Name: The Lost Writings
Price: 21.52 EUR
Availability: InStock
Author: Franz Kafka
ISBN: 9780811228015

Type

Physical Book

Author

Franz Kafka

Illustrated by

Reiner Stach

Translated by

Michael Hofmann

Publisher

New Directions Publishing Corporation

Year

2020

Language

English

Pages

128

Format

Hardcover

Dimensions

18.5 x 11.7 x 1.5 cm

Weight

0.20 kg.

ISBN13

9780811228015

Synopsis "The Lost Writings "

Selected by the preeminent Kafka biographer and scholar Reiner Stach and newly translated by the peerless Michael Hofmann, the seventy-four pieces gathered here have been lost to sight for decades and two of them have never been translated into English before. Some stories are several pages long; some run about a page; a handful are only a few lines long: all are marvels. Even the most fragmentary texts are revelations. These pieces were drawn from two large volumes of the S. Fischer Verlag edition Nachgelassene Schriften und Fragmente (totaling some 1100 pages). "Franz Kafka is the master of the literary fragment," as Stach comments in his afterword: In no other European author does the proportion of completed and published works loom quite so...small in the overall mass of his papers, which consist largely of broken-off beginnings." In fact, as Hofmann recently added: "'Finished' seems to me, in the context of Kafka, a dubious or ironic condition, anyway. The more finished, the less finished. The less finished, the more finished. Gregor Samsa's sister Grete getting up to stretch in the streetcar. What kind of an ending is that?! There's perhaps some distinction to be made between 'finished' and 'ended.' Everything continues to vibrate or unsettle, anyway. Reiner Stach points out that none of the three novels were 'completed.' Some pieces break off, or are concluded, or stop--it doesn't matter!--after two hundred pages, some after two lines. The gusto, the friendliness, the wit with which Kafka launches himself into these things is astonishing."

Franz Kafka

(Author)

View Author's Page

(Prague, Austro-Hungarian Empire, 1883 - Kierling, Austria, 1924) Bohemian writer in German language. His work, among the most influential in world literature, is a pioneer in the fusion of realistic elements with fantastic ones and focuses mainly on father-son conflicts, anxiety, existentialism, physical and psychological brutality, guilt, the philosophy of the absurd, bureaucracy, and spiritual transformations. He wrote notable novels and a large number of short stories, and also left behind extensive correspondence and autobiographical writings. His unique literary style has often been associated with the artistic philosophy of existentialism and expressionism. His personal relationships also had a significant impact on his writing. The term Kafkaesque is used in Spanish to describe bizarre situations, due to their absurdity and distressing nature.

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