Franz Kafka - Quotes, books and works (2023)

Who was Franz Kafka?

Author Franz Kafka grew up in an upper-class Jewish family. After studying law at the University of Prague, he worked in the insurance industry and wrote at night. In 1923 he moved to Berlin to concentrate on writing, but he died of tuberculosis soon after. His friend Max Brod published most of his work posthumously whenAmericajthe castle.

first years

Writer Franz Kafka was born the eldest son of an upper-class Jewish family on July 3, 1883 in Prague, capital of the Austro-Hungarian kingdom of Bohemia.

Tragedy shaped Kafka's house. Franz's two younger brothers, Georg and Heinrich, died in infancy when Kafka was six, leaving the boy the only child in a family of three daughters (all of whom later died in Nazi death camps or a Polish ghetto). ).

Kafka had a difficult relationship with his parents. His mother, Julie, was a dedicated housewife who lacked the intellectual depth to understand her son's dreams of becoming a writer. Kafka's father, Hermann, had an energetic personality that often dominated the Kafka family. He was successful in business and made his living selling men's and women's clothing.

Kafka's father had a profound influence on Kafka's life and writing. He was something of a bully, with an evil temper and little appreciation for his son's creative side. Many of Kafka's personal struggles in romantic and other relationships arose, he believed, in part from his complicated relationship with his father. In his literature, Kafka's characters were often confronted with a kind of authoritarian power that could easily bend people's will and destroy their self-esteem.

Kafka seems to have derived much of his worth directly from his family, particularly his father. For most of his adult life, he lived close to his parents.

Training

German was his first language. Indeed, despite his Czech heritage and Jewish roots, Kafka's identity favored German culture.

Kafka was a bright boy who did well in school, including the Altstädter Staatsgymnasium, a demanding school for the academic elite. Although Kafka gained the respect of his teachers, under their and the school's control, he resented his life.

After graduating from high school, Kafka enrolled at Karl Ferdinand University in Prague, where he intended to study chemistry, but switched to law after just two weeks. The move pleased his father and also gave Kafka time to take art and literature classes.

In 1906, Kafka earned a law degree and began a year of unpaid work as a paralegal.

work life

After completing his apprenticeship, Kafka found work at an Italian insurance agency in late 1907. It was a dire transition from the start, as Kafka was forced to work grueling hours that left little time for writing.

It lasted almost a year at the agency. After resigning, he quickly found a new job at the Workers' Compensation Insurance Institute of the Kingdom of Bohemia.

Kafka, who worked hard and became his boss's right-hand man, fit in as closely as possible with the job and his bosses. Kafka remained with the company until 1917, when a bout of tuberculosis forced him to take sick leave, and he finally retired in 1922.

love and health

At work, Kafka was a popular employee, easy to socialize with and known for having a good sense of humor. But his personal life was still fraught with complications. Her inhibitions and insecurities plagued her relationships. He was engaged twice to his girlfriend Felice Bauer before they finally separated in 1917.

Kafka later fell in love with Dora Dymant (Diamond), who shared his Jewish roots and taste for socialism. Amidst Kafka's failing health, the two fell in love and lived together in Berlin. Their relationship mainly focused on Kafka's illnesses. Kafka was unwell for many years, even before contracting tuberculosis. Constantly tense and stressed, he suffered from migraines, boils, depression, anxiety and insomnia.

Kafka and Dora ended up returning to Prague. To overcome his tuberculosis, Kafka traveled to Vienna for treatment at a sanatorium. He died on June 3, 1924 in Kierling, Austria. He was buried next to his parents in the New Prague Jewish Cemetery in Olsanske.

Works: 'The Metamorphosis', 'The Castle' and 'America'

While Kafka struggled to earn a living, he was also dedicated to his literary work. An old friend named Max Brod would be instrumental in supporting Kafka's literary work during his lifetime and long after.

Kafka's fame as a writer came only after his death. During his lifetime he published only a small part of his complete works.

His most popular and best-selling short story, The Metamorphosis, was completed in 1912 and published in 1915. The story was written in Kafka's bedroom on the third floor, which directly overlooked the Vltava River and its toll bridge.

"I stood at the window for a long time," he wrote in his diary in 1912, "and was tempted many times to surprise the customs officer on the bridge with my leap."

Kafka continued The MetamorphosisMediation, a collection of short stories, in 1913, and "Before the Law", a parable in his novelTry it, written between 1914 and 1915.

Even when his health declined, Kafka continued to write. In 1916 he completed The Process, which dealt directly with his relationship with his father. Later works were In the Penal Colony and A Country Doctor, both completed in 1919.

In 1924, a sick but still active Kafka endeda starving artist, which features four stories that demonstrate the concise, clear style that marked his late-life writing.

But Kafka, still living with the demons that tormented him with his doubts, hesitated to launch his work into the world. He asked Brod, who served as his literary executor, to destroy the unpublished manuscripts.

Fortunately, Brod did not heed his friend's request and published it in 1925.Try it, a dark and paranoid tale that turned out to be the author's highest-grossing novel. The story centers on the life of Joseph K., who is forced to defend himself in a hopeless court system against a crime that is never revealed to him or the reader.

The following year, Brod publishedthe castle, which once again attacked a faceless and domineering bureaucracy. In the novel, the protagonist, known to the reader only as K., seeks to meet the mysterious authorities that govern his city.

1927 o romanceAmericawas published. The story revolves around a young boy, Karl Rossmann, who is sent to the United States by his family, where his innocence and simplicity are taken advantage of wherever he wants to travel.Americait struck at the same father issues that were dominant in much of Kafka's work. But the story also speaks of Kafka's love of travel books and memoirs (he lovedAutobiography of Benjamin Franklin) and his desire to see the world.

In 1931, Brod published the short story The Great Wall of China, which Kafka had originally written 14 years earlier.

legacy

Incredibly, at the time of his death, Kafka's name was known only to a small group of readers. Only after his death and Max Brod's resistance to his friend's demands did Kafka and his work become famous. His books gained popularity especially during World War II and had a strong influence on German literature.

As the 1960s took shape and Eastern Europe fell into the clutches of bureaucratic Communist governments, Kafka's writings resonated particularly strongly with readers. So vivid and vivid were the stories Kafka wove about the Faceless Man and organizations that a new term was added to the English lexicon: "Kafkaesque".

The measure of Kafka's attractiveness and value as a writer was quantified in 1988, when his manuscript byTry itit sold at auction for $1.98 million, then the highest price ever paid for a modern manuscript.

The buyer, a West German bookseller, was delighted after the purchase was completed. "This is perhaps the most important work of 20th-century German literature," he said, "and Germany had to have it."