Franz Kafka The Complete Works

Description

The book “Franz Kafka: The Complete Works,” which we present today on the ninetieth anniversary of the writer’s death, is the first translation of the works of the Czech writer Franz Kafka from Czech, even though he did not write them in the language of the country where he was born, lived, and died—the Czech Republic. We based this translation on the Czech translator Vladimir Kafka’s German translation from the 1960s. In this volume, we have gathered the most important works, some published during the writer’s lifetime and others posthumously. We attempt to cover a significant period in the writer’s creative life through the long stories, or rather, the short novels, that Franz Kafka wrote. We felt it might be best to view all of Franz Kafka’s creations, as much as possible, side-by-side or sequentially, regardless of whether they are completed works such as *The Hunger Artist*, *Investigations of a Dog*, *A Ton of Rats*, and *The Metamorphosis* (also known as *The Metamorphosis*), or parts of unfinished works such as *Struggle*, *In the Penal Colony*, and others. What most distinguishes Kafka’s works from those of other writers is their comprehensiveness; it is impossible to understand any of them in isolation. His work can only be understood within the context of his entire body of work. Any interpretation outside this framework leads to confusion or a contrived, one-sided explanation. All his works, images, and linguistic formations constitute a unique and independent world.