Best Short Stories: A Dual-Language Book (Dover Dual Language German) [Paperback]

Franz Kafka (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0486295613 | ISBN-13: 978-0486295619 | Publication Date: April 1, 1997

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.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, German (translation)
Original Language: German

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (April 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486295613
• ISBN-13: 978-0486295619
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #90,837 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #78 in Books > Education & Reference > Foreign Languages > German > Instruction

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must for students of German literature, June 30, 2002

By 

Sammy Jo "sammy_jo" (Midwest) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Best Short Stories: A Dual-Language Book (Dover Dual Language German) (Paperback)

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!

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great way to read Kafka's original writing, April 18, 2000

By 

B. A. Pecenka - See all my reviews

This review is from: Best Short Stories: A Dual-Language Book (Dover Dual Language German) (Paperback)

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.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Useful for students of both German and English, May 12, 2000

By 

Dean Stroud - See all my reviews

This review is from: Best Short Stories: A Dual-Language Book (Dover Dual Language German) (Paperback)

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!