. 1968. Trans. Goronwy Rees. New York: New Directions, 1971.
- Hayman, Ronald. K: A Biography Of Kafka. 1981. An Abacus Book. London: Sphere Books, 1983.
- Pawel, Ernst. The Nightmare of Reason: A Life of Franz Kafka. 1984. London: Collins Harvill, 1988.
- Calasso, Roberto. K. 2002. Trans. Geoffrey Brock. Jonathan Cape. London: Random House, 2005.
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