The Complete Stories [Hardcover]

Franz Kafka (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Schocken. (1983)
• ASIN: B000SJF7RY
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nothing like this before or since, December 16, 1999

By 

Doug Vaughn - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Franz Kafka: The Complete Stories (Paperback)

Kafka has to be the one of the most influential writers of the century, not just for his ability to capture the alienation and unreality of much of modern life but because his vision, which is simultaneously totally bizarre and strangely moving, freed writers to try more and more daring ways of expressing themselves. After all, if one can write a moving story about a man who wakes one morning to discover that he has been turned into a huge cockroach, what can't the writer do?

The impression left by these stories is all the more interesting when one realizes that Kafka wasn't a starving, drug or drink demented artist, but a minor clerk in a German insurance firm. A dull and orderly life. Of course, if you've ever worked for an insurance company Kafka's sense of unreality and alienation might seem natural.

These are unique and wonderful concoctions. Anyone who wonders what 'Kafkaesque' really means should take a peek into his world. These stories are the best place to start. Then on to The Trial for the full, gruely experience. Wonderfully horrible.

80 of 94 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great intro to Kafka, April 3, 2000

By 

Charles Pinney (North Carolina) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Franz Kafka: The Complete Stories (Paperback)

"The Complete Stories" has everything the beginning Kafka reader neads to get started. Of course this is required reading for the Kafka enthusiast.

A well thought-out forward by John Updike prepares you for your journey into the amazing and complex mind of Kafka. The book is divided into two sections, one for the longer stories and one for the shorter stories (most of which only take up a page or two).

The stories themselves are great. "The Metamorphisis" is included, in which Gregor Samsa awakens to find himself in the form of a rather large insect! "The Penal Colony", "The Judgment" and "A Country Doctor" are also included.

There's certainly hasn't been an author since Kafka able to play upon the fears and emotions of the human mind, those thoughts playing in out head, when we realize that maybe some of this could happen to us.

If you enjoy "The Complete Stories", be sure to pick up "Amerika", "The Castle" and "The Trial". These are Kafka's three novels and will complete your collection. All very much worth it!

135 of 164 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A review of the book, not the author., December 10, 2005

By 

Mark Rockwell "djmarkrockwell" (OH, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Franz Kafka: The Complete Stories (Paperback)

Let me preface this very negative review with this: I love Kafka. He's a great author and the shortcomings of this book, this book in particular, are not his.

That said, DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK! Whatever archaic methods the publisher, Schocken, uses to bind its books is in desperate need of revitalization. Within 1 week of purchasing this book it was threatening to fall to pieces. Within 2 weeks it became 4 volumes--it yet threatens to break into a weekly series.

If you enjoy breaking the binding on your paperbacks for easy reading beware, this book is poorly bound and breaking the binding, or even opening it much past 180 degrees, will cause the book to break asunder.

Buy these stories, just don't buy them in this book. Look elsewhere even if you must buy 2 or 3 other books to get everything.