Franz Kafka - The Castle (Oxford World's Classics, 2009)

Franz Kafka - The Castle (Oxford World's Classics, 2009). Translated by Anthea Bell.

ISBN: 9780199238286 | 336 pages | PDF


Franz Kafka's last novel, THE CASTLE, is set in a remote village covered almost permanently in snow and dominated by a castle and its staff of dictatorial, sexually predatory bureaucrats. The novel breaks new ground in exploring the relation between the individual and power, asking why the villagers so readily submit to an authority which may exist only in their collective imagination.

This new translation by prize-winning translator Anthea Bell follows the German text established by critical scholarship and mentions manuscript variants in the notes.

The detailed introduction by Ritchie Robertson, a leading Kafka scholar, explores the many meanings of this famously enigmatic novel, providing guidance without reducing the reader's freedom to make sense of this fascinating novel. In addition, the edition includes a Biographical Preface which places Kafka within the context of his time, plus an up-to-date bibliography and chronology of Kafka's life.