Letters to Friends, Family and Editors

"These magnificent letters, meticulously set up and annotated, show us aspects of Kafka that were only hinted at in earlier collections and help us to trace his development, from unhappy young law student and insurance manager-administrator to novelist and short-story writer of originality and genius." Publishers Weekly

This volume presents Kafka as son, brother, student, friend, lover, writer, critic, and revealing his fascination for life in all its complex, absurd and tragic manifestations. Though aware of the precariousness of letter-writing, Franz Kafka entrusted to letters many of his thoughts, impressions, experiences and expectations.

These letters - which follow Kafka's life from his student years through his experience as an insurance clerk to his final days, and explore his friendships with Max Brod, Feliz Weltsch and Oskar Baum - confirm his place as one of the great letter-writers of the twentieth century.

About the Author

Franz Kafka (1883-1924) was one of the giants of 20th-century German literature. His stories, such as Metamorphosis (1915), and novels, including The Trial (1925) and The Castle (1926), concern troubled individuals in a nightmarishly impersonal and bureaucratic world. His writing is some of the most influential in Western culture, although much of it is fragmentary, and was only published posthumously.