K, a biography of Kafka - Hardcover

Hayman, Ronald

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0297779966 ISBN 13: 9780297779964

Publisher: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1981

Synopsis

A brilliant portrayal of the tormented, inspired writer who gave us the eerie and paranoid Metamorphosis, The Trial, and The Castle. This classic account of Kafka's life reveals how his unique body of work forces us to reconsider all our traditional assumptions about the divide between fiction and fact--and how Kafka used literature as a means of "putting himself on trial." "...a full biography which any Kafka reader will want to keep."--Observer. "Hayman...brings the jackdaw of Prague sharply to life."--The Times.

About this title

About the Author:

Ronald Hayman was educated at St. Paul's and Trinity Hall, Cambridge where he read English. He worked as an actor and director in the theatre before becoming well known as a critic and writer. His many books include Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter and Nietzsche: A Critical Life.

From Library Journal:

Hayman's important biography of Franz Kafka (1883-1924) was originally published in Great Britain in 1981. A prolific playwright and biographer (his works include biographies of Thomas Mann, Sylvia Plath, Nietzsche, and Brecht, among others), Hayman presents Kafka as a man tortured by both childhood and adult sorrows. He suffered the early deaths of two siblings and the subsequent indifference of his overwhelmed parents. Perhaps the first truly "modern" writer, Kafka was continually revisiting and reexamining his own lifelong and multifaceted alienation: as a son, as a Jew in an increasingly anti-Semitic Europe, as a would-be husband, and, finally, as an invalid facing a premature death from TB. Hayman joins a long list of Kafka biographers, notably Kafka's friend Max Brod (Franz Kafka: A Biography, Da Capo, 1995. reprint) and Peter Mailloux (A Hesitation Before Birth: The Life of Franz Kafka, 1981). A well-researched yet highly readable portrait of a fascinating figure; recommended for literature collections. Diane Gardner Premo, Rochester P.L., NY
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Weidenfeld and Nicolson
• Publication date: 1981
• ISBN 10: 0297779966
• ISBN 13: 9780297779964
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 349