What do you think?
Rate this book
Plays 2: Kafka's Dick / The Insurance Man / The Old Country / An Englishman Abroad / A Question of Attribution
A second collection of Alan Bennett plays, including "Kafka's Dick", "The Insurance Man", "The Old Country", "An Englishman Abroad", and "A Question of Attribution".
368 pages, Paperback
First published June 2, 1998
10 people are currently reading
67 people want to read
About the author
Alan Bennett
274 books1,116 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
Alan Bennett is an English author and Tony Award-winning playwright. Bennett's first stage play, Forty Years On, was produced in 1968. Many television, stage and radio plays followed, along with screenplays, short stories, novellas, a large body of non-fictional prose and broadcasting, and many appearances as an actor. Bennett's lugubrious yet expressive voice (which still bears a slight Leeds accent) and the sharp humour and evident humanity of his writing have made his readings of his own work (especially his autobiographical writing) very popular. His readings of the Winnie the Pooh stories are also widely enjoyed.
Alan Bennett is an English author and Tony Award-winning playwright. Bennett's first stage play, Forty Years On, was produced in 1968. Many television, stage and radio plays followed, along with screenplays, short stories, novellas, a large body of non-fictional prose and broadcasting, and many appearances as an actor. Bennett's lugubrious yet expressive voice (which still bears a slight Leeds accent) and the sharp humour and evident humanity of his writing have made his readings of his own work (especially his autobiographical writing) very popular. His readings of the Winnie the Pooh stories are also widely enjoyed.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 16, 2022
I love Alan Bennett (and Arnold Bennett) and I love Kafka, but in very different ways, so I was wondering how a combination would work. Very well, I'm pleased to report.
Kafka's Dick
A short play about Kafka and especially his relationships with Max Brod (friend and literary executor) and his father, plus the effect on his philosophy and self-esteem etc. Some excellent insights (eg in The Trial, Joseph K is accused of a crime actually committed by a house painter, whereas in Crime & Punishment (which Kafka read and admired) a house painter is wrongly accused of a crime actually committed by Raskolnikov). Also very witty and sometimes surreal. It's prefaced by a good essay about Kafka that is also published in Writing Home, under the title Kafka in Las Vegas.
Insurance Salesman
A short play imagining an injured dye factory worker coming to Kafka's insurance company for help. To help him out, K gets him a job in his uncle's factory. It's an asbestos factory...
See my Kafka-related bookshelf for other works by and about Kafka: HERE.
Kafka's Dick
A short play about Kafka and especially his relationships with Max Brod (friend and literary executor) and his father, plus the effect on his philosophy and self-esteem etc. Some excellent insights (eg in The Trial, Joseph K is accused of a crime actually committed by a house painter, whereas in Crime & Punishment (which Kafka read and admired) a house painter is wrongly accused of a crime actually committed by Raskolnikov). Also very witty and sometimes surreal. It's prefaced by a good essay about Kafka that is also published in Writing Home, under the title Kafka in Las Vegas.
Insurance Salesman
A short play imagining an injured dye factory worker coming to Kafka's insurance company for help. To help him out, K gets him a job in his uncle's factory. It's an asbestos factory...
See my Kafka-related bookshelf for other works by and about Kafka: HERE.
September 3, 2025
Kafka’s Dick by Alan Bennett
Outré, but for all the provocative, somewhat outrageous title, this play has some serious topics, if approached in a jocular manner.
We have plenty of literary, at times psychoanalytical, then psychological references to Fitzgerald, Hitler, Freud, Proust and many more writers and famous figures.
From the start, we listen to a dialogue between Franz Kafka
- Max, I want you to burn all my works
- Franz, you really want to do this
- Yes, it must be done
- All right, burn, baby burn
These are not the words in the play that anyway takes liberties and a light tone in dealing with a serious matter.
Indeed, Max Brod has not respected the wishes of his friend- only friend as we are later told-and that is an important issue in here.
- I keep hearing the same question all over again
- Instead of congratulating me, people keep asking – why didn’t you burn all his manuscripts…?
There is a quandary here, although not a major moral question, if you want my opinion:
- Do you need to obey the last wishes?
- Yes, but when we are dealing with depriving humanity of such precious work, there is no question where the right answer lies
After this initial conversation that verges on the absurd and even touches on the improper, but with the obvious intention to be thought provoking and humorous, we meet other characters:
Sydney is an insurance salesman that has a penchant for literature, but in a shallow form- I guess I can relate to this guy, even if this is somewhat embarrassing, but hey, we share a rather light interest in books…it could have been worse.
He vents his knowledge of quite petty, quiz show information of small value in front of his ignorant wife- Linda:
- Did you know that Hitler and Wittgenstein went to the same school
They move on to discuss other trivia or gossip columns, tabloid material that may or may not be relevant:
- Some psychologists have studied the works of Kafka and arrived to some conclusions, among which they mentioned that he had a small penis- ergo the title?
Scott F. Fitzgerald is then mentioned as having the same small size…it appears that Hemingway was on the subject and Zelda talked about it.
E.M. Forster is also brought in as a subject, with his gay relationship with a (married) policeman that albeit of vulgar interest, may cast a light on some of his works…or may not
A connection is also made between Dostoyevsky, Kafka and…Hitler of all people:
- In Crime and Punishment there is a suspected killer who is a house painter
- Joseph K. is also suspected of a crime committed by…a house painter
- Hitler is again suspected of being a…house painter
Provocation and hilarity are intended by the author and these notes on various authors intrigue me, where I did not know about them.
If Freud wanted to appear bigger, E.M. Forster and Kafka were on the opposite end, with every intention to diminish themselves.
Sydney wrote in his amateur paper something like:
- Kafka related to smaller and smaller beings- ape, turtle, beetle- if he would have carried on like this, we would need a microscope to study his work
In an absurd, bordering on the outré incident the dead Max Brod shows up at Sydney’s door, where he pees on the turtle- the latter occurrence is futile to say the least.
Other than that the play is rather good, if too liberal in the title and some of its initiatives for this conventional, perhaps even reactionary reader.
Proust is compared with Kafka, and albeit praised and rightly placed at the top of the literary establishment, they need to talk about his preference for “boys”.
Bennett is rather interested in homosexuality that appears frequently, in various guises in his works, for a reason.
He knows about this and so many subjects, the author being an erudite and very witty, innovative and creative playwright.
Outré, but for all the provocative, somewhat outrageous title, this play has some serious topics, if approached in a jocular manner.
We have plenty of literary, at times psychoanalytical, then psychological references to Fitzgerald, Hitler, Freud, Proust and many more writers and famous figures.
From the start, we listen to a dialogue between Franz Kafka
- Max, I want you to burn all my works
- Franz, you really want to do this
- Yes, it must be done
- All right, burn, baby burn
These are not the words in the play that anyway takes liberties and a light tone in dealing with a serious matter.
Indeed, Max Brod has not respected the wishes of his friend- only friend as we are later told-and that is an important issue in here.
- I keep hearing the same question all over again
- Instead of congratulating me, people keep asking – why didn’t you burn all his manuscripts…?
There is a quandary here, although not a major moral question, if you want my opinion:
- Do you need to obey the last wishes?
- Yes, but when we are dealing with depriving humanity of such precious work, there is no question where the right answer lies
After this initial conversation that verges on the absurd and even touches on the improper, but with the obvious intention to be thought provoking and humorous, we meet other characters:
Sydney is an insurance salesman that has a penchant for literature, but in a shallow form- I guess I can relate to this guy, even if this is somewhat embarrassing, but hey, we share a rather light interest in books…it could have been worse.
He vents his knowledge of quite petty, quiz show information of small value in front of his ignorant wife- Linda:
- Did you know that Hitler and Wittgenstein went to the same school
They move on to discuss other trivia or gossip columns, tabloid material that may or may not be relevant:
- Some psychologists have studied the works of Kafka and arrived to some conclusions, among which they mentioned that he had a small penis- ergo the title?
Scott F. Fitzgerald is then mentioned as having the same small size…it appears that Hemingway was on the subject and Zelda talked about it.
E.M. Forster is also brought in as a subject, with his gay relationship with a (married) policeman that albeit of vulgar interest, may cast a light on some of his works…or may not
A connection is also made between Dostoyevsky, Kafka and…Hitler of all people:
- In Crime and Punishment there is a suspected killer who is a house painter
- Joseph K. is also suspected of a crime committed by…a house painter
- Hitler is again suspected of being a…house painter
Provocation and hilarity are intended by the author and these notes on various authors intrigue me, where I did not know about them.
If Freud wanted to appear bigger, E.M. Forster and Kafka were on the opposite end, with every intention to diminish themselves.
Sydney wrote in his amateur paper something like:
- Kafka related to smaller and smaller beings- ape, turtle, beetle- if he would have carried on like this, we would need a microscope to study his work
In an absurd, bordering on the outré incident the dead Max Brod shows up at Sydney’s door, where he pees on the turtle- the latter occurrence is futile to say the least.
Other than that the play is rather good, if too liberal in the title and some of its initiatives for this conventional, perhaps even reactionary reader.
Proust is compared with Kafka, and albeit praised and rightly placed at the top of the literary establishment, they need to talk about his preference for “boys”.
Bennett is rather interested in homosexuality that appears frequently, in various guises in his works, for a reason.
He knows about this and so many subjects, the author being an erudite and very witty, innovative and creative playwright.
July 30, 2022
As is my new tradition when it comes to writing reviews of play collections, I’ve reviewed each of the plays individually, as well as the collection as a whole. So here’s what I made of each play.
Kafka’s Dick: This play was awesome, but it probably helped that I’d already read a little bit of Kafka. It has a lot of nods to his ouvre and his style, taking the form of a surreal play with some metamorphoses along the way.
It’s a fantastic play in its own right, but it’s also a pretty touching tribute to Kafka and his work, and one that I’d love to see performed, especially because there are a few scenes in which the actors break the fourth wall. But then, I wouldn’t expect anything less from Bennett. He’s great.
The Insurance Man: This is the second of Bennett’s Kafka plays, but I thought that Kafka’s Dick was by far the superior, and not just because of its title. I found that one to be more playful, whereas this is a more serious look at Kafka’s work and life. But there’s room for both of them, though.
The Old Country: Another cracking Alan Bennett play, this time following three different couples and the interactions between them. The actual plot of this one wasn’t particularly interesting, at least to me, but I did like the characterisation and there were some cracking lines of dialogue. You can’t go wrong with some Alan Bennett, and this play is another good one.
An Englishman Abroad: A short but sweet Bennett play.
A Question of Attribution: This was a fun play which to me was mostly notable because it had the Queen as a character, like a return to The Uncommon Reader.
Overall, I thought this collection was fantastic, and I particularly enjoyed the Kafka plays and Kafka’s Dick in particular. It was also cool that there was information on who appeared in each of the original runs, as well as some extra context from Bennett.
Kafka’s Dick: This play was awesome, but it probably helped that I’d already read a little bit of Kafka. It has a lot of nods to his ouvre and his style, taking the form of a surreal play with some metamorphoses along the way.
It’s a fantastic play in its own right, but it’s also a pretty touching tribute to Kafka and his work, and one that I’d love to see performed, especially because there are a few scenes in which the actors break the fourth wall. But then, I wouldn’t expect anything less from Bennett. He’s great.
The Insurance Man: This is the second of Bennett’s Kafka plays, but I thought that Kafka’s Dick was by far the superior, and not just because of its title. I found that one to be more playful, whereas this is a more serious look at Kafka’s work and life. But there’s room for both of them, though.
The Old Country: Another cracking Alan Bennett play, this time following three different couples and the interactions between them. The actual plot of this one wasn’t particularly interesting, at least to me, but I did like the characterisation and there were some cracking lines of dialogue. You can’t go wrong with some Alan Bennett, and this play is another good one.
An Englishman Abroad: A short but sweet Bennett play.
A Question of Attribution: This was a fun play which to me was mostly notable because it had the Queen as a character, like a return to The Uncommon Reader.
Overall, I thought this collection was fantastic, and I particularly enjoyed the Kafka plays and Kafka’s Dick in particular. It was also cool that there was information on who appeared in each of the original runs, as well as some extra context from Bennett.
December 25, 2019
I liked “A Question...” best and “Insurance Man” least in this set.
Read
August 7, 2014Näistä kuultu toi Kafka's dick, se on ihan mahtava.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews