The Penal Colony

Description

This book includes Franz Kafka’s famous novella “In the Penal Colony” and his controversial short story “Jackals and Arabs.” The officer was guiding the explorer who had arrived on the mysterious island to inspect the infernal torture machine in Franz Kafka’s novella “In the Penal Colony.” The officer in this strange novella was the last of a sadistic lineage and clung to his machine, which the new commander condemned and tried to abolish. The condemned person was bound face down in the lower part of the machine, while the upper part moved to plow the victim’s back with needles until death. Afterward, the body was thrown into the pit, which had filled with the victim’s blood, beneath the machine.

The author, who penned his works at the dawn of the 20th century, leaving them as a secret testament and a prophecy of the oppression to come in a century ravaged by war and ideology, carried his narrative forward until the victim was resurrected at the very last moment. He had the officer, despairing of support, lie within his machine, becoming its final victim, buried beside his founding leader.

But the story doesn’t end with this comforting conclusion, for Kafka didn’t forget to remind us of an inscription on the tomb of the torture pioneer, foretelling his return after a certain number of years to lead his followers in reclaiming the colony!