Parables and Paradoxes (Bilingual Edition) (English and German Edition) [Paperback]

Franz Kafka (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 190 pages
• Publisher: Schocken Books (January 13, 1961)
• Language: English, German
• ISBN-10: 0805204229
• ISBN-13: 978-0805204223
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #589,076 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The essence of Kafka is here, October 16, 2004

By 

Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Parables and Paradoxes (Bilingual Edition) (English and German Edition) (Paperback)

The essence of Kafka is in these parables and paradoxes. In these short pieces many of them excerpts from longer walks we can feel the heart of his puzzling, mysterious, unique genius. Also in them we feel the way Kafka makes of a seemingly abstract argument a mystery story . There are parables on many different subjects, from Quixote and Sancho, to the Great Wall of China, and from Prometheus and the Vulture, to the Parable itself. Often there are variants of the parable and variants of the paradox and Kafka makes us feel not simply how elusive a single definition of a reality can be, but how wonderous and strange it can be also.
Of course in Kafka there is also dread , anxiety and a whole sense of the world as being somehow stranger than we can think or even imagine .Even the everyday details of life which Kafka is so much a master of making into parables of poetic beauty turn mysteriously into something else which we cannot really hold in mind or finally define.
Who reads this book reads a work of genius, the condensed essence of one of mankind's most original literary minds.
What a pleasure what a wonder what a dream.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Paradoxes of Older Testament, Greeks, and Imperial Era, December 15, 2008

By 

Gary Sprandel (Frankfort, Kentucky) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Parables and Paradoxes (Bilingual Edition) (English and German Edition) (Paperback)

The pieces here were posthumously gathered from Kafka's notebooks, diaries, letters, and short fictional works. Though generally short, they do seem to go remarkably well together. The pieces are arranged in 4 broad sections: the imperial area including the Great Wall and The Tower of Babel. ("If it had been possible to build the Tower of Babel without ascending it, the work would have been permitted."). There is a section that is Midrashic on the Older testament ("We are fashioned to live in Paradise, and Paradise was destined to serve us)". A favorite of mine was "The Animal in the Synagogue", though what the animal may symbolize is open for discussion. The section on the Greeks, introduces Poseidon, who has become a bureaucrat, checking "the last row of figures." And "Leopards in the Temple" presents another animal in another temple ... and "becomes part of the ceremony". The final section includes unrelated fragments such as "The invention of the devil" and "The truth about Sancho Panza". I found these pieces all heavy in irony and paradox, speaking of a wonderful and mysterious world, without some of the darkness of his longer work
Readers who enjoyed this would also enjoy Labyrinths, by Jorge Luis Borges.

4.0 out of 5 stars A good book to carry around and read while you're waiting..., June 30, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Parables and Paradoxes (Bilingual Edition) (English and German Edition) (Paperback)

Too bad this book is out of print. All of the stories are on the short side so it is nice to peruse when one does not have a whole lot of time to read but wants something stimulating. Sometimes they are only a page or so long but will leave you thinking about them for a few minutes - this book really engages the reader and encourages mental activity. I think Kafka's mysterious style is quite excellent, and I encourage anyone who has liked his other works to give tthis lesser known collection a chance