Замок. Новеллы

by Franz Kafka

Содержание:

Юрий Архипов. Главный классик века (статья)
Франц Кафка. Замок (роман, перевод Р. Райт-Ковалёвой)
Новеллы
Франц Кафка. Описание одной борьбы (рассказ)
Франц Кафка. Свадебные приготовления в деревне (рассказ)
Франц Кафка. Сборник "Созерцание"
Франц Кафка. Дети на дороге (рассказ)
Франц Кафка. Разоблачённый проходимец (рассказ)
Франц Кафка. Внезапная прогулка (микрорассказ)
Франц Кафка. Решения (микрорассказ)
Франц Кафка. Прогулка в горы (микрорассказ)
Франц Кафка. Горе холостяка (микрорассказ)
Франц Кафка. Купец (рассказ)
Франц Кафка. Рассеянно глядя в окно (микрорассказ)
Франц Кафка. Дорога домой (микрорассказ)
Франц Кафка. Бегущие мимо (микрорассказ)
Франц Кафка. Пассажир (микрорассказ)
Франц Кафка. Платья (микрорассказ)
Франц Кафка. Отказ (микрорассказ)
Франц Кафка. Наездникам к размышлению (микрорассказ)
Франц Кафка. Окно на улицу (микрорассказ)
Франц Кафка. Желание стать индейцем (микрорассказ)
Франц Кафка. Деревья (микрорассказ)
Франц Кафка. Тоска (рассказ)
Франц Кафка. Сборник "Кары"
Франц Кафка. Приговор (рассказ)
Франц Кафка. Превращение (повесть)
Франц Кафка. В исправительной колонии (рассказ)
Франц Кафка. Деревенский учитель (Гигантский крот) (рассказ)
Франц Кафка. Блюмфельд, старый холостяк (рассказ)
Франц Кафка. Сборник "Сельский врач"
Франц Кафка. Новый адвокат (микрорассказ)
Франц Кафка. Сельский врач (рассказ)
Франц Кафка. На галерее (микрорассказ)
Франц Кафка. Старинная запись (рассказ)
Франц Кафка. Шакалы и арабы (рассказ)
Франц Кафка. Посещение рудника (рассказ)
Франц Кафка. Соседняя деревня (микрорассказ)
Франц Кафка. Забота главы семейства (микрорассказ)
Франц Кафка. Одиннадцать сыновей (рассказ)
Франц Кафка. Братоубийство (рассказ)
Франц Кафка. Сон (микрорассказ)
Франц Кафка. Отчёт для академии (рассказ)
Франц Кафка. Певица Жозефина, или Мышиный народ (рассказ)

640 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2017

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.