Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Excursion into the mountains

Rate this book

Unknown Binding

1 person is currently reading
11 people want to read

About the author

Franz Kafka

3,213 books38.3k 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
16 (23%)
4 stars
22 (31%)
3 stars
25 (36%)
2 stars
6 (8%)
1 star
0 (0%)
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
Profile Image for amal.
61 reviews3 followers
July 16, 2024
I found similarities between these well crafted words and my own life and experience.
Profile Image for ↟° IRIS ⇞↟⇞.
66 reviews1 follower
July 5, 2023
I'll single out some of Kafka's sentences in the following reviews rather than typing about it. Although it won't explain the work itself I believe it will capture more of the quick Kafka spirit.
"If no one comes, well then, that's nice - then no one will come. I've never done evil to anybody and no one's done it to me, but no one wishes to help. No one at all. Yet it's not entirely true. Except that no one is helping - otherwise 'no one at all' would be kind of nice."
15 reviews
June 10, 2024
Living life with bunch of nobodies
Profile Image for Samoili Evaggelia.
42 reviews
March 10, 2023
This short story made me sad. It conveyed the feeling of always being pushed aside by society, yet just wanting to hold everyone close and live your life gaily.
Profile Image for Jasmine Gutierrez.
28 reviews
July 8, 2023
Would rather be alone than be with people who don’t care. I related to this a lot. Also I love Franz’s style in writing 💕
Profile Image for Maynk02.
20 reviews1 follower
July 16, 2024
The evidence of how much humanity has progressed in reality after a century. Kafka's cogitation here seems like a voice from the past; rather, it's a call to the future.

Uncover some minutes of your time to read this succinct masterpiece.
Profile Image for Jahid Hasan.
135 reviews160 followers
July 1, 2022
দোটানার গল্প। একই বিষয়কে ঘিরে দুটি বিপরীত অবস্থান বিবেচনা করে লেখা।
Profile Image for Raphael.
14 reviews1 follower
July 6, 2025
this one feels the most readily kafkaesque, though having read more of his work, though still very little, the meaning of that word is shifting away from its normative, accepted usage for me.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.