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Short Stories by Franz Kafka
This volume contains all of Kafka's shorter fiction, from fragments, parables and sketches to longer tales. Together they reveal the breadth of Kafka's literary vision and the extraordinary imaginative depth of his thought. Some are well-known, others are mere jottings, observations of daily life, given artistic form through Kafka's unique perception of the world.
336 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2013
57 people are currently reading
143 people want to read
About the author
Franz Kafka
3,413 books39.1k followersFranz 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 His major novels The Trial, The Castle, and Amerika were left unfinished and unpublished during his lifetime.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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
January 13, 2020
Kafka is deep. He is an author who definitely saw the times as nasty and devastated. He had his own personal issues in life which he had potrayed in his stories. His stories are extremely psychological, philosophical and existential. To be honest there are stories like The Judgement, A Fratricide, A Country Doctor which I had to read twice to understand whether I am going in a right track or whether I have read the story properly or not. By reading his stories you will be able to understand that the term Kafkaesque is absolutely true.
July 19, 2023
'Why do I not do as others: live in harmony with my people and accept in silence whatever disturbs the harmony, ignoring it as a small error in the great account.'
There is a reason one starts to read books like these. One needs to find something. What is that 'something'? Is it sense, meaning, or a purpose? One doesn't succeed in articulating precisely what they are trying to find. But of course, there is some kind of seeking by the reader. Not even the neighbour understands it.
While the person seeks 'something' through these books, travelling within the tiny understandable parts of heavily translated paragraphs, they encounter questions that interrogate the nuances of their existence. The reader then goes behind the questions but gets lost within the complex process of seeking. They become confused with life and are no longer able to distinguish between meanings. This, according to me, is called 'Existentialism'.
Franz Kafka is my first detailed study into the concept of existentialism. Although I knew about other writers such as Nietzsche, Camus, Kierkegaard, and Kant, I couldn't pick up one full book and read it. There could be a reason for me not doing so. I read 'Notes from Underground' two months ago, and regardless of the translation and its style, I found it very difficult to digest the concepts of the first half of the book. The distant aspects of human feelings, which most people do not even bother to think about, have been intricately laid out in that book. Only when we read such lines do we start thinking about those concepts. Anyhow, the second part of that book made some things simpler for me to understand.
But Kafka is a completely different game. I had read 'Metamorphosis' last year as a standalone book, and this book has 'Metamorphosis' as one of its stories. Trust me, it is the only story I'm able to understand and appreciate. The rest of them, well, I don't know how many rereads they are begging for.
'The Hunger Artist' is one more story that felt thought-provoking. It speaks about a person who, unable or disagreeing to go by the norms of society, rejects its norms, tries to live by their own rules, and gets stamped mercilessly. It speaks about how the unnecessary rules and norms of society throttle a free mind.
'In the Penal Colony' speaks about authoritarianism and people's refusal to accept a new regime, even though it serves their well-being. That is one of the extensively discussed concepts all across the world, well put into a story.
There were some more stories. Each one impressed me, but none could hold my hand in the vast sea of long German sentences, ill-humoured metaphors, and sloppy translations (sometimes). I truly felt what 'Kafkaesque' really meant. As previously stated, it may be necessary for me to revisit these stories in an iterative manner.
This was a long-awaited end. I really waited to read works with existential themes, and I am glad I had Kafka as my first writer to read. His deep insights about human life and society have made our understanding of life easier. His 'Kafkaesque' writings have successfully put down words on paper for the same feelings that millions have felt, but could never give them form with words.
This book is definitely on my reread list, but for now, I am giving it only three stars. If I feel better during rereads, I will come and change my ratings.
There is a reason one starts to read books like these. One needs to find something. What is that 'something'? Is it sense, meaning, or a purpose? One doesn't succeed in articulating precisely what they are trying to find. But of course, there is some kind of seeking by the reader. Not even the neighbour understands it.
While the person seeks 'something' through these books, travelling within the tiny understandable parts of heavily translated paragraphs, they encounter questions that interrogate the nuances of their existence. The reader then goes behind the questions but gets lost within the complex process of seeking. They become confused with life and are no longer able to distinguish between meanings. This, according to me, is called 'Existentialism'.
Franz Kafka is my first detailed study into the concept of existentialism. Although I knew about other writers such as Nietzsche, Camus, Kierkegaard, and Kant, I couldn't pick up one full book and read it. There could be a reason for me not doing so. I read 'Notes from Underground' two months ago, and regardless of the translation and its style, I found it very difficult to digest the concepts of the first half of the book. The distant aspects of human feelings, which most people do not even bother to think about, have been intricately laid out in that book. Only when we read such lines do we start thinking about those concepts. Anyhow, the second part of that book made some things simpler for me to understand.
But Kafka is a completely different game. I had read 'Metamorphosis' last year as a standalone book, and this book has 'Metamorphosis' as one of its stories. Trust me, it is the only story I'm able to understand and appreciate. The rest of them, well, I don't know how many rereads they are begging for.
'The Hunger Artist' is one more story that felt thought-provoking. It speaks about a person who, unable or disagreeing to go by the norms of society, rejects its norms, tries to live by their own rules, and gets stamped mercilessly. It speaks about how the unnecessary rules and norms of society throttle a free mind.
'In the Penal Colony' speaks about authoritarianism and people's refusal to accept a new regime, even though it serves their well-being. That is one of the extensively discussed concepts all across the world, well put into a story.
There were some more stories. Each one impressed me, but none could hold my hand in the vast sea of long German sentences, ill-humoured metaphors, and sloppy translations (sometimes). I truly felt what 'Kafkaesque' really meant. As previously stated, it may be necessary for me to revisit these stories in an iterative manner.
This was a long-awaited end. I really waited to read works with existential themes, and I am glad I had Kafka as my first writer to read. His deep insights about human life and society have made our understanding of life easier. His 'Kafkaesque' writings have successfully put down words on paper for the same feelings that millions have felt, but could never give them form with words.
This book is definitely on my reread list, but for now, I am giving it only three stars. If I feel better during rereads, I will come and change my ratings.
October 2, 2022
Metamorphosis was one of its kind. A perfect example of human being letting loose his/her imagination free. The story hints on the reality of the near and dear ones too are at the end of the day, fair weather friends only. A reality only old age brings in one. The stories on the dog and the burrow , God knows, other than the fabulous language being used, what purpose it was written for. Or is the translation to be blamed? Many a time, we see the classical touch of the classics being devoured of the same by some low quality translators. I have read MT Vasudevan Nair's randamoozham, which lose its sheen in its English translation Bheem.
I liked Great Wall of China, a story in accordance with the decline of the British.
I liked Great Wall of China, a story in accordance with the decline of the British.
June 3, 2021
15 short stories - I have read most of them. My first book by Franz Kafka and I just find the writing super absurd, weird, and filled with irrelevant random details. Although there are a few great lines, it's hard reading the entire thing!
December 13, 2024
Absolutely loved Metamorphosis, the story touched my heart in so many ways. Burrow and Investigations of a Dog feel ever so slightly drawn out which made me put down the book a few times and try again later. Every story had such a fresh perspective on life, and was so enjoyable to read!
June 29, 2019
Metamorphosis is not the only story written from the perspective of a human being. Kafka writes from unusually different points of view. Dostoevsky seems to have a huge impact on him.
August 11, 2019
All of his stories have a kind of universal nature(in a good way).
December 25, 2019
I have to say, He has the wildest imagination ever!!
December 10, 2021
Deeply intriguing. This collection is the most philosophically accounted tell a tale series of stories which can only come from a genius like Franz Kafka.
June 15, 2014
Its Kafka... who am I to review Kafka...:)
This simple paper back has a few of the well known short stories by him including Metamorphosis and Penal colony. It also include an intriguing piece titled the 'Great wall of china'
This simple paper back has a few of the well known short stories by him including Metamorphosis and Penal colony. It also include an intriguing piece titled the 'Great wall of china'
October 2, 2017
Kafka is the reason I began reading Russian authors. His writing has charm of interpretations. His metaphorical uses of words and even entire stories reflects a lot upon the person who is reading it. One gets to know about himself by reading him.
June 15, 2015
What a writer!!
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews