Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Kovalı Süvari

Rate this book
Der Kübelreiter gehört zwar nicht zu den bekanntesten Werken Kafkas, ist aber trotzdem lesenswert und Pflicht für jeden Kafkaliebhaber.

216 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2012

2 people are currently reading
138 people want to read

About the author

Franz Kafka

3,213 books38.4k followers
Prague-born writer Franz Kafka wrote in German, and his stories, such as " The Metamorphosis " (1916), and posthumously published novels, including The Trial (1925), concern troubled individuals in a nightmarishly impersonal world.

Jewish middle-class family of this major fiction writer of the 20th century spoke German. People consider his unique body of much incomplete writing, mainly published posthumously, among the most influential in European literature.

His stories include "The Metamorphosis" (1912) and " In the Penal Colony " (1914), whereas his posthumous novels include The Trial (1925), The Castle (1926) and Amerika (1927).

Despite first language, Kafka also spoke fluent Czech. Later, Kafka acquired some knowledge of the French language and culture from Flaubert, one of his favorite authors.

Kafka first studied chemistry at the Charles-Ferdinand University of Prague but after two weeks switched to law. This study offered a range of career possibilities, which pleased his father, and required a longer course of study that gave Kafka time to take classes in German studies and art history. At the university, he joined a student club, named Lese- und Redehalle der Deutschen Studenten, which organized literary events, readings, and other activities. In the end of his first year of studies, he met Max Brod, a close friend of his throughout his life, together with the journalist Felix Weltsch, who also studied law. Kafka obtained the degree of doctor of law on 18 June 1906 and performed an obligatory year of unpaid service as law clerk for the civil and criminal courts.

Writing of Kafka attracted little attention before his death. During his lifetime, he published only a few short stories and never finished any of his novels except the very short "The Metamorphosis." Kafka wrote to Max Brod, his friend and literary executor: "Dearest Max, my last request: Everything I leave behind me ... in the way of diaries, manuscripts, letters (my own and others'), sketches, and so on, [is] to be burned unread." Brod told Kafka that he intended not to honor these wishes, but Kafka, so knowing, nevertheless consequently gave these directions specifically to Brod, who, so reasoning, overrode these wishes. Brod in fact oversaw the publication of most of work of Kafka in his possession; these works quickly began to attract attention and high critical regard.

Max Brod encountered significant difficulty in compiling notebooks of Kafka into any chronological order as Kafka started writing in the middle of notebooks, from the last towards the first, et cetera.

Kafka wrote all his published works in German except several letters in Czech to Milena Jesenská.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
45 (18%)
4 stars
89 (37%)
3 stars
76 (32%)
2 stars
21 (8%)
1 star
6 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
Profile Image for Caterina.
1,210 reviews62 followers
October 27, 2014
Kafka'nın yaşamı başlı başına incelenmesi gereken bir olgu bana göre, bu bağlamda "Kovalı Süvari" Kafka'nın ölümünden sonra çıkan derlemeler içinde en önemlilerden biri.

Altıkırkbeş yayınmcılık her bölüme başlarken açıklayıcı notlar düşmüş, ayrıca kitabın sonuna Kafka'nın yaşamına dair bir bir özet de eklemiş ki bitirdiğinizde aklınızda bir soru işareti kalmıyor.

Onu anlamak, yazarken aklından neler geçtiğini hissetmek istiyorsanız mutlaka okumalısınız...
Profile Image for Aydan Aliyeva.
90 reviews148 followers
June 8, 2020
Pulsuz kişi, insanlığı asanmı sanırsan?!

-Sehv xatirlamirsamsa Kafka bu kicik hekayesinde tam da bunu deyirdi. Insan olmaq , gorunmek ve ferqine varilmaq ucun zengin de olmasan, yoxsul olmamalisan ve he o bir de sey var idi, o sondaki kilse zengi....
Profile Image for Mohammed Naguib.
Author 37 books377 followers
May 25, 2017

قصة قصيرة عن فقير ينفذ منه الفحم الذي يشعله في المدفئة في ليلة شتاء قارص البرودة فيقرر الذهاب لمحل بائع الفحم ليستعطفه كي يمنحه قليلا من الفحم رغم عدم امتلاكه مالا .. لكن صاحب المحل و زوجته يعاملانه باحتقار كأنه لا شئ و لا يحصل على الفحم .
روح كافكا السوداوية ظاهرة في القصة فالفقير يحاول إذلال نفسه كي يظهر حاجته لبائع الفحم فيقرر الذهاب من البيت إلى المحل و هو داخل دلو الفحم ثم النهاية الصادمة المستسلمة
" وبهذا صعدت إلى أقاليم جبال الجليد وضعت للأبد"
Profile Image for Mohajerino.
130 reviews42 followers
March 12, 2021
عنوان:سطل سوار
نگاشته شده بین 1914-1917
Profile Image for Macy.
94 reviews
July 2, 2016
"Who is the coaldealer? Who is the beggar?" I found myself asking those questions as I was nearing the middle of the story, searching for the deeper meaning. Once again, Kafka managed to eerily parallel decades-old history with present-day. I'm not sure if it was his intent, but I have found all of Kafka's works to be very social justice-oriented. For such a short story (much shorter than the others I've read by him), it still carried a profound message. The blissful and willful ignorance of those in positions of 'authority' is a continual abuse of power that only serves to subvert the dignity and rights of those who are less privileged.
Author 14 books23 followers
July 6, 2018
The Bucket Rider by Franz Kalka with stream of consciousness, perfectly captures despair and cold inhumanity.
I believe writers such as Rod Serling and Harlen Ellison were greatly influenced by Kaffka's nightmarish short stories. For this reason, this story and Kalka's other works are must reading for any fan of Serling, Ellison, or weird tales.
Profile Image for lena.
31 reviews3 followers
Read
November 18, 2025
ich hab echt kp wie ich auf meine interpretation in der 11. klasse darauf 14 punkte in der klausur bekommen hab
Profile Image for Mark Elderson.
40 reviews1 follower
October 19, 2018
Franz Kafka's The Bucket Rider is a short prose-piece. Coal all spent; an empty bucket; the stove breathing out cold - I must have coal. I must ride out and seek aid from the coal-merchant; yet he has already grown deaf to ordinary appeals. I must prove, such that he cannot deny it, that I have not a grain of coal left.

'My mode of arrival must decide the matter; so I ride off on the bucket. Seated on the bucket, my hands on the handle, the simplest kind of bridle, I propel myself with difficulty down the stairs; but once downstairs my bucket ascends, superbly, superbly; camels humbly squatting on the ground do not rise with more dignity, shaking themselves under the sticks of their drivers.'

Read on?

What's interesting? Kafka and the basics. Less interested in any panorama, Franz Kafka very often takes one, or in the longer stories a small handful, of the many 'basics' of living within a society (or less frequently from the existence of a solitary being) and he shakes it to see what falls out. See A Hunger Artist for the basics of acknowledgement, see The Trial for the basics of guilt, see The Castle for the basics of social acceptance. And read The Bucket Rider for the basics of charity as applied to the individual and not the state.

Kafka's predicament - again the predicament - is the one of a man in a freezing room and without 'a single grain of coal left'. He will 'fly' to the local coal-merchant, a man with a family, a man who has created a business, he will prove incontrovertibly that the stove is 'breathing out cold', and then the obligation will be presented. The obligation of charity. Does the society you're in lay this basic obligation on you?

On the validity of these social basics Kafka's authorial voice usually remains silent. The Trial's rules of guilt; The Castle's rules of social acceptance - he writes the protagonist's partisan judgement, but it is clearly that - partisan. The authorial all-knowing voice is written in the neutral matter-of-fact manner. It is the only way to get the humour he wants, and, probably more importantly, the only way to get the casual horror of these situations. Unusually though, the authorial voice within The Bucket Rider does not tend to come across as impartial, though it technically is impartial, and that is because it is emphatically written in the first-person, the ' I ', format. Perhaps Mr. Kafka in his room was very cold indeed that winter. (https://markeldersonbooks.blogspot.com)
76 reviews54 followers
May 22, 2016
“You bad woman!” I shout back, while she, turning into the shop, half-contemptuous, half reassured, flourishes her fist in the air. “You bad woman! I begged you for a shovelful of the worst coal and you would not give it to me.” And with that I ascend into the regions of the ice mountains and am lost forever.

The story is about a man looking for coal to fill his bucket. He is a poor man and hopes that the coal-dealer will be generous enough to lend him some coal. He claims that he will pay for the coal later. When he arrives, he pleads for the coal, but it soon becomes apparent that the coal-dealer and his wife are oblivious to his needs. The wife in particular ignores him. I am not humbled to confess that my eyes were wet by the end of this short story. Kafka! You magnificent bastard you!
Profile Image for Julez.
166 reviews3 followers
Read
October 10, 2024
Es ist eine (sehr kurze) Kurzgeschichte, deshalb werde ich sie nicht wirklich bewerten. Vor dem Hintergrund des ersten Weltkrieges und den schlechten Wetterbedingungen, aber ein interessanter Einblick in die damalige Zeit.
Profile Image for Liv.
16 reviews
September 5, 2020
A great social commentary discussing if we as humans have a moral obligation to support others. Bringing up themes of capitalism, destitution and the dependence of marriage/relationships on economic profit. We question as readers why the wife turns him away and if a shovel of the worst quality coal is worth a man's life.

The parallelism between the unforgiving winter and cold hearted wife is definitely something to consider; as well as class and the idea of social vs state responsibility.

To be frank, this made me rather emotional, and though not Kafka's most popular work, is still my favourite of his! I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in humanitarian works and social critique (eg. Dickens, H.G Wells...).
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for David Meditationseed.
548 reviews34 followers
July 14, 2018
A brief history of Kafka that provokes us about the absurdities of authority and power. Where these two human facets overlap any kind of generosity or compassion.

And that perhaps the meaning that each one has of his life is so selfish that it usurps a minimal action that can mean until the death or the life of another person.

As Raul Seixas, a famous Brazilian singer, sang: "My selfishness is so selfish that the height of my selfishness is wanting to help."

In this story there is the cruelty of the selfishness of the absurdity of human society, where there is no empathy if the individual is engrossed in other values such as the blindness of profit, for example.

And where does all this go? "And with that I ascend to the regions of the icy mountains and lose myself for never again."

------

Uma história singela de Kafka que nos provoca sobre os absurdos da autoridade e do poder. Onde essas duas facetas humanas sobrepõem-se a qualquer tipo de generosidade ou compaixão.

E que talvez o sentido que cada um tem de sua vida é tão egoísta que usurpa uma mínima ação que pode significar até a morte ou a vida de outra pessoa.

Como cantou Raul Seixas, um famoso cantor brasileiro: " o meu egoísmo é tão egoísta, que o auge do meu egoísmo é querer ajudar".

Nessa história há a crueldade do egoísmo do absurdo da sociedade humana, onde não há empatia se o indivíduo está absorto em outros valores como na cegueira do lucro, por exemplo.

E para onde tudo isso vai? "E com isso ascendo às regiões das montanhas geladas e me perco para nunca mais".
Profile Image for Farhana Lüba.
216 reviews16 followers
July 7, 2019
To me it seems that our government is the coal dealer's wife, media is the coal dealer, and we are the ones begging for a bucket of coal so that we wouldn't freeze to death. This was written in 1917, and I'm relating it to a 2019 situation. More than hundreds of years have passed, and Kafka's stories still have meaning. Amazing.
64 reviews
August 6, 2025
What the words tell of a person. It's dreadful what they tell of Kafka. The buckets so light, we fly onto the cloud of a head, empty castle for a brain, dreams and dreams, and even there, the fists turn toward us, the hard of hearing harder still, us, up in the empty castle for a brain, the icy mountain, lost for good.
Profile Image for ↟° IRIS ⇞↟⇞.
66 reviews1 follower
November 16, 2023
Loved this story. The professor who borrowed the book actually took it back, so I am unable to give favorite paragraphs or quotes, unfortunately.
Profile Image for Kyle Macleod.
118 reviews1 follower
April 4, 2025
Once again playing fast and loose with what counts as a book; but I’m behind on my goodreads goal so its fine
Profile Image for разночинац .
5 reviews
Read
December 25, 2025
"Нипошто не смем да се смрзнем" - након одсечно изречених неколико нимало обећавајућих одређења околности. Узда се у трговца угљем и то да ће, иако отврднуо на молбе, ипак бити "обасјан зраком заповести" не убиј!. Не проси угаљ на вересију и не проси свој живот, проси морални поредак да се одржи, друштво да опстане. Али уколико њега издају међуљудски закони, утолико издаје и он законе разума, јаше на канти, као господин на коњу и губи се у планинама.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Neslihanim.
68 reviews36 followers
March 27, 2013
Oy verirken kararsız kaldım oylamayı öyküler için mi yapmalıyım yoksa kitap için mi? Öyküler içinse Kafka zaten bana laf düşmez der geçerim ama kitap içinse bir çift lafım var. Orjinalinden okumadığım için çeviri kalitesini sorgulayamam sanki ama bana özensiz bir çeviri gibi geldi. Ayrıca yazım hataları da kitaptan soğuttu.
Profile Image for Recep Alan.
105 reviews4 followers
May 4, 2017
Ölmem mümkündü ama acılara katlanabilmem değil; acılardan kaçmaya çalışarak onları katlıyordum aslında; ölüme razı olabilirdim ama çektiğim ıstıraba daha fazla dayanamazdım; ruhumda hareketin zerresi yoktu; denklerin hazırlanması gibi, güçlükle bağlanan ipler nasıl ikide bir sıkılanır ama bir türlü yola çıkılamaz, tıpkı böyle işte. En kötü şey, öldürmeyen acılardır.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.