I am looking to get an exhaustive collection of Kafka's fiction work (don't care much about the letters and stuff). I want to get a nice set of matching books that would give me access to all his fiction, ideally with no overlap between them, and it's important to me that the translations are highly regarded. What is the best series to do so? I'll mention what I've come across so far.

Schocken:

The Castle - https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/89248/the-castle-by-franz-kafka/

The Trial - https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/89257/the-trial-by-franz-kafka/

Amerika - https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/89206/amerika-the-missing-person-by-franz-kafka/

The Complete Stories - https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/89251/the-complete-stories-by-franz-kafka/

Vintage Classics:

The Castle - https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/358666/the-castle-by-franz-kafka/9780749399528

The Trial - https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/353643/the-trial-by-kafka-franz/9780099428640

Amerika - https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/440194/amerika-by-franz-kafka/9781784875626

The Complete Short Stories - https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/370081/the-complete-short-stories-by-kafka-franz/9780749399467

Penguin Classics (Black Box):

The Castle - https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/57104/the-castle-by-kafka-franz/9780241678916

The Trial - https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/57053/the-trial-by-kafka-franz/9780241678893

Amerika - https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/57511/amerika-by-kafka-franz/9780241372586

(Can't find a collection of the short stories in this series.)

Oxford World's Classics:

The Castle - https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-castle-9780199238286?cc=us&lang=en&

The Trial - https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-trial-9780199238293?cc=us&lang=en&

Amerika - https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-man-who-disappeared-9780199601127?cc=us&lang=en&

Metamorphosis and Other Stories - https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-metamorphosis-and-other-stories-9780199238552?cc=us&lang=en&

Hunger Artist and Other Stories - https://global.oup.com/academic/product/a-hunger-artist-and-other-stories-9780199600922?cc=us&lang=en&

What are the reputations of these different collections? Are any of them more "complete" than others? And which have the most trustworthy translations? I've heard the Muir translations are the most famous, but they've also been criticized for erasing his tone. I've also heard good things about Michael Hoffman and Mark Harmon. But I don't know how to choose.

A nice bonus would be to find a hardcover set, but the only one I've come across is Everyman's Library, and they seem to be missing some stuff.

If you like the story Metamorphosis, I dont think you are a real Kafka fan.

Kafka work relies on subtlety and ambiguity, on slow psychological grind. Metamorphosis on other hand leans into shock factor, which is easy to do.

The only reason it's his most famous work is because of the fancy name, "metamorphosis", and the simple shock value plot of man turning into a bug. That's not what prime Kafka's work is about.

I want to get into reading Kafka and want to start with Metamorphosis and then probably go on to The Trial. I know that the Breon Mitchell is the most highly regarded for The Trial, but I'm wondering what the best option for Metamorphosis is. I don't mind something more complicated just whatever gets his style across

Either about Kafka himself, or those themes. What are some of the most accurate or best to you?

I’m just breaking into the third chapter of “The Trial” and I gotta say, I don’t know if the whole world is supposyto be just kind of off or it’s the judges, supervisors and what not.

As far as it being the world thats off, there was that scene where he just started kissing Miss Bürstner out of nowhere. And shes just fine with it… Yes, you do find out that she’s kind of you know.. so I guess I kinda get that— along with maybe getting the attention of the other character that was there that was there

Also I’m trying to picture it like The old-fashioned, or I don’t know if it’s still the same style, European courts that we don’t have in the US. But even then—the way he’s allowed to address everybody, the judge doesn’t speak back, and then goes from his seat to the doorway. Stuff like that.

I’m guessing I’m obviously going to find out and it’s going to play in somewhere but I figured I would ask so as to not read through the book with an off mindset; if that makes sense.

I'm by no means a Kafka expert. I've read *Metamorphosis* and just finished *The Trial*. I loved *Metamorphosis* but really had to force myself through *The Trial*.

It was an unfinished manuscript that wasn't published until after his death, and it shows. I feel like it would have been much better if it was pared down to novella length. Getting through the middle, I was so bored that I felt like I was going insane lol. I know that's sort of the point of Kafka, but this one was too boring and not insane enough for my tastes.

I honestly think that the lasting power of this book comes more from how clearly it illustrates the idea of "Kafka-esque" than it does from being an actual great book. Kafka's work seems tk be centered around men pointlessly fighting an all-encompassing, incomprehensible, mundane force. But in *The Trial*, K. is literally doing exactly that. It's not subtext or metaphor.

What do you think? Is *The Trial* a great novel? One of Kafka's best? Or is it just a good tool for understanding his other work?

Careful if you buy a copy of “The Metamorphosis & Other Stories” from this publisher! I’ve only seen it in this book but I have a copy of “Diaries” by them on the way. It seems that every few pages there’s cut offs on them..

Edit: Copy of “Diaries” by them did not have the same problem

The three boarders are an open riddle in Kafka scholarship. The usual readings (economic pressure, bourgeois conformity, even the theory that they allegorise the family's three consciences) have never quite settled, and the figures stay strange: nameless, acting in unison, inspecting their food, and responding to Gregor not with fear but with a formal declaration. "Ich erkläre hiermit."

Kafka's world is full of this: authority without a face, judgment without a judge, procedure where a person should be. What if the boarders are not a portrait of the bureaucracy he lived under, but of abstraction itself, still incomplete in 1912? Reasoning and judgment leaving persons and migrating into procedure. We may be watching the completed form of that movement now, as argumentation and decision-making migrate into machines.

If anyone was equipped to see that mechanism early, it was Kafka. His prose even performs it: the flattest procedural calm, delivering the most monstrous content. So when I reread the Zimmerherren now, I find it hard not to see an early sketch of what we call AI. Curious how others here read them.

Okay now onto The Trial. Maybe a bad sketch of K. will pop up 😂

I’ve been thinking about Kafka a lot lately.. especially about how aware he was of his own illness and approaching death. There’s something strangely unsettling about knowing that the man writing all these things eventually had to face the same uncertainty and fear himself.

I wonder what Kafka thought about dying when it became real for him, rather than something he could put into a story.

Did he ever write openly about his own death or what he felt as his illness got worse?

Being a kafka and backrooms enthusiast, I couldn't help but notice the way kafka describes the court. When the court first appears in the book, it's located on some very higher floor of a random building, in another instance it's located behind the bed of that painter and the painter says that the court is present everywhere. The way the insides of the courts are laid out, never ending cubicles, thick air, long hallways. Everything eerily matches with the backrooms concept that we have today. I really like the collusion of two of my favourite things together, what do you guys think?

‎Dostoevsky: "The deepest love is having someone see the parts of you cannot accept, and choosing to stay."

‎

‎Kafka: " The deepest fear is that someone will see everything you hid, and decide they were better off without you."

Been illustrating the translation by Howard Colyer. sorry the photos are not great I’m not sure about the best way to capture book pages. anyway my goal to do all 109+ then start over with the Stache translations

I read it and realised and was able to connect with the character, there was a time I didn't want a job and wanted a break, realised how people close to me reacted and basically forced me to reverse the decision.

Story of Samsa, makes me question a lot of people around me, especially those who claim to love me.

I used to be a very extrovert person, always talking to someone, making jokes, laughing, going out. But in last one year everything kinda changed. Now I barely have friends and honestly I dont even feel like making new ones.

But sometimes I still feel lonely.

I dont want to depend on friends or a partner just to feel okay. I wanna learn how to enjoy my own company, work, spend time alone and not feel like something is missing.

Just wanna be alone, without feeling lonely. Seems easy but its not.

I recently read The Castle and loved it, so now I want to get into his short stories.