Kafka's Selected Stories (Norton Critical Edition) (Paperback)

by Franz Kafka (Author), Stanley Corngold (Editor)
Key Phrases: condemned man, old commandant, The Metamorphosis, The Great Wall of China, Country Doctor (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
In 1945, W. H. Auden remarked that Kafka stands in the same relation to his century as Shakespeare does to his—Kafka is the representative of the twentieth century, the poet who gives it its voice. This Norton Critical Edition is based on new translations by leading Kafka scholar and translator Stanley Corngold. Thirty stories are included, accompanied by detailed annotations. "Backgrounds and Contexts" offers a glimpse of Kafka’s creative process through extracts from his letters, diaries, and conversations. "Criticism" collects ten essays on the major stories by Stanley Corngold, Danielle Allen, Walter Hinderer, Walter Sokel, Nicola Gess, Vivian Liska, Benno Wagner, John A. Hargraves, and Gerhard Kurz. A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.

About the Author
Franz Kafka (1883-1924) was born of Jewish parents in Prague. Several of his story collections were published in his lifetime and his novels, The Trial, The Castle, and Amerika, were published posthumously by his editor Max Brod.

Stanley Corngold is Professor of German and Comparative Literature at Princeton University. He is translator and editor of the Norton Critical Edition of Metamorphosis, author of Lambent Traces: Franz Kafka, Franz Kafka: The Necessity of Form, Complex Pleasure: Forms of Feeling in German Literature, The Fate of the Self: German Writers and French Theory, and Thomas Mann, 1875–1955. He is the recipient of Literary Paternity, Literary Friendship: Essays in Honor of Stanley Corngold.

 

Product Details

• Paperback: 362 pages
• Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. (August 15, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393924793
• ISBN-13: 978-0393924794
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #248,365 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One Caution, December 17, 2006

By	comp lit prof (New Wilmington, PA) - See all my reviews

This is a terrific collection of Kafka's stories followed by fine critical essays on a number of them. One caveat: Contrary to the implication in the previous reviewer's comments, this edition does NOT contain the famous long story "Metamorphosis." Had there been a "Search Inside!" option, we would have known that Norton did not "select" this great work to be among the "selected stories."

2 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars To read and reread , January 8, 2006

By	Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

A 'Critical Edition' of this kind provides layers of interpretative richness to add and enhance those the reader makes on their own. Camus said of Kafka that he demands to be read and reread, that in short the essence cannot be given in a single reading or interpretation but that the text is an invitation to open and endless reinterpretation. This characteristic it might be said belongs to all great art both through the generations, and in the heart and mind of the individual at various stages of their lives.
Kafka however with his ambiguous indefinite narratives which at once seem so abstract and so realistic- which tend always toward parable and symbol seems especially suited for the rereading.
The great stories of Kafka, " The Metamorphosis" " The Judgment"
"To a Penal Colony" "The Hunger Artist" "The Country Doctor" all seem to take us on a trip to a place we vaguely fear going to and which we come to understand as not where we want to be yet where we almost preternaturally had to get to.
The depth of this the irony of it holds us in thrall with its terrible beauty.