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The Trial by Franz Kafka
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The Trial (1925)

by Franz Kafka (Author)

Other authors: See the other authors section.

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English (94)  Italian (5)  Dutch (5)  Spanish (3)  German (2)  French (1)  Portuguese (1)  Danish (1)  Finnish (1)  Swedish (1)  Portuguese (Portugal) (1)  Norwegian (1)  All languages (116)
Showing 1-5 of 94 (next | show all)
Reading this book felt like being an observer to someone's bizarre dream, or rather nightmare. Josef K wakes up one day to find that he is under arrest for an unspecified crime. He is allowed to stay at home while he awaits his trial. What follows is a surreal story that follows Josef through the court system. Neither the reader nor Josef ever discovers the crime he is accused of.

I'm not sure if I enjoyed this book - I'm not even sure that I could coherently explain the plot. But I occasionally come across the adjective 'Kafkaesque' to describe something unbelievable or nightmarish. Now I have a better understanding of what that means! Excellent audiobook narration by George Guidall. ( )
  jmoncton | Jun 3, 2013 |
Why was Joseph K taken, enough to keep you gripped. Luckily there is no such thing as rendition in these enlightened days! ( )
  IanMPindar | May 16, 2013 |
I read this for the first time at school in German for A level several decades ago now. The bleakness and fatalism had a profound effect on me as a rather Pollyanna-ish teenager, especially as I was also reading Camus for the first time.
If I say I can still quote verbatim chunks from the book that should suggest the impact of it(and provide a tribute to my German teacher!).
I think the effort of reading it in German meant I missed some of the surreal(albeit still bleak) humour first time round. I still wouldn't recommend it if you are depressed!
( )
  Roobee1 | Apr 25, 2013 |
I started reading this aaaages ago, and finally finished it by skimming through. I don't know what it is -- maybe the translation, maybe just Kafka's style -- but I found it more infuriating and frustrating than anything. I enjoyed the dark humour, but I don't think this style of completely absurd situation is for me, and I couldn't judge on the quality of Kafka's writing from this translation. Maybe if, someday, I learn German...

It probably doesn't help that I'm in bed recovering from food poisoning, so perhaps you should take my opinion with a pinch of salt. Still, however important it is in a literary sense, I can't say I enjoyed it. ( )
  shanaqui | Apr 9, 2013 |
The back cover of this translation of The Trial reads, "Whether read as an existential tale, a parable, or a prophecy of the excesses of modern bureaucracy wedded to the madness of totalitarianiasm..." it's not these things. The effort to find specific meaning is as pointless as the debate over precisely what Moby-Dick is. Neither book means any one thing. They're about everything. They're about your whole life. Both are beautiful, maddening lurches into the impossibility of meaning.

If it is about everything, I'm not sure what to make of the book's portrayal of women, which is...ambiguous? Nearly every woman in the book is hypersexualized, and K. generally has some sort of adversarial, predatory relationship with all of them. He makes advances on his fellow lodger, Fraulein Burstner, that are described in aggressive terms and don't seem fully wanted by her. Later he falls into an uncomfortable relationship with his lawyer's nurse, Leni, and toward the end of the book there's a weird encounter with a 13-year-old girl on a staircase in which she lifts her skirt at him. This essay says that "Most of the women in K’s society are prostitutes in one form or another," which seems close. I found it very weird. Apparently there's been some controversy over Kafka's sexuality, for what that's worth.

This is an unfinished novel, and it does end abruptly. There is an ending, at least, which makes it a bit more satisfying than the other great unfinished novel I'm familiar with, Pushkin's Eugene Onegin. It's as though Kafka realized he wasn't really going to finish this, so he quickly jotted down the ending he knew he was working towards.

It's always pleasant to read, and, like Moby-Dick, it's not a book that I think you should analyze overmuch as you go. Don't stress out about what the hell Kafka's banging on about. Just go ahead and breeze through it and let it catch up with you later, which it probably will. ( )
  AlCracka | Apr 2, 2013 |
Showing 1-5 of 94 (next | show all)
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» Add other authors (209 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Kafka, FranzAuthorprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Brod, MaxEditorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Brod, MaxEpiloguesecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Butler, E. M.Translatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Ferrater, GabrielTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Koch, Hans-GerdEditorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Kurpershoek, TheoCover designersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Lambourne, NigelPhotogrammessecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Muir, EdwinTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Muir, WillaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Nahuys, Alice vanTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Salter, GeorgeIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Simojoki, AukustiTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Zampa, GiorgioTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Someone must have been telling lies about Joseph K., for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one fine morning.
Jemand mußte Josef K. verleumdet haben, denn ohne daß er etwas Böses getan hätte, wurde er eines Morgens verhaftet.
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Original German title: Der Prozess
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Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0805209999, Paperback)

The story of The Trial's publication is almost as fascinating as the novel itself. Kafka intended his parable of alienation in a mysterious bureaucracy to be burned, along with the rest of his diaries and manuscripts, after his death in 1924. Yet his friend Max Brod pressed forward to prepare The Trial and the rest of his papers for publication. When the Nazis came to power, publication of Jewish writers such as Kafka was forbidden; Kafka's writings, many of which have distinctively Jewish themes, did not find a broad audience until after World War II. (Hannah Arendt once observed that although "during his lifetime he could not make a decent living, [Kafka] will now keep generations of intellectuals both gainfully employed and well-fed.") Among the current crop of Kafka heirs is Breon Mitchell, the translator of this edition of The Trial. Rather than tidying up Kafka's unconventional grammar and punctuation (as previous translators have done), Mitchell captures the loose, uneasy, even uncomfortable constructions of Kafka's original story. His translation technique is the only way to convey the comedy and confusion of this narrative, in which Josef K., "without having done anything truly wrong," is arrested, tried, convicted and executed--on a charge that is never disclosed to him. --Michael Joseph Gross

(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:49:05 -0500)

(see all 7 descriptions)

A new edition of Kafka's classic work--certain to become the new standard.

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Penguin Australia

Two editions of this book were published by Penguin Australia.

Editions: 0141182903, 0141194715

 

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