The Castle (Everyman's Library 127)

Kafka, Franz; Muir, Willa & Edwin; Howe, Irving

ISBN 10: 0679417354 / ISBN 13: 9780679417354

Published by Alfred A. Knopf, 1992

About this Item

5th printing. Minimal wear to corners, owner sticker on front endpaper. 1992 Hard Cover. xxxviii, 378, [8] pp. Translated by Willa & Edwin Muir, including text from the original German edition and the definitive German edition (the latter of which included extra chapters), introduction by Irving Howe. Select bibliography and chronology of Kafka's life precede text, five appendices follow text, including: Continuation of the Manuscript; Another Version of the Opening Paragraphs; Fragments; Two Additional Passages Included in the Text of the Definitive German Edition; Passages Deleted by the Author. From the author of The Metamorphosis and The Trial, and one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century: Arriving in a village to take up the position of land surveyor for the mysterious lord of a castle, the character known as K. finds himself in a bitter and baffling struggle to contact his new employer and go about his duties. As the villagers and the Castle officials block his efforts at every turn, K.'s consuming quest - quite possibly a self-imposed one - to penetrate the inaccessible heart of the Castle and take its measure is repeatedly frustrated. Kafka once suggested that the would-be surveyor in The Castle is driven by a wish "to get clear about ultimate things," an unrealizable desire that provided the driving force behind all of Kafka's dazzlingly uncanny fictions.

Seller Inventory # 2349965

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Castle (Everyman's Library 127)
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
• Publication Date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0679417354
• ISBN 13: 9780679417354
• Binding: Hard Cover
• Edition: 5th Printing.
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine

About this title

Synopsis

From the author of The Metamorphosis and The Trial, and one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century: Arriving in a village to take up the position of land surveyor for the mysterious lord of a castle, the character known as K. finds himself in a bitter and baffling struggle to contact his new employer and go about his duties.

As the villagers and the Castle officials block his efforts at every turn, K.’s consuming quest–quite possibly a self-imposed one–to penetrate the inaccessible heart of the Castle and take its measure is repeatedly frustrated. Kafka once suggested that the would-be surveyor in The Castle is driven by a wish “to get clear about ultimate things,” an unrealizable desire that provided the driving force behind all of Kafka’s dazzlingly uncanny fictions. 

Everyman's Library pursues the highest production standards, printing on acid-free cream-colored paper, with full-cloth cases with two-color foil stamping, decorative endpapers, silk ribbon markers, European-style half-round spines, and a full-color illustrated jacket. Contemporary Classics include an introduction, a select bibliography, and a chronology of the author's life and times.

About the Author

The son of a well-to-do merchant, Franz Kafka was born in Prague in 1883 and died of tuberculosis in a sanitorium near Vienna in 1924. After earning a law degree in 1906, he worked most of his adult life at the Workers Accident Insurance Company for the Kingdom of Bohemia in Prague. Only a small portion of his writings were published during his lifetime; most of them, including the three unfinished novels, Amerika, The Trial, and The Castle, were published posthumously.

Mark Harman holds a Ph.D. from Yale University and has taught German and Irish literature at Oberlin and Dartmouth. In addition to writing scholarly essays on Kafka and other modern authors, he has edited and co-translated Robert Walser Rediscovered: Stories, Fairy-Tale Plays, and Critical Responses and has translated Soul of the Age: Selected Letters of Hermann Hesse, 1891-1962. He teaches literature at the University of Pennsylvania.