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The Trial: A New Translation Based on the Restored Text (The Schocken Kafka Library) Paperback – May 25, 1999

by Franz Kafka (Author), Breon Mitchell (Translator)

255 customer reviews

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Written in 1914, The Trial is one of the most important novels of the twentieth century: the terrifying tale of Josef K., a respectable bank officer who is suddenly and inexplicably arrested and must defend himself against a charge about which he can get no information. Whether read as an existential tale, a parable, or a prophecy of the excesses of modern bureaucracy wedded to the madness of totalitarianism, Kafka's nightmare has resonated with chilling truth for generations of readers. This new edition is based upon the work of an international team of experts who have restored the text, the sequence of chapters, and their division to create a version that is as close as possible to the way the author left it.

In his brilliant translation, Breon Mitchell masterfully reproduces the distinctive poetics of Kafka's prose, revealing a novel that is as full of energy and power as it was when it was first written.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Kafka's 'legalese' is alchemically fused with a prose of great verve and intense readability."
--James Rolleston, professor of Germanic languages and literatures, Duke University

"Breon Mitchell's translation is an accomplishment of the highest order that will honor Kafka far into the twenty-first century."
--Walter Abish, author of How German Is It

From the Inside Flap

914, The Trial is one of the most important novels of the twentieth century: the terrifying tale of Josef K., a respectable bank officer who is suddenly and inexplicably arrested and must defend himself against a charge about which he can get no information. Whether read as an existential tale, a parable, or a prophecy of the excesses of modern bureaucracy wedded to the madness of totalitarianism, Kafka's nightmare has resonated with chilling truth for generations of readers. This new edition is based upon the work of an international team of experts who have restored the text, the sequence of chapters, and their division to create a version that is as close as possible to the way the author left it.

In his brilliant translation, Breon Mitchell masterfully reproduces the distinctive poetics of Kafka's prose, revealing a novel that is as full of energy and power as it was when it was first written.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product details

Series: The Schocken Kafka Library
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Schocken (May 25, 1999)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0805209999
ISBN-13: 978-0805209990
Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 255 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #18,083 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #6 in Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Movements & Periods > Surrealism
- #25 in Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > European > German
- #76 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Humor > Lawyers & Criminals

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A book not to be read by chance, so as not to fall into despair.

September 30, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Be forewarned when you crack open this book. The mind must be prepared and focused, with no expectations of stability or calmness. And remember that anger management is to be dispensed with when encountering the townspeople of this novel, whose speech is never friendly, and whose intellectual capacities are almost completely atrophied. One could view them as a prank, as a dark joke perhaps from one or many of the Greek fates that influenced K into entering this miserable town, where it is clear that what he encountered has no value to him or anyone else.

Atypical or not, whether they form a statistical outlier or not, there is not one character in the town that has any redeeming virtue, except for maybe as a warning, as an example of what to caution yourself against becoming. For your intellect and attitude to have any intersection with these people is to follow the path of intellectual and personal decay, a path that will be characterized and determined by cynicism, apathy, and xenophobia.

Even if it is a structure of bricks and mortar, Castle Mount is a fiction, a place whose surreal inhabitants hold the populace in permanent intellectual bondage, with their minds polluted by an excess of veneration for authority, whether real or imagined. The populace, who are allergic to hospitality, where courtesy is never a part of communication, and who have no respect for themselves or their own potential, demand respect for Count Westwest, with the hair on their pathetic necks standing up straight when being confronted with anyone who does not show this unjustified and cognitively vacuous reverence.

K prefers to be a free agent, and therefore residing in The Castle would (rightfully) compromise this freedom and its corollary of intellectual independence. Embedding yourself in organized bureaucracy with its simulacra and exaggerated and ephemeral displays of power and you morph into the organization, with your opinions not your own but rather belong to a collection of entities and social structures that have no legitimate function. But K does not have an impulse to prejudge things, choosing instead to demand evidence for assertions about livability and suitability. His mind is intact upon arriving. The townspeople have it as their goal to remove it as quickly as possible.

Rather than a flock of crows circling around The Castle, it is more fitting to have a flock of vultures, who are ready to indulge themselves in its fallen citizens-those who have died a personal and cognitive death. It might be slim pickings for these birds though, as the skulls of the Castle dwellers will be near to empty, reflecting the lack of use of the neuronal apparatus, this being surrendered to the echelons of imagined power structures with their elitist and haughty view of common laborers who are undeserving of respect, who are invisible and indiscernible, like the F.F. Coppola maid of Mr. Waltz standing in his presence of the sitting consigliere Mr. Hayden, whose presence and humanity is never to be acknowledged.

There are many lessons to take away from this book, the most important being to always be aware of the impact of discouraging surroundings, and don’t get used to disappointments, lest one conclude that existence is naturally a dark and hostile soup, the latter of which if not watched on the stove of personality will boil over and ruin one’s emotional and conceptual apparatus, and fill it with cynicism and despair.

11 people found this helpful

Incomplete work

July 19, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

As the story goes, Kafka died before he finished this book. The incomplete nature reflects in the second half of the book, which after a brilliant first-half becomes a drag heading nowhere. While critics are driven to find meaning in the book despite its unedited quality, the truth is that the writing falls from grace halfway through the narrative and never gains the momentum it builds in first half again.
The first half of book is reminiscent of Kafka’s writing style in ‘The Trial’. While in ‘The Trial’ the protagonist ends up finding himself in a hearing of which he does not know the reason, in ‘The Castle’ the protagonist K. finds himself in a village with a willingness to reach the Castle that apparently rules the village. The willingness through the course of the narrative heads towards becoming an obsession until the book loses track of its plot like K. loses himself in pursuit of the Castle. The narrative in the first half is surreal. Among many strange effects, the one that stands out is the rules of social interaction in the village. They do not resemble rules of the society as we know it. K. interacts with his assistants like people interact with Dogs. The assistants also behave like they are dogs but are sent to K as people. The society seems to follow bizarre rules that seem orthogonal to modern civilizations. For instance – there is a belief in the society that people look different in different times. The village’s allegiance to The Castle is not similar to the way societies believe in religion but as if it was innate organ they are born with and have to live with. The uncanny rules of interaction and belief is what makes the first half intriguing. Unlike ‘The Trial’ the book seems to head towards a certainty that K may find a way to the Castle.
It’s around this point where the narrative takes a nose dive. Instead of emboldening the uncertainty or the frustration associated with it, the book heads into a mundane narrative and pointless discussions. While Olga’s stories highlight the bizarre behavior of the society, it’s not clear where they are headed. Perhaps it’s a depiction of the plight of K. itself, nevertheless it can be interpreted as aimless ramblings created to fill the pages without any particular aim. Towards the end, the book completely loses itself and has no sense of plot or direction. The world is no more surreal, it seems to look like an ordinary society, the words lack any mystery and the conclusion is incoherent. In the end, it shows up as incomplete work – a spark of brilliance left incomplete by its master.

Barbara M Haluapo

August 25, 2015

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Some say Kafka is the best author of the twentieth century. I agree with that. For someone to express that kind of suffering, of the kind he is talking about, they would have had to experience it. And I think that only the people who had also experienced that cruel, back stabbing,sly, deliberateness, leaving the victim in limbo but certain of a dark end, even know what he is describing. .His expose' on just how much evil people can visit on another has a depth no one could ever express. But Franz Joseph Kafka comes so very close to doing just that..

One person found this helpful

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Get the paperback version.

December 5, 2017

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

The hardcover of this was peculiarly printed. On every page there is an inch of blank space at the top, the font size is like 8 in an old school typewriter lettering. Should have gotten the paperback.

2 people found this helpful

Most recent customer reviews

Very bad typography. Unuseable.

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Book is lit, so is the cover

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Totalitarian terror

Franz Kafka is without a shadow of a doubt the most fascinating writer of the modern era. His influence on world literature is, without exaggeration, enormous, and far more...Read more

Published 4 months ago

Amazon Customer

The text is really small.

Published 4 months ago

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Do NOT Read Product Description (Spoilers!)

I did not actually purchase this book. Why am I reviewing it and giving it a horrible rating then you might ask? Certainly not due to the writing of Franz Kafka.Read more

Published 7 months ago

Kafka's best book right here. Buy it. Read it.

Published 7 months ago

Grandson loves Kafka.

Published 7 months ago

Very Kafkaesque.

Published 8 months ago

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