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The Castle: A new translation based on the restored text
 

The Castle

by Franz Kafka

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... (read more)

Top tags: fiction,  literature,  kafka,  classic,  czech (all tags)

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Amazon Reviews (5)
 

Most Helpful Reviews

Liked It

david m
  • Rated 5 stars

“Franz has captured the essence of beurocracy. "K" is at it again. Working day and night and accomplishing less than nothing. Franz creates a world where all one can do is walk in circles in the snow. Welcome to the nightmarishly frustrating human condition we are forever locked into. Brilliantly executed. This book should be banned because it cuts to the bone and leaves the common man nothing but grizzle to chew upon.”

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Didn’t Like It

2 of 2 members found this review helpful.
Bonnie
  • Rated 2 stars

“I feel like I've been reading this book for 6 months when in actual fact it has been just under a month and after much struggling and determination I just can't keep reading it anymore and yet a part of me wants to keep reading it even though it's a torment. I feel as though if I stop reading I'm letting myself down and missing something. Perhaps it's because I want to know what's so good about Kafka. Why do I always seem to hear Kafka praised and nothing badly said about his writing? I have...”

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Community:
  • Rated 4.00905 stars
Amazon:
  • Rated 4.5 stars
  

Newest Comments

  • Zero

    zero said:

    “Although the previous convsation has long since terminated, I think it should be noted to future visitors of this page that The Castle was an unfinished book, abandoned by Kafka: hence the abrupt mid-sentance ending.”

    posted Saturday, May 10 2008
  • Mirko B

    mirko b said:

    “Thanks for the compliment! There are a dozen authors who are dismissed as being too complex(Kafka and Joyce) or too simple(Exupery and Carroll) but that just proves how little effort people put into understanding and thinking about what they read. There are more semantic layers to books then just the surface, I wish people would just get to that place where they could see them.”

    posted Monday, November 19 2007
  • Mani antiparticle

    mani antiparticle said:

    “WOW,among all the people that with them I've talked about this book you are the first one who think like me.The others take this very simple, they just put an regular interval in X of the equation and they think they solve the problem but in my opinion one has to look from other dimensions, variety of answers, reaching an answer is easy but it's important to study which answer is proper and which is not.Here I really think if we take the family for the metamorphosed one then we can reach much more vaster range of answers and you in Art and Literature one is free to chose and I believe all points of view will have the same value. ”

    posted Monday, November 19 2007
  • Mirko B

    mirko b said:

    “Correction- they had changed, and Gregor didn't :)”

    posted Friday, November 16 2007
  • Mirko B

    mirko b said:

    “I really like your remark that the ones who have metamorphosed are Kafka's family and him! That is so true! I happen to live with a person who went through a similar process of physical change(well, she didn't turn into a cockroach, she ended up in a wheelchair) where everybody else had to adapt top this new situation and condition even if her psyche remained intact. I pretty much know how it looks like when you wake up one day to realize that the old you doesn't exist any more. And it's devastating.”

    posted Friday, November 16 2007
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