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Franz Kafka

The Lost Writings Hardcover – October 6, 2020

by Franz Kafka (Author), Reiner Stach (Editor), Michael Hofmann (Translator)

4.6 68 ratings

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A windfall for every reader: a trove of marvelous impossible-to-find Kafka stories in a masterful new translation by Michael Hofmann

Selected by the preeminent Kafka biographer and scholar Reiner Stach and newly translated by the peerless Michael Hofmann, the seventy-four pieces gathered here have been lost to sight for decades and two of them have never been translated into English before. Some stories are several pages long; some run about a page; a handful are only a few lines long: all are marvels. Even the most fragmentary texts are revelations. These pieces were drawn from two large volumes of the S. Fischer Verlag edition Nachgelassene Schriften und Fragmente (totaling some 1100 pages).

“Franz Kafka is the master of the literary fragment,” as Stach comments in his afterword: "In no other European author does the proportion of completed and published works loom quite so...small in the overall mass of his papers, which consist largely of broken-off beginnings.” In fact, as Hofmann recently added: “‘Finished' seems to me, in the context of Kafka, a dubious or ironic condition, anyway. The more finished, the less finished. The less finished, the more finished. Gregor Samsa’s sister Grete getting up to stretch in the streetcar. What kind of an ending is that?! There’s perhaps some distinction to be made between ‘finished' and ‘ended.' Everything continues to vibrate or unsettle, anyway. Reiner Stach points out that none of the three novels were ‘completed.' Some pieces break off, or are concluded, or stop―it doesn’t matter!―after two hundred pages, some after two lines. The gusto, the friendliness, the wit with which Kafka launches himself into these things is astonishing.”

Print length

128 pages
Language

English
Publisher

New Directions
Publication date

October 6, 2020
Dimensions

4.8 x 0.7 x 7.6 inches
ISBN-10

0811228010
ISBN-13

978-0811228015
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From the Publisher

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Kafka himself stays well enough afloat. Even when he fumbles, he never falls wholly flat: at his worst, he is provocative yet provisional. But at his best, he is hilarious and mordant, mired in the impossibilities that he could neither live with nor without."
― Becca Rothfeld, Bookforum

"This delightful collection features dozens of untitled fragments, false starts, and unfinished work by Kafka, found and chosen by biographer Stach...Opening sentences such as “I was allowed to set foot in a strange garden” and “The city resembles the sun,” make the reader’s pulse heighten with the thrill of entering the space of great literature. This offers precisely the kind of fare Kafka enthusiasts would hope for from the legendary writer’s archives. "
― Publishers Weekly

"They have been translated by polyphonic, wizardly Michael Hofmann, who has made of Kafka a marvelous, often very humorous writer of eccentric English prose."
― Reading in Translation

"These marks make visible the fourth wall that is implicit in each work Kafka left in some way unfinished, and even in those whose publication he permitted. It’s not only the characters, but Kafka himself who could find no way out. The Lost Writings helps us linger with him, in his impassable doorways."
― Nathan Goldman, The Baffler

"I think of a Kafka story as a perfect work of literary art, as approachable as it is strange, and as strange as it is approachable."
― Michael Hofmann

"Kafka is the greatest German writer of our time. Such poets as Rilke or such novelists as Thomas Mann are dwarfs or plaster saints in comparison to him."
― Vladimir Nabokov

"If the mundane is, for Kafka, the domain of improbability and impossibility―wherein even the simplest of gestures cannot be guaranteed―the extraordinary is evoked with an air of sheer certitude."
― Ari Linden, Public Books

About the Author

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) was one of the most important writers of the twentieth century. His major novels include The Trial, The Castle, and Amerika.

Reiner Stach, born in 1951 in Saxony, is the author of the definitive biography of Kafka. The first two volumes, published by Princeton University Press, received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly (“superb”), Library Journal (“a monumental accomplishment”), Kirkus (“essential”), and Booklist (“masterful”). “I can’t say enough about the liveliness and richness of Stach’s book,” Michael Dirda exclaimed in The Washington Post. “Every page feels excited, dynamic, utterly alive.”

The award-winning translator Michael Hofmann has translated works by Gert Hofmann, Franz Kafka, Heinrich von Kleist, and Joseph Roth for New Directions.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ New Directions (October 6, 2020)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 128 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0811228010
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0811228015
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7.3 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.8 x 0.7 x 7.6 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #950,891 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,977 in Classic American Literature
- #23,573 in Classic Literature & Fiction
- #45,201 in Literary Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.6 68 ratings

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Franz Kafka

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Franz Kafka was born in 1883 in Prague, where he lived most of his life. During his lifetime, he published only a few short stories, including “The Metamorphosis,” “The Judgment,” and “The Stoker.” He died in 1924, before completing any of his full-length novels. At the end of his life, Kafka asked his lifelong friend and literary executor Max Brod to burn all his unpublished work. Brod overrode those wishes.

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Franz Kafka (Praga, Imperio austrohúngaro, 3 de julio de 1883 - Kierling, Austria, 3 de junio de 1924) fue un escritor de origen judío nacido en Bohemia que escribió en alemán. Su obra está considerada una de las más influyentes de la literatura universal y está llena de temas y arquetipos sobre la alienación, la brutalidad física y psicológica, los conflictos entre padres e hijos, personajes en aventuras terroríficas, laberintos de burocracia, y transformaciones místicas.

Fue autor de tres novelas, El proceso (Der Prozeß), El castillo (Das Schloß) y El desaparecido (Amerika o Der Verschollene), la novela corta La metamorfosis (Die Verwandlung) y un gran número de relatos cortos. Además, dejó una abundante correspondencia y escritos autobiográficos. Su peculiar estilo literario ha sido comúnmente asociado con la filosofía artística del existencialismo --al que influenció-- y el expresionismo. Estudiosos de Kafka discuten sobre cómo interpretar al autor, algunos hablan de la posible influencia de alguna ideología política antiburocrática, de una religiosidad mística o de una reivindicación de su minoría etnocultural, mientras otros se fijan en el contenido psicológico de sus obras. Sus relaciones personales también tuvieron gran impacto en su escritura, particularmente su padre (Carta al padre), su prometida Felice Bauer (Cartas a Felice) y su hermana (Cartas a Ottla).

El término kafkiano se usa en el idioma español para describir situaciones surrealistas como las que se encuentran en sus libros y tiene sus equivalentes en otros idiomas. Solo unas pocas de sus obras fueron publicadas durante su vida. La mayor parte, incluyendo trabajos incompletos, fueron publicados por su amigo Max Brod, quien ignoró los deseos del autor de que los manuscritos fueran destruidos.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5

68 global ratings

5 star		79%
4 star		14%
3 star		2%
2 star 0% (0%)		0%
1 star		5%

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Howard Mandel

Kafka, a

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 17, 2020

Verified Purchase

Kafka, still most intriguing writer of the 20th century. Defining black comedy and existential slapstick with enormous empathy for the marginalized and scenes from one’s private mindscape. This handsome small book is a new Kafka treasure, making a strong case that ALL his works were fragments, and the better for it. Some of the pieces here are only a few sentences long, and will echo long in memory. Some are longer, oblique yet transparent, too - concrete details we somehow believe are common but set us forth into impenetrable mysteries. I will reread this, always to challenge complacency and clarify confusion,

8 people found this helpful

Helpful

Mindo'ermatter

Cui Bono? Collection of Kafka's Writing Fragments.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 19, 2020

Verified Purchase

To any serious student of Kafka or of early 20th century European literature, this short work offers the reader a smorgasbord of writing samples revealing glimpses into Kafka's approach to writing. Each aborted effort, both long and short, illustrates well Kafka's unfinished attempts to create a workable story, experiment with an idea, or as a brief reminder of a story idea.

Many serious writers collect piles of these initial pages with enough merit to avoid the trash, while somehow lacking enough substance, vision, or depth to develop any further "just now."

Kafka ordered his friend, confidant, editor, and lterary sounding board (Max Brod) to destroy all of Kafka's works in varying stages of completion upon his death. However, Max chose to repair, complete, revise, and organize Kafka's works for publication many years after Kafka's death. Fortunately, Kafka's otherwise unknown works would never have reached an appreciative world audience.

This small volume is a treasure trove of insights into one of the most enigmatic writers of the last century. I found these fragments both inspiring and disturbing. Inspiring because they allow the reader to see brief starts and beginnings by a gifted author and disturbing because of their limitations and what they lacked. Half an idea goes nowhere fast. Ugh!

These bits and pieces of not fully developed work give glimpses into Kafka's genius and potential emotional instability, making them worthy of study and discussion. Somewhat troubling too in the great potential for misinterpretation and misunderstanding because of their brevity and lack of further development or needed revision by the original author.

As such, I have mixed feelings about this work. I do suggest that any reader review the afterword first to understand the work's historical context and development, including the potential value of these fragments for review.

Ultimately, only each reader can determine who benefits and identify any future potential meaning.

15 people found this helpful

Helpful

M

cool book, weird cover

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 24, 2021

Verified Purchase

I'm glad I'm not the only person who was freaked out by the cover! I think it's a little too "cute" a design for its own good personally.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Motley moe

It is Kafkaesque. LOL

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 19, 2020

Verified Purchase

It is a present for my son.

Helpful

William R.

Contents of ‘The Lost Writings’ superb; book cover is idiotic

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 19, 2021

I am immensely enjoying the purported “Lost Writings” of Franz Kafka; text is laid out well (spacious 1.5 lines—not too tight like newer reprint texts generally are—and the letters are not in a microscopic font). Kafka’s “undiscovered” works deserve nothing less.

What annoys me is the book’s cover “design.” Kenan must have thought it “a nice touch” if the new book appeared filthy and bloodstained. Okay, I almost fell for his childish prank until I googled images of the thing and realized I had not been gypped by some poor bleeding box packer at Amazon. Speaking of Amazon, they might want to include a clearer and much larger “pic” of the book to avoid similar reactions by unwary buyers. Kenan must’ve been all giggly gloating about all the returns and complaints Amazon and others would inevitably be receiving from outraged buyers. I suppose the idiot considered the filthy, blood spattered “look” of his cover to be hip? New Directions is certainly going in a new direction: South.

Isn’t Kenan the same “artist” who had brief success back in the 1970s with his syrupy “Love is...” comics? The two characters, a mindless hubby and his doe-eyed, domineering “little wife,” were depicted totally nude (Wow! Cutting edge, man), but without genitalia. How imaginative.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Geo

Terrible STAINS

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 23, 2020

Verified Purchase

BIG DISAPPOINTMENT. Got package, swabbed it, waited Coved 3 days to open. Cover is smeared, STAINED (?) with God only knows. Terrible.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

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