Giulio Schiavoni Book order (chronological)

This splendid new translation presents an extraordinary work of modern literature, featuring facing-page commentary by Kafka's acclaimed biographer. Written in 1917 and 1918, the Zürau aphorisms consist of over 100 philosophical reflections composed in a Bohemian village. Among Kafka's most enigmatic writings, they delve into profound questions about truth, morality, and the spiritual and sensory realms. This bilingual volume is the first annotated edition, offering valuable insights into Kafka's mind. Edited and introduced by renowned biographer Reiner Stach, and translated by Shelley Frisch, each aphorism is displayed on its own page in both English and the original German, accompanied by enlightening notes. The aphorisms blend literary and analytical thought, showcasing radical ideas and original imagery, all conveyed in exceptionally condensed language. They evoke Kafka's unsettling charm, often leading readers into unfamiliar territory that can transform into moments of clarity: "I have never been in this place before: breathing works differently, and a star shines next to the sun, more dazzlingly still." Ultimately, this volume reveals that these multifaceted gems are deeply connected to Kafka's novels and stories, situated at the very heart of his literary cosmos. Long overlooked by readers and scholars, these aphorisms finally receive the attention they deserve.

Set in a boarding school in a remote area of the Habsburg Empire at the turn of the last century, The Confusions of Young Torless is an intense study of an adolescent's psychological development as he struggles to come to terms with his conflicting emotions. Through his relationship with two other boys Torless is led into sadistic and sexual encounters with a third pupil which both repel and fascinate him. Estranged from everyday life, Torless gradually learns to accept his experiences and describe them with analytical precision.

“The story that I’m writing, which, I must say, is laid out into the endless … is called Der Verschollene [The Missing One] and takes place exclusively in the United States of North America,” Franz Kafka wrote to his beloved, Felice Bauer. The story of the young Karl Rossmann, a sixteen-year-old, whom his parents send to the New World from his Bohemian homeland, was indeed laid out without end. Of his three novels, this was the one on which the author spent the most time over the longest period of time, but like The Trial and The Castle it remained an unfinished torso. The Prague jurist and insurance official Franz Kafka only knew about America from flickering silent movies, from travelogues, and from the tales of a number of relatives from his widely branched out family. The story of the lost Karl Rossmann is a different kind of immigration story, one of an innocent plunged suddenly into the world of deceitful adults. But like the Dickens-novel the author realized he was writing, was the story supposed to end happily in an Oklahoma of wonders?

When the young salesman Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning transformed into a monstrous insect, his shock and incomprehension are coupled with the panic of being late for work and having to reveal his appearance to family and colleagues. Although over the following weeks he gradually becomes used to this new existence confined within the bounds of the apartment, and his parents and sister adapt to living with a grotesque bug, Gregor notices that their attitudes towards him are changing and he feels increasingly alienated. One of the masterpieces of twentieth-century world literature, ‘The Metamorphosis’ is accompanied in this volume by a selection of other classic tales and sketches by Kafka – such as ‘The Judgement’, ‘In the Penal Colony’ and ‘A Country Doctor’ – all presented in a lively and meticulous new translation by Christopher Moncrieff.