[Kafka] spoke for millions in their new unease; a century after his birth, he seems the last holy writer, and the supreme fabulist of modern man s cosmic predicament.
from the Foreword by John Updike
The distinction Kafka, or his heroes, draw between "this "world and "the "world does not imply that there are two different worlds, only that our habitual conceptions of reality are not the true conception.
W. H. Auden
An important book, valuable in itself and absolutely fascinating. The stories are dreamlike, allegorical, symbolic, parabolic, grotesque, ritualistic, nasty, lucent, extremely personal, ghoulishly detached, exquisitely comic, numinous, and prophetic.
" The New York Times ""
"[Kafka] spoke for millions in their new unease; a century after his birth, he seems the last holy writer, and the supreme fabulist of modern man's cosmic predicament."
--from the Foreword by John Updike
"The distinction Kafka, or his heroes, draw between
this world and
the world does not imply that there are two different worlds, only that our habitual conceptions of reality are not the true conception."
--W. H. Auden
"An important book, valuable in itself and absolutely fascinating. The stories are dreamlike, allegorical, symbolic, parabolic, grotesque, ritualistic, nasty, lucent, extremely personal, ghoulishly detached, exquisitely comic, numinous, and prophetic."
--The New York Times
In his lifetime, Kafka refused to publish more than a fraction of his work. This volume brings together all of his stories, from the better known, such as "The Metamorphosis", to the lesser-known pieces. Shortly before his death at the age of 40, he instructed his friend and literary executor, Max Brod to burn all his remaining works of fiction. He disobeyed and fragments released after his death are included in this book.