Showing results by author "Franz Kafka" in All Categories

Joseph K. is an Everyman. His inconsequence makes doubly strange his arrest by an officer of the court, made with no formal charges or explanation. Disoriented and consumed with guilt for a "crime" he does not understand, Josef K. must justify his life to a "court" with which he cannot communicate. Through the court's relentless bureaucratic proceedings and absurd juxtapositions of different hypotheses of cause and effect, the whole rational structure of the world is undermined.

One of the great works of the 20th century, Kafka's The Trial has been read as a study of political power, a pessimistic religious parable, or a crime novel where the accused man is himself the problem. In it, a man wakes up one morning to find himself under arrest for an offence which is never explained. Faced with this ambiguous but threatening situation, Josef K. gradually succumbs to its psychological pressure.

Full-cast dramatisations of six masterpieces from the founding fathers of dystopian fiction. Dark and disturbing, provocative and prescient, dystopian literature has long captured our imagination with its nightmarish visions of forbidding future worlds. Included here are six classic novels of time-travel, totalitarianism and terror, written by some of the masters of speculative fiction and adapted for radio with all-star casts.

“One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he had been changed into a monstrous verminous bug.” With this startlingly bizarre sentence, Kafka begins his masterpiece, The Metamorphosis. It is the story of a young traveling salesman who, transformed overnight into a giant, beetle-like insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. Rather than being surprised at the transformation, the members of his family despise it as an impending burden upon themselves.

A terrifying psychological trip into the life of one Joseph K., an ordinary man who wakes up one day to find himself accused of a crime he did not commit, a crime whose nature is never revealed to him. Once arrested, he is released, but must report to court on a regular basis - an event that proves maddening, as nothing is ever resolved. As he grows more uncertain of his fate, his personal life - including work at a bank and his relations with his landlady and a young woman who lives next door - becomes increasingly unpredictable.

On his deathbed, Franz Kafka asked that all his unpublished manuscripts be burned. Fortunately, his request was ignored, allowing such works as The Trial to earn recognition among the literary masterpieces of the 20th century. This brilliant new translation of The Castle captures comedic elements and visual imagery that earlier interpretations missed.

Gregor Samsa, el protagonista, se despierta una mañana sintiendo extraños dolores. Asustado, se percata de que sus miembros no le responden, y además nota que su cuerpo pesa en exceso. Gregor vive con sus padres y hermana, y piensa en ellos y en su trabajo, cuando aquella mañana descubre que ha dejado de ser humano para convertirse en un bicho.

Josef K., un ciudadano corriente, se despierta una mañana en presencia de unos misteriosos funcionarios que han ido a detenerlo a la pensión en la que reside. Le interrogan y le comunican que se le permite seguir con su vida diaria a pesar de estar detenido. A partir de ahí, se ve envuelto en un proceso judicial laberíntico cuyo inexplicable entramado intentará desentrañar. Para ello tendrá que adentrarse en el enigmático mundo del «tribunal», una instancia omnisciente que todo lo domina desde las sombras.

Reunir los cuentos de Franz Kafka (1883-1924) significa ofrecer en un solo volumen toda la ficción breve del autor, tanto la publicada en vida como todos los relatos dispersos que fueron publicados de manera póstuma, incluyendo La transformación, Un médico rural o Descripción de una lucha, su primer cuento escrito. Kafka es una de una de las mentes más singulares del siglo xx y una de las "formas de estar en la literatura" que más han influido en generaciones posteriores. Incluso, como hay quien se atreve a aventurar, en sus precursores.

The Trial tells the story of a man arrested for an unknown crime by a remote, inaccessible authority and his struggle for control over the increasing absurdity of his life. One of Franz Kafka's best-known works, The Trial has been variously interpreted as an examination of political power, a satirical depiction of bureaucracy, and a pessimistic religious parable. Left unfinished at the time of Kafka's 1924 death, The Trial is nevertheless a trenchant depiction of the seemingly incomprehensible nature of existence....

A Brilliant new translation of the great writer's least Kafkaesque novel, based on a German-language text that was produced by a team of international scholars and that is more faithful to Kafka's original manuscript than anything we have had before. With the same expert balance of precision and nuance that marked his translation of Kafka's The Castle, the award-winning translator Mark Harman now restores the humor and particularity of language to Amerika.

La novela comienza con el arresto de Joseph K., un joven empleado de un banco, que se despierta en la pensión donde reside con la extraña visita de unos hombres que le informan que está detenido. Acusado por alguien de un crimen del que sabe poco y nada, K., aún en libertad, se adentra en una auténtica y enigmática pesadilla. Así comienza un proceso laberíntico en el que se ve inmerso y lo lleva a tomar conciencia de sí mismo y reflexionar sobre su propia existencia, sobre la pérdida de la inocencia y la aparición de la muerte.

A Hunger Artist. the last book Kafka prepared for publication, was printed after Kafka's death. The protagonist, a hunger artist who experiences the decline in appreciation of his craft, is an archetypical creation of Kafka: an individual marginalized and victimized by society at large.

By day Franz Kafka worked as a lawyer for an insurance company, but he spent his nights writing visionary stories and novels exploring bureaucracy, power and alienation – iconic fiction that gave the world the adjective ‘Kafkaesque’. This BBC anthology showcases his most famous works, dealing with ordinary men caught up in impossible situations.

The first of Kafka’s three great novels, The Man Who Disappeared (America) follows the picaresque adventures of Karl Rossman, who is banished to America following a family scandal. Upon his arrival, Karl immediately happens upon his uncle, and from there follows a pattern of wandering, adoption and expulsion as Karl marches inexorably on towards the interior of the continent. With its blitheness and comical moments, The Man Who Disappeared is perhaps the most charming of Kafka’s works.

Josef K. is an ordinary man who is arrested on his 30th birthday. He is prosecuted by a remote, inaccessible authority, yet the nature of his crime is never revealed to him. One year after his arrest he is executed. His last words describe his own death: "Like a dog!"

A man known only as K. arrives in a mysterious town where an all-powerful castle filled with unseen "gentlemen" controls every aspect of life. When the ridiculous bureaucracy of the castle officials makes K.'s original reason for coming to the village, working as a land surveyor, seem impossible, K. must find a way to make a life within a system where the only answer he ever seems to get is "no". K. struggles in vain to get in contact with anyone at all within the castle to help solve his predicament. But still, there may be some tenderness to be found in this absurdist landscape.

Lotte Lenya reads "Up In The Gallery", "The Cares of a Family Man", "The Bucket Rider", "A Hunger Artist", and "A Fratricide."

La simpleza aparente del relato es tal que si uno va levantando capas de materiales narrativos en busca del motor primordial, cuando levanta el último velo no hay nada detrás. Nada. En eso, curiosamente, La metamorfosis nos recuerda a la vida.

This letter is the closest that Kafka came to setting down his autobiography. He was driven to write it by his father's opposition to his engagement with Julie Wohryzek. The marriage did not take place; the letter was not delivered.