The Diaries of Franz Kafka -- Franz Kafka, Hardcover

An essential new translation of the author's complete, uncensored diaries--a revelation of the idiosyncrasies and rough edges of one of the twentieth century's most influential writers.

"This new and scrupulously faithful translation of the Diaries brings us...the true inner life of the twentieth century's most complex and enigmatic literary prophet." --Cynthia Ozick, author of Antiquities

Dating from 1909 to 1923, the handwritten diaries contain various kinds of writing: accounts of daily events, reflections, observations, literary sketches, drafts of letters, accounts of dreams, as well as finished stories. This volume makes available for the first time in English a comprehensive reconstruction of the diary entries and provides substantial new content, including details, names, literary works, and passages of a sexual nature that were omitted from previous publications. By faithfully reproducing the diaries' distinctive--and often surprisingly unpolished--writing in Kafka's notebooks, translator Ross Benjamin brings to light not only the author's use of the diaries for literary experimentation and private self-expression, but also their value as a work of art in themselves.

Author: Franz Kafka
Publisher: Schocken Books Inc
Published: 01/10/2023
Pages: 704
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 2.20lbs
Size: 9.53h x 6.39w x 1.73d
ISBN: 9780805243550

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 11/01/2022

About the Author
FRANZ KAFKA was born in 1883 in Prague, where he lived most of his life. During his lifetime, he published only a few short stories, including "The Metamorphosis," "The Judgment," and "The Stoker." He died in 1924, before completing any of his full-length novels. At the end of his life, Kafka asked his lifelong friend and literary executor Max Brod to burn all his unpublished work. Brod overrode those wishes.