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by Franz Kafka, Erich Heller (Contributer), Joachim Beug (Contributer)

این تنها دلیل نیست که از این به بعد برای شما فقط نامه های کوتاه خواهم نوشت (به جایش یکشنبه‌ها همیشه یک نامه بسیار بلند همراه با لذت)، بلکه به این دلیل هم هست که می‌خواهم تا آخرین نفس خودم را وقف رمانم کنم. رمانی که البته از آن شما هم هست یا بهتر بگویم رمانی که تصویر روشن‌تری از خوبی‌های درونم به شما می‌دهد تا کلمات فقط دلالت گر طولانی‌ترین نامه های طولانی‌ترین عمرها قادر به آن باشند. اسم داستانی که دارم می‌نویسم و در ضمن سر به فلک می‌زند برای این که تصویری موقتی به شما داده باشم، مفقودالاثر است و فقط و فقط در ایالات متحده در شمال امریکا اتفاق می‌افتد.

Genres: Nonfiction

228 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1983

About the author

Franz Kafka was a German-speaking writer from Prague whose work became one of the foundations of modern literature, even though he published only a small part of his writing during his lifetime. Born into a middle-class Jewish family in Prague, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Kafka grew up amid German, Czech, and Jewish cultural influences that shaped his sense of displacement and linguistic precision. His difficult relationship with his authoritarian father left a lasting mark, fostering feelings of guilt, anxiety, and inadequacy that became central themes in his fiction and personal writings.
Kafka studied law at the German University in Prague, earning a doctorate in 1906. He chose law for practical reasons rather than personal inclination, a compromise that troubled him throughout his life. After university, he worked for several insurance institutions, most notably the Workers Accident Insurance Institute for the Kingdom of Bohemia. His duties included assessing industrial accidents and drafting legal reports, work he carried out competently and responsibly. Nevertheless, Kafka regarded his professional life as an obstacle to his true vocation, and most of his writing was done at night or during periods of illness and leave. Kafka began publishing short prose pieces in his early adulthood, later collected in volumes such as Contemplation and A Country Doctor. These works attracted little attention at the time but already displayed the hallmarks of his mature style, including precise language, emotional restraint, and the application of calm logic to deeply unsettling situations. His major novels The Trial, The Castle, and Amerika were left unfinished and unpublished during his lifetime. They depict protagonists trapped within opaque systems of authority, facing accusations, rules, or hierarchies that remain unexplained and unreachable. Themes of alienation, guilt, bureaucracy, law, and punishment run throughout Kafka’s work. His characters often respond to absurd or terrifying circumstances with obedience or resignation, reflecting his own conflicted relationship with authority and obligation. Kafka’s prose avoids overt symbolism, yet his narratives function as powerful metaphors through structure, repetition, and tone. Ordinary environments gradually become nightmarish without losing their internal coherence. Kafka’s personal life was marked by emotional conflict, chronic self-doubt, and recurring illness. He formed intense but troubled romantic relationships, including engagements that he repeatedly broke off, fearing that marriage would interfere with his writing. His extensive correspondence and diaries reveal a relentless self-critic, deeply concerned with morality, spirituality, and the demands of artistic integrity. In his later years, Kafka’s health deteriorated due to tuberculosis, forcing him to withdraw from work and spend long periods in sanatoriums. Despite his illness, he continued writing when possible. He died young, leaving behind a large body of unpublished manuscripts. Before his death, he instructed his close friend Max Brod to destroy all of his remaining work. Brod ignored this request and instead edited and published Kafka’s novels, stories, and diaries, ensuring his posthumous reputation.
The publication of Kafka’s work after his death established him as one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. The term Kafkaesque entered common usage to describe situations marked by oppressive bureaucracy, absurd logic, and existential anxiety. His writing has been interpreted through existential, religious, psychological, and political perspectives, though Kafka himself resisted definitive meanings. His enduring power lies in his ability to articulate modern anxiety with clarity and restraint.

Reviews

[Hossein Shiravi]

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اریش هلا و یوآخیم بویگ | ناصر عیائی
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این کتاب دارای 4 بخشه که عبارتند از :
1. در باره ی هر یک از اثار
2. از نوشتن
3. از نوشتن نامه
4. از نوشتن یاداشت های روزانه و...

بخش اول کتاب بنظرم مهم ترین بخشه کتابه که در اصل نقش یه دستور العمل برای خوندن کتاب های کافکاس
توی این بخش گرداورنده ها امدن نامه ها و دست نوشته های کافکا رو در مورد کتاباش جدا کردن و پشت هم اوردن. این بخش بنظر در صورتی که خود کتاب رو نخونده باشین جذابتی نداره ولی اگه کتاب رو خونده باشین و بعدش بخش مربوطه به کتاب رو برین بخونین خیلی براتون جذاب میشه که کافکا یه سیری رو برای نوشتن این داستان طی کرده و نظر خوندش در مورد اون داستان بخصوص چی بوده.
البته نظرش در مورد بعضی از کتابهاش برای منی که طرفدارش بودم نا امید کننده امد ولی خب نظر نویسنده س دیگه
در ضمن ازون جایی که اکثر کتاب های کافکا نصفه س در مورد بعضی از کتاب ها گفته توی نامه های که میخواد کتاب رو چطور تموم کنه مثلا در مورد آمریکا
در مجموع این ازون دسته کتابا نیست که برین برای آشنایی با سبک کافکا بخونین بیشتر به این درد میخوره که بریندر کنار بقیه ی اثار کافکا بصورت موازی بخونینش

[Mahshid · Rating 4 out of 5]

ناراحت شدم این کتاب انقدر کم خونده شده و ریویویی نداره.
من دوبار رفتم سراغ این کتاب تا اوایلش خوندم برام گنگ بود رها کردمش تا اینکه الان برای سومین بار رفتم سراغش چون حالا حداقل سه تا اثر از کافکا خوندم باهاش آشنایی دارم و قابل درکه. این کتاب از اسمش مشخصه مجموعه یادداشتها و نامه های گرد آوری شده ست که کافکا از نوشتن میگه یعنی برای اهل قلم خیلی الهام بخش و قابل درک خواهد بود. همینطور با چالشهایی که موقع نوشتن با خودش داشته آشنا میشید.
بخش اول کتاب راجع به هر یک از کتاباست و یادداشت های مربوط به اون کتاب. پس برای علاقه مندان به او و کسی که همه اثر ها رو خونده جذابه و فکر پشت هر کدوم از داستان هارو اینجا از زبون دیگه کافکا میخونه.
در اخر هم یادداشت هایی رو میخونیم که اونجا کافکا تاکید داره همه اینها و دست‌نوشته های کتاباش سوزانده شه.
تکه متن های خیلی قشنگی هم داشت این یادداشت ها و همه رو خط کشیدم:
"جهانِ او یا در درونش به خروش در‌می‌آید
یا در سکوت غرق می‌شود."

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