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The Trial

The Trial

The Trial

By Franz Kafka
Newly Translated and with a preface by Breon Mitchell

"Kafka’s ‘legalese’ is alchemically fused with a prose of great verve and intense readability."—James Rolleston, professor of Germanic languages and literatures, Duke University

"Breon Mitchell’s translation is an accomplishment of the highest order that will honor Kafka far into the twenty-first century."—Walter Abish, author of How German Is It

Written in 1914, The Trial is one of the most important novels of the twentieth century: the terrifying tale of Josef K., a respectable bank officer who is suddenly and inexplicably arrested and must defend himself against a charge about which he can get no information. Whether read as an existential tale, a parable, or a prophecy of the excesses of modern bureaucracy wedded to the madness of totalitarianism, Kafka's nightmare has resonated with chilling truth for generations of readers. This new edition is based upon the work of an international team of experts who have restored the text, the sequence of chapters, and their division to create a version that is as close as possible to the way the author left it.

In his brilliant translation, Breon Mitchell masterfully reproduces the distinctive poetics of Kafka's prose, revealing a novel that is as full of energy and power as it was when it was first written.

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 At the end of his life, Kafka asked his lifelong friend and literary executor Max Brod to burn all his unpublished work.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.

Paperback
304 pages
Random House, 1999
Originally published in 1925
5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inches
ISBN 9780805209990
Fiction

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