Franz Kafka

by Jeremy Adler

The illustrations in this volume include rarely seen drawings from Kafka's workbooks, images of the Prague environment that inspired his nightmarish works, photos of Kafka with friends and colleagues, and reproductions of letters, manuscripts, and first

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction

164 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Jeremy Adler is Professor of German at King’s College London. He studied German at Queen Mary College (University of London) and was a Lecturer in German at Westfield College before being awarded a Personal Chair. He is a sometime fellow of the Institute of Advanced Study, Berlin, and a sometime scholar of the Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel.

He has written a book on Goethe’s novel The Elective Affinities (1987) and (with Ulrich Ernst) has produced a catalogue of visual poetry, Text als Figur (third edition, 1990). He has published several volumes of poetry, including The Wedding and other Marriages (1980), The Electric Alphabet (1986; second edition, 1996, internet edition, 1997) and At the Edge of the World (1995).

Jeremy Adler is married and lives in London.

Reviews

[Connor J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a pretty good little biography of Kafka's life. Its does a very decent job to summarize the complexities of Kafka's life, his influences, and does a really effective job in bringing this in historical and geographic context, or at least to the extent a 160 page book (which essentially has 60 pages of text while the rest is intermittently filled with images of Kafka, Prague, his etchings, and so on) can allow. Id say this book would be really good for people who have read his collected works and are big Kafka fans. The author makes a point of mentioning the key works that formed the foundation of his style and substance (ie. "The Judgement") and marked his progression as a writer (i.e. "The Metamorphosis", "The Trial", "The Castle", "Josephine the Singer", etc.). The only problem I had with it was its brevity and the fact the author chose to gloss over key texts like "The Hunger Artist". But for a little picture filled bio book, it had more to say about Kafka than it was expected to. All in all, I give it 4 stars. Possibly not for Kafka scholars writing their 500 page thesis on "Description of a Struggle", but definitely for readers who want to know a little bit more about his life and interests.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a short book and not really a full biography (It is part of a series: "Overlook Illustrated Lives is a series of photographic biographies..." ) I thought it was well written, with many interesting photographs, drawings, etc. of Kafka, family and friends. Kafka is one of my most beloved authors so I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. The author did not have a literary/theoretical ax to grind, so that was good, and I learned that Kafka read Kierkegaard, which seems entirely as it should be, but I never knew that. Highly recommended to anyone who would like an overview of Kafka's life in connection with reading his novels and stories.

(Part of the poignancy of Kafka has to do with his death and the fates of many of those he cared for: He died in 1924 of TB, which infected and silenced him even before it killed him. His parents died in the 1930s. In the background you can practically feel the gathering darkness: All three of Kafka's sisters died in the camps, his uncle committed suicide to avoid deportation, his great love Milena also died in a camp. But his best friend, Max Brod, escaped to Palestine with the manuscripts that Kafka had instructed him to burn--thank god he disobeyed! All of these facts, to me, radiate throughout Kafka's writing's, making him one of the great prophet of the 20th Century.)

[Dylan · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a great little book. Anyone interested in Kafka's life should own this. The only downside: being pocket-size, this sometimes prevents a full appreciation for the many visuals in the book.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why am I drawn to read about Kafka although I've never read any of his writings and never intend to? It's because of my intrigue of and readings about existential Christianity. But Kafka was a Jew? How does that relate? Well, existentialism is about crises in the human condition, irrespective of origins. Kafka's life was the epitome of existential angst (pp92/3) similar to the depiction of artist Edvard Munch's The Scream (p29) which to my mind epitomizes existentialism. A sense of foreboding and peripatetic existence pervaded Kafka's life, a brooding one-color imagination is reflected in his novels, say critics. Following World War I he “witnessed during his own fruitless efforts on behalf of shell-shocked soldiers” endless, constantly increasing suffering (p99). Now shell-shock is known as PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder. More in-your-face existentialism.

[Hans Ostrom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific book--a short, well researched biography combined with photographs of Kafka, his friends, and family. Some of the photos of him are heart-breaking. Interesting excerpts from the diaries. If you like Kafka's work, you'll love this book. Made me want to read more in this series.

[Elva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting read since it is a biography on an author who wrote some of the best books out there, I have to say it is very descriptive and have very detailed drawings and pictures I like the book seems as if Franz Kafka was a very caring human who just seen a lot in his 40 years of living

[Mazouza Sha'ban · Rating 5 out of 5]

كيف تستطيع الثرثرة أن تسعد الجميع بإستثنائي؟

[Susie Bowen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book. Excellent gathering of photos and artwork. Only gave 3 stars because it was slightly hard to follow but overall think it was worthwhile. Crazy that his life intersected with Einstein.

[Nathalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great book for a quick insight into Kafka's life. It combines information from various exhaustive sources into a nice quick read, accompanied with some photographs. I needed something quick to prepare a class on Kafka, since I hadn't got much time in advance.

It can serve as good starting point for people who want to research Kafka's life, since it includes a quite elaborate bibliography.

[Diana180]

#studentpaper If you need a basic acquaintance with the facts of Kafka's life, illustrated with relevant photos (Kafka and all his friends were compelling to look at, which does not hurt), this is the book. It's by a scholar and has references; however is really just the facts and not especially tendentious as far as I can see.

[Chaz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good overview of Kafka. Thought I should have read something about him prior to reading his writings. This helped - a lot.

[Ahmed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely.