Franz Kafka: The Complete Stories

Kafka is much more then the Metamorphosis and the Trial, and this collection demonstrates why. Kafka offered much while he delivered little, meaning that he opens up a universe of possibilities while confirming nothing. Nothing materializes, everything is fog. Stories that sound as if they're going to reveal the meaning of life end up only irritating you, and others, such as A Crossbreed, bore you until the final few sentences when you suddenly realize what you've been reading, and almost cry. Here is a line from Prometheus, which seems to elucidate a main theme of Kafka's writing: "As it came out of a substratum of truth it had in turn to end in the inexplicable."

Kafka yearns for beauty and writes for truth, but what ends up on the page is often uncertain, vague and close to demonic in its preoccupation with the grotesque. His writing came out of a desire for truth and it had in turn to end in the inexplicable. So, truth metamorphoses (if I may..) into the inexplicable.

Also take note: the book is divided into The Longer Stories and the Shorter Stories, and some of the best Kafka is in the final section, which is the Shorter Stories. Watch out for The Bucket Rider, A Crossbreed, Prometheus, Poseidon, The City Coat of Arms... too many to mention!

"Franz Kafka: The Complete Stories" is required reading for anyone who loves Kafka or is interested in his work. The stories in this collection are excellent, and "The Metamorphisis" is one of them. Franz Kafka is a masterful storyteller whose writings continue inspire readers after all these years, me included.

This is a mixed bag. Some of the pieces are fragments. Some are of questionable value. Some are gems. While it is possible to examine Kafka and his work from a psychoanalytic point of view, the point of engaging in such a puerile exercise eludes me. Such an approach is both shallow and unilluminating.
Kafka's gems, such as "The Metamorphosis," are of the highest literary merit. In connection with "The Metamorphosis," I would recommend reading the corresponding lecture in Nabokov's "Lectures on Literature." Not only is Gregor Samsa a human being in an insect body, his family might aptly be described as insects in human bodies.
"The Metamorphosis" is also interesting from a philosophical point of view as a piece of existentialist literature. There is certainly a sense of the absurd in this work. It may also lead us to question our sense of self-identity. To what extent is that connected to our body, to what extent connected to how others view us? As to the latter, recall that in Camus' "The Stranger," Meursault only becomes self-reflective after the trial in which his impression on others is reflected back to him.

As a student of the German language, I must say that I view this text from a different perspective than most of its other readers. I selected this book merely to give me a broader understanding of Kafka's work in the short time available to me. It is an infinitely useful resource, gracefully translated and sturdily bound. I give it four stars simply because no English translation could possibly compare to the original German texts. For example, the German word "Gesetz" is translated "law" in the foundational parable "Before the Law." Though it is a literally accurate term, it does not capture the sense of the Gesetz as a semi-personal metaphysical absolute concerning the condition of the Universe. ("Gesetz" is something of a German equivalent for the Greek "Logos" with a capital "L".) Such slight aberrations are certainly common as they are an ineluctable consequence of translation; this aside, it is an excellent text that will always sit next to my German edition on the shelf of Modern Literature.

kafka is a nice change from the rest of literature. he makes me think anybody with a subconcious and a mental monologue can write fascinating stories. ie: he gives hope for me, which is somehow increased by how excellently neurotic and totally directionless most of his narrative is (The Burrow is my favorite thing ever!). I much appreciate how well the shorter stories let you see his habit of writing until he came to the end of an idea, and then starting somewhere else, and maybe joining them if he felt like it. this book is obviously a definitive sort of collection, and physically it has a very satisfying heft.

_The Complete Stories_ by Kafka rank at the top of my list of the best short-story collections ever. The works contained in this volume represent Kafka's most important, innovative, and groundbreaking works. Collectively, this volume is exponentially better than any one of Kafka's fine novels. This is the real Kafka, and the reader will quickly realize that 70-80% of Kafka's most important works and ideas are contained in this volume.

Kafka, because of his difficult style, can make some assume him to be a bit overrated (which he is by english teachers who prefer him over an author like Herman Hesse, who says what Kafka does a bit more simply and beautifully.) But the truth is, Kafka does have his moments of brilliance, and despite the bad english translations of most of his works, there is still a lot one can learn from them. In the meantime, if you're not ready to dive into the difficulty, pick up a book such as Toilet: The Novel, which was written by an American, and thus does not suffer from the complexities and flaws of translation, and the book itself is a tribute to the literary works of Kafka, which makes it a great introduction to an even greater writer, or for a title a bit less literary pick up one of those introductory guides to Kafka. But then, these short stories too, are also a good introduction, just make sure you read them before you jump into Kafka's book 'The Castle'. Having said that, I hope I was of some help to you.

Fare thee well.

Approaching a complex writer is rarely easy. Perhaps the most influential author of the 20th century is no exception. Most people struggle with the heavy novel 'The Trial', not to mention the extremely confusing, though mind-shaking 'The Castle'. A much better option is to start with the Short stories. Join Karl Rossmann below deck on his way to 'America' or hide out with Gregor Samsa in his room, following his 'Metamorphosis'. You may be stung by the Kafka-bug, and like millions of others be mesmerized into the dreamlike world of Kafka. Anxiety, anguish, and apocalypse await those who dare enter this utterly disturbing inferno. This may sound pretty bad. However, no other writer has given me a reading experience that is even remotely similar to Kafka. He is unique! A new universe yet to unfold within your own mind. Unless your liking of Kafka is executed 'In the penal colony'....like a dog.....

It would be foolish to offer too much praise. These stories demonstrate the internal collapse of a great mind; a mind great enough to observe its own maker. Yet for the reader who has been through such a sensation Kafka is supreme. He offers easy to read stories with almost unmatched complexities. I guess in many ways he represents what is buetiful about our deaths; a buety I must admit my daily life does not always allow me to appreciate and corraspond with. Never the less I must praise him in the end.

I am a long time fan of Kafka. I enjoyed seeing all of this work in one collection; however, I thought the quality of the actual physical book was well below average. If I buy a Kafka book, I want it to hold up so I can revisit it 6 months, 4 years, or 3 decades from now. Many paperbacks will provide that level of use, but I doubt this printing will.

I don't own this, but I was wondering if someone could list the stories included in this book. I've read and loved "The Metamorphosis and Other Stories," so I'm wondering if a majority of the stories in this are already included in the book I own. Or, since this is probably a far too strenuous task, if someone whom has read both could tell me if my thoughts are true or not, it'd be greatly appreciated. I know this isn't that great of a review for a book I haven't even read, but maybe there are more people wanting the same information.

Two things strike me about Franz Kafka. First, the almost complete absence of ideas in his work. Second, how obvious it is that his work is fundamentally about either repressed or closeted homosexuality.
First things first; reading these stories and comparing what's actually on the page to the central position that Kafka holds among critics in 20th Century literature, I couldn't help thinking of Chauncey Gardiner. He, of course, is the simple minded hero of Jerzy Kozinski's great book Being There. Having spent his whole life within the grounds of a mansion gardening and watching TV, he enters the world completely unprepared to interact with his fellow man. But the people he meets inflate his non sequitirs into faux profundities and he is soon advising the President of the United States. He is a blank slate upon which other people scribble and then interpret their own ideas as genius. In much the same way, Kafka wrote a series of completely autobiographical tales, and an unpleasant autobiography it is: grown men living at home with their parents; working menial jobs in huge bureaucracies; terrified of marriage; bullied by overbearing fathers; plagued by illness, nightmares and feelings of alienation from all around them except for one loving sister. This was Kafka's own life and these are the common threads that run throughout his work. But add them all together and what you get is a situation, not a set of ideas. Kafka endlessly rewrites the situation that he found himself in; noticeably absent are any thoughts about the origin, meaning or alternatives to this situation, other than killing off the character who finds himself stuck therein.
Second, I guess the discussion of Kafka as a "gay" writer is fairly recent, but I'm not sure how else he can be read. The very lack of socio-political meanings in his work, the degree to which it is situation based, rather than driven by ideas, leaves you with only the elements of the situation to interpret and the point inexorably towards a conclusion that his heroes are isolated by their homosexuality. Just take Metamorphosis; here are the elements of the plot. A grown single man who still lives with his family wakes up one morning to find that he has become a bug. This leads to his being isolated from his shamefaced family. His father drives him out of a room by throwing apples at him. One lodges in his backside and rots there; the resulting infection kills him. Well c'mon; this just isn't even subtle. A family ashamed of their single son. He's a dung beetle for cripes sakes. The apple (sin) infects his posterior. I mean surely we've all got the picture by now. Why go on?
All of which leaves us with an interesting question, does the fact that his stories may not have meant to him what they have come to mean to different schools of critics in some way diminish his stature as a literary figure? Or does the fact that his intensely personal story can be read in a universal manner to apply to (1) the Jewish experience, (2) the epoch of totalitarian regimes and (3) the dehumanizing age of bureaucracy in which we all live, actually demonstrate just how great a writer he was?
I'm inclined towards the first view. I think that the situation that he reiterates in his work is so specific to him and has so little to say about the world most of us live in that it is hard to justify his lofty position in the literary pantheon. As I read, I found myself thinking, "this author is a troubled boy" more often than "this is a troubling society he describes". In a perverse way, it seems likely that the best thing that ever happened to Kafka was the rise of totalitarian regimes in general and, specifically, their banning of his works. It is noteworthy that he died before the long dark night of Nazism and Communism descended on Europe. It is only retrospectively that his work came to be read as a gloss on these regimes. And had they simply ignored him, it's hard to believe that he would have come to be so closely associated with their machinations. Return him to the time and place that he wrote and take his work at face value and I think you're left, not with a writer whose work defines and illuminates the 20th Century (a la Orwell, with whom he is often unjustly paired), but with merely the mildly intriguing tales of an unwell man.
GRADE: C+

Kafka is easy to read and yet impossible to pin down. Often the readers analysis and interpretation says more about the reader than about Kafka himself. That I think is the beauty af Kafka, his themes are timeless and are the source for endless discussion.

Compared to his contemporaries Kafka uses very simple german and the german editions should be very accessible to language students.

an under appreciated writer who knew what he was talking about it.

John Updike's introduction was one of the only things I read inside the contents.

John: the coming of something. The significance of a future, greater writer.

Well, there's what, two or three years, according to some sources, until the end of the world? def good 4the head.

SO mix in a little this, a little thas, a little thistlewood, a little thatsit,boys.
The point,
What is the point?
The point is the sharpest location. Everyone has a point. Some points stab.
What is a point?
A point is a joint down 31st street near toids and doinks. The popular vote may be popular now, but will
it tomorrow? Honestly, the tomorrows keep coming! Foilinque.
Janet is
. . .Janet is searching right now for somrshething more than a point you know something better by ten
times five­four­three­two or any of those digits. Haly wedded to the source of the spring of freshly
brewed Arabian camel milk tastes like it was milked from a snake. Weusly, the snake departs.
It happens in a leisurll, virtuoely fashion. Not the east bit leastly am­bunk­shush.
. . .Lots of the scary stuff in there tonight. The not­so­pleasant AH!YOU'rerui ning my
MeDITAtioN!! Which is basically people stuff.

-Eschillion Key, published free online (google: Eschillion Key)

Let me preface this very negative review with this: I love Kafka. He's a great author and the shortcomings of this book, this book in particular, are not his.

That said, DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK! Whatever archaic methods the publisher, Schocken, uses to bind its books is in desperate need of revitalization. Within 1 week of purchasing this book it was threatening to fall to pieces. Within 2 weeks it became 4 volumes--it yet threatens to break into a weekly series.

If you enjoy breaking the binding on your paperbacks for easy reading beware, this book is poorly bound and breaking the binding, or even opening it much past 180 degrees, will cause the book to break asunder.

Buy these stories, just don't buy them in this book. Look elsewhere even if you must buy 2 or 3 other books to get everything.

Although Kafka in my opinion is utter garbage. Only my opinion, so take it or leave it. I took a class on Kafka and felt like I wasted my time and money (I just can't handle his depressing ridiculousness)

Just what the title says, this entire collection of writings is just as bad as you've heard. All the bad reviews on the net are true. Kafka had to have been writing for himself, these are so awful and are essentially the writings of a madman. Flat out awful...

Franz Kafka was born into a Jewish middleclass family in Prague in July 1883 and succumbed to Tuberculosis in June of 1924. Much of his literary work was published posthumously is reported to be amongst the most influential in Western Literature for it's time. Much of the work is reported to be incomplete and the larger portion of it is collected in this book "The Complete Stories".

In the interest of full disclosure I did not finish the whole book. To be honest I couldn't bear to read another page of it. I know many will say that I cant give a complete review because of this but I am only giving my opinion of what I read which was all similar in one form or fashion so I am operating under the assumption the I would have found all of the stories I left unread as unbearable as those I did read. If you think there is a story I should have read let me know. Before going any further I would say that according to the pros (which I am not), Kafka's writing is of great academic value which I do not dispute. The problem is that this didn't translate into enjoyable reading for me.

The Good: According to the critics and those of the academic community the good is practically limitless. Unfortunately for me I couldn't find any of it.

The Bad: I just didn't enjoy a single moment that I spent with my nose in this book. The stories I read were boring and full of uninteresting characters, subject matter and plot-less storylines that tended to meander everywhere and go nowhere. To top that off the characters were generally placed in bad situations with no hope of a positive outcome and a lack of desire to look for one. The stories and characters are basically just overly morose and depressing. I slogged on this for as long as I could but found myself constantly wondering why I was reading it since I was enjoying none of it.

Overall: Academic value = 5 stars. Enjoyment reading = 1 star and since I read for enjoyment 1 star overall. If you want to enjoy what you read you may want to try reading something else.