Franz Kafka

(1883-1924) Franz Kafka, b. Prague, Bohemia (then belonging to Austria), July 3, 1883, d. June 3, 1924, has come to be one of the most influential writers of this century. Virtually unknown during his lifetime, the works of Kafka have since been recognized as symbolizing modern man's anxiety-ridden and grotesque alienation in an unintelligible, hostile, or indifferent world. Kafka came from a middle-class Jewish family and grew up in the shadow of his domineering shopkeeper father, who impressed Kafka as an awesome patriarch. The feeling of impotence, even in his rebellion, was a syndrome that became a pervasive theme in his fiction. Kafka did well in the prestigious German high school in Prague and went on to receive a law degree in 1906. [Read more]

The Penal Colony: Stories and Short Pieces
Schocken Books, 1976 (PhP 140.00)
This powerful collection brings together all the stories Kafka allowed to be published during his lifetime, including "The Metamorphosis," "A Hunger Artist," "The Judgment," "Jackals and Arabs," "A Country Doctor," and the celebrated title story. Kafka is important to us because his predicament is the predicament of modern man.

The Trial (Definitive Edition)
Schocken Books, 1968 (PhP 120.00)
This paperback edition includes excerpts from Kafka's "Diaries," from the period in which he worked on "The Trial." According to Albert Camus: "Here we are taken to the limits of human thought. Indeed, everything in this work is, in the true sense of the word, essential. It states the problem of the absurd in its entirety... It is the fate, and perhaps also the greatness, of this work that it leaves open all possibilities and confirms none." Translated from the German by Willa and Edwin Muir; revised, and with additional materials translated by E.M. Butler.