Franz kafka. the poet of shame and guilt - friedländer

A highly original and engaging appraisal of Kafka’s life, work, legacy, and thought Franz Kafka was the poet of his own disorder. Throughout his life he struggled with a pervasive sense of shame and guilt that left traces in his daily existence—in his many letters, in his extensive diaries, and especially in his fiction. This stimulating book investigates some of the sources of Kafka’s personal anguish and its complex reflections in his imaginary world. In his query, Saul Friedländer probes major aspects of Kafka’s life (family, Judaism, love and sex, writing, illness, and despair) that until now have been skewed by posthumous censorship. Contrary to Kafka’s dying request that all his papers be burned, Max Brod, Kafka’s closest friend and literary executor, edited and published the author’s novels and other works soon after his death in 1924. Friedländer shows that, when reinserted in Kafka’s letters and diaries, deleted segments lift the mask of “sainthood” frequently attached to the writer and thus restore previously hidden aspects of his individuality. Saul Friedländer is a renowned historian of the Holocaust and a Pulitzer Prize-winning author. He is Distinguished Emeritus Professor of History and Club 39 Endowed Chair in Holocaust Studies at UCLA. He lives in Los Angeles, CA. (knihydobrovsky.cz)

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. 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. (knihydobrovsky.cz)

Includes novels which are intended to be read as allegories of totalitarian government in whatever guise it appears. (knihydobrovsky.cz)

Through the Eyes of Franz Kafka: Between Image and Language traces the writer Franz Kafka's interest in modern art and visual culture. Examining Kafka's relationship to visuality, the book explores the diversity of images that surrounded Kafka in his home city of Prague-a heterogeneous and multilingual metropolis whose visual environment shaped his everyday experiences. It maps how Kafka engaged with local painting and sculpture, architecture, and monuments, and also with an array of popular visual media and phenomena from illustrated magazines and advertising to film, photography, dance, and cabaret. Kafka's attention to the modern visual culture of his era was reflected in his writings and in his interest in drawing, a practice in which he received preliminary training and which he took up in his free time during his years as a university student. (knihydobrovsky.cz)

When the young salesman Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning transformed into a monstrous insect, his shock and incomprehension are coupled with the panic of being late for work and having to reveal his appearance to family and colleagues. Although over the following weeks he gradually becomes used to this new existence confined within the bounds of the apartment, and his parents and sister adapt to living with a grotesque bug, Gregor notices that their attitudes towards him are changing and he feels increasingly alienated. One of the masterpieces of twentieth-century world literature, ‘The Metamorphosis' is accompanied in this volume by a selection of other classic tales and sketches by Kafka - such as ‘The Judgement', ‘In the Penal Colony' and ‘A Country Doctor' - all presented in a lively and meticulous new translation by Christopher Moncrieff. (knihydobrovsky.cz)

These diaries cover the years 1910 to 1923, the year before Kafka's death at the age of forty. They provide a penetrating look into life in Prague and into Kafka's accounts of his dreams, his feelings for the father he worshipped and the woman he could not bring himself to marry, his sense of guilt, and his feelings of being an outcast. They offer an account of a life of almost unbearable intensity. (knihydobrovsky.cz)

The Complete Stories brings together all of Kafka's stories, from the classic tales such as "The Metamorphosis," "In the Penal Colony," and "A Hunger Artist" to shorter pieces and fragments that Max Brod, Kafka's literary executor, released after Kafka's death. With the exception of his three novels, the whole of Kafka's narrative work is included in this volume. (knihydobrovsky.cz)

The best-known novellas and stories of one of the seminal writers of the twentieth century. Included are "The Judgment, " "A Country Doctor, " and "A Hunger Artist." New Foreword by Anne Rice. (knihydobrovsky.cz)

A collection of all Kafka's shorter fiction, from fragments, parables and sketches, to longer, complete tales. Together, they reveal the breadth of Kafka's literary vision and the depth of his thought. Some, like "The Metamorphosis" and "The Judgement", are well-known; others are mere jottings. (knihydobrovsky.cz)

Like George Orwell, Franz Kafka has given his name to a world of nightmare, but in Kafka's world, it is never completely clear just what the nightmare is. The Trial, where the rules are hidden from even the highest officials, and if there is any help to be had, it will come from unexpected sources, is a chilling, blackly amusing tale that maintains, to the very end, a relentless atmosphere of disorientation. Superficially about bureaucracy, it is in the last resort a description of the absurdity of 'normal' human nature. Still more enigmatic is The Castle. Is it an allegory of a quasi-feudal system giving way to a new freedom for the subject? The search by a central European Jew for acceptance into a dominant culture? A spiritual quest for grace or salvation? An individual's struggle between his sense of independence and his need for approval? Is it all of these things? And K? Is he opportunist, victim, or an outsider battling against elusive authority? Finally, in his fables, Kafka deals in dark and quirkily humorous terms with the insoluble dilemmas of a world which offers no reassurance, and no reliable guidance to resolving our existential and emotional uncertainties and anxieties. (knihydobrovsky.cz)

Like George Orwell, Franz Kafka has given his name to a world of nightmare, but in Kafka's world, it is never completely clear just what the nightmare is. The Trial, where the rules are hidden from even the highest officials, and if there is any help to be had, it will come from unexpected sources, is a chilling, blackly amusing tale that maintains, to the very end, a relentless atmosphere of disorientation. Superficially about bureaucracy, it is in the last resort a description of the absurdity of 'normal' human nature. Still more enigmatic is The Castle. Is it an allegory of a quasi-feudal system giving way to a new freedom for the subject? The search by a central European Jew for acceptance into a dominant culture? A spiritual quest for grace or salvation? An individual's struggle between his sense of independence and his need for approval? Is it all of these things? And K? Is he opportunist, victim, or an outsider battling against elusive authority? Finally, in his fables, Kafka deals in dark and quirkily humorous terms with the insoluble dilemmas of a world which offers no reassurance, and no reliable guidance to resolving our existential and emotional uncertainties and anxieties. (knihydobrovsky.cz)

The first book to publish the entirety of Franz Kafka's graphic output, including more than 100 newly discovered drawings"The figures he drew stand alone as stories in themselves."-Lauren Christensen, New York Times Book Review"A sensational new book [that] reveals these hitherto hidden artworks for the first time . . . This valuable volume allows us to see how, for Kafka, word and image walk arm in arm."-Benjamin Balint, Jewish Review of BooksThe year 2019 brought a sensational discovery: hundreds of drawings by the writer Franz Kafka (1883-1924) were found in a private collection that for decades had been kept under lock and key. Until now, only a few of Kafka's drawings were widely known. Although Kafka is renowned for his written work, his drawings are evidence of what his literary executor Max Brod termed his "double talent." Irresistible and full of fascinating figures, shifting from the realistic to the fantastic, the grotesque, the uncanny, and the carnivalesque, they illuminate a previously unknown side of the quintessential modernist author.Kafka's drawings span his full career, but he drew most intensively in his university years, between 1901 and 1907. An entire booklet of drawings from this period is among the many new discoveries, along with dozens of loose sheets. Published for the first time in English, these newly available materials are collected with his known works in a complete catalogue raisonne of more than 240 illustrations, reproduced in full color. Essays by Andreas Kilcher and Judith Butler provide essential background for this lavish volume, interpreting the drawings in their own right while also reconciling their place in Kafka's larger oeuvre. (knihydobrovsky.cz)

"I have only one request, " Kafka wrote to his publisher in 1913. "The Stoker, ' The Metamorphosis, ' and The Judgement' belong together, both inwardly and outwardly. There is an obvious connection among the three." Also includes Letters to his Father. (knihydobrovsky.cz)

Written in 1914 but not published until 1925, a year after Kafka’s death, The Trial is 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, The Trial has resonated with chilling truth for generations of readers. (knihydobrovsky.cz)

Kafka's novel is a study of relationships, particularly between the individual and society and between thought and action. K's isolation and perplexity and his begging for the approval of elusive and anonymous powers, epitomize Kafka's vision of 20th-century alienation and anxiety. (knihydobrovsky.cz)

A terrifying psychological trip into the life of one Joseph K., an ordinary man who wakes up one day to find himself accused of a crime he did not commit, a crime whose nature is never revealed to him. Once arrested, he is released, but must report to court on a regular basis--an event that proves maddening, as nothing is ever resolved. As he grows more uncertain of his fate, his personal life--including work at a bank and his relations with his landlady and a young woman who lives next door--becomes increasingly unpredictable. As K. tries to gain control, he succeeds only in accelerating his own excruciating downward spiral. (knihydobrovsky.cz)

Features K., the unwanted Land Surveyor who is never to be admitted to the Castle nor accepted in the village, and yet cannot go home. As he encounters dualities of certainty and doubt, hope and fear, and reason and nonsense, K.'s struggles in the labyrinthine world where he finds himself seem to reveals a truth about the nature of existence. (knihydobrovsky.cz)

A terrifying psychological trip into the life of one Joseph K., an ordinary man who wakes up one day to find himself accused of a crime he did not commit, a crime whose nature is never revealed to him. Once arrested, he is released, but must report to court on a regular basis--an event that proves maddening, as nothing is ever resolved. As he grows more uncertain of his fate, his personal life--including work at a bank and his relations with his landlady and a young woman who lives next door--becomes increasingly unpredictable. As K. tries to gain control, he succeeds only in accelerating his own excruciating downward spiral. (knihydobrovsky.cz)

The Castle is the story of K., the unwanted Land Surveyor who is never to be admitted to the Castle nor accepted in the village, and yet cannot go home. As he encounters dualities of certainty and doubt, hope and fear, and reason and nonsense, K.'s struggles in the absurd, labyrinthine world where he finds himself seem to reveal an inexplicable truth about the nature of existence. Kafka began The Castle in 1922 and it was never finished, yet this, the last of his three great novels, draws fascinating conclusions that make it feel strangely complete. (knihydobrovsky.cz)

In Kafka's powerful and disturbing novel, an innocent man is arrested and repeatedly interrogated for a crime that is never ever explained.Part of the Macmillan Collector's Library, a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold-foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is translated from German by Douglas Scott and Chris Waller, and features an afterword by David Stuart Davies.On the morning of his thirtieth birthday, a young bank official named Joseph K is arrested although he has done nothing wrong and is never told what he's been charged with. The Trial is the chronicle of his fight to prove his innocence, of his struggles and encounters with the invisible Law and the untouchable Court where he must make regular visits. It is an account, ultimately, of state-induced self-destruction presenting in a nightmarish scenario the persecution of the outsider and the incomprehensible machinations of the state. Using the power of simple, straightforward language Kafka draws the reader into this bleak and frightening world so that we too experience the fears, uncertainties and tragedy of Joseph K. (knihydobrovsky.cz)

A terrifying psychological trip into the life of one Joseph K., an ordinary man who wakes up one day to find himself accused of a crime he did not commit, a crime whose nature is never revealed to him. Once arrested, he is released, but must report to court on a regular basis--an event that proves maddening, as nothing is ever resolved. As he grows more uncertain of his fate, his personal life--including work at a bank and his relations with his landlady and a young woman who lives next door--becomes increasingly unpredictable. As K. tries to gain control, he succeeds only in accelerating his own excruciating downward spiral. (knihydobrovsky.cz)

Franz Kafka's final novel tells the haunting tale of a man known only as K. and of his relentless, unavailing struggle with an inscrutable authority in order to gain entrance to the Castle. Although Kafka seemed to consider `The Castle` a failure, critics, in wrestling with its enigmatic meaning, have recognized it as one of the great novels of our century.Unfinished at Kafka's death in 1924, the manuscript of `The Castle` was edited for publication by Kafka's friend and literary executor, Max Brod. Both Brod's edition and the English-language translation of it that was prepared by Willa and Edwin Muir in 1930 have long been considered flawed.This new edition of Kafka's terrifying and comic masterpiece is the product of an international team of experts who went back to Kafka's original manuscript and notes to create an edition that is as close as possible to the way the author left it. The `Times Literary Supplement` hailed their work, saying that it will `decisively alter our understanding of Kafka and render previous editions obsolete.`Mark Harman's brilliant translation closely follows the fluidity and breathlessness of the sparsely punctuated original manuscript, revealing levels of comedy, energy, and visual power that have not been previously accessible toEnglish-language readers.W. H. Auden likened Kafka to Dante, Shakespeare, and Goethe as the single most important writer of his age. Here, in this new edition, is a Kafka for the twenty-first century. (knihydobrovsky.cz)

This lavish book about the most famous native of Prague Franz Kafka is intended for everyone who wishes to learn more about his life and work, and his world. It brings to life the world of Prague German literature, the world of Kafka's interests, family and friends, and also the world of his strange stories, which continue to fascinate and puzzle both readers and experts. The author of the text is the poet, translator and Germanist Radek Maly, twice recipient of the Magnesia Litera Prize. The illustrations have been created by Renáta Fučíková, a leading Czech illustrator and holder of many Czech and international awards. (knihydobrovsky.cz)

Nádherná a jedinečná kniha fotografií Prahy od významného slovenského fotografa Karola Kállaye doprovázených úryvky a citáty z Kafkových dopisů v angličtině. (patro.cz)

Nádherná a jedinečná kniha fotografií Prahy od významného slovenského fotografa Karola Kállaye doprovázených úryvky a citáty z Kafkových dopisů v angličtině. (knihydobrovsky.cz)

A collection of Kafka's greatest short fiction, translated by Michael HofmannKafka's masterpiece of unease and black humour, Metamorphosis, the story of an ordinary man transformed into an insect, is brought together in this collection with the rest of his works that he thought worthy of publication. It includes Contemplation, a collection of his earlier short studies; The Judgement, written in a single night of frenzied creativity; The Stoker, the first chapter of a novel set in America; and an eyewitness account of an air display. Together, these stories, fragments and miniature gems reveal the breadth of his vision, his sense of the absurd, and above all his acute, uncanny wit.Translated with an introduction by Michael Hofmann (knihydobrovsky.cz)

A terrifying psychological trip into the life of one Joseph K., an ordinary man who wakes up one day to find himself accused of a crime he did not commit, a crime whose nature is never revealed to him. Once arrested, he is released, but must report to court on a regular basis--an event that proves maddening, as nothing is ever resolved. As he grows more uncertain of his fate, his personal life--including work at a bank and his relations with his landlady and a young woman who lives next door--becomes increasingly unpredictable. As K. tries to gain control, he succeeds only in accelerating his own excruciating downward spiral. (knihydobrovsky.cz)

A terrifying psychological trip into the life of one Joseph K., an ordinary man who wakes up one day to find himself accused of a crime he did not commit, a crime whose nature is never revealed to him. Once arrested, he is released, but must report to court on a regular basis--an event that proves maddening, as nothing is ever resolved. As he grows more uncertain of his fate, his personal life--including work at a bank and his relations with his landlady and a young woman who lives next door--becomes increasingly unpredictable. As K. tries to gain control, he succeeds only in accelerating his own excruciating downward spiral. (knihydobrovsky.cz)

From the author of The Metamorphosis and The Trial and one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century, his first--and funniest--novel.Amerika tells the story of the young Karl Rossmann who, after an incident involving a housemaid, is banished by his parents to America. Expected to redeem himself in this magical land of opportunity, young Karl is swept up instead in a whirlwind of dizzying reversals, strange escapades, and picaresque adventures. Kafka began writing what he had entitled Der Verschollene (The Missing Person) in 1912 and wrote the last completed chapter in 1914. But it wasn't until 1927, three years after his death, that Max Brod, Kafka's friend and literary executor, edited the unfinished manuscript and published it as Amerika. (knihydobrovsky.cz)

Franz Kafka wrote this letter to his father, Hermann Kafka, in November 1919. Max Brod, Kafka’s literary executor, relates that Kafka actually gave the letter to his mother to hand to his father, hoping it might renew a relationship that had lost itself in tension and frustration on both sides. But Kafka’s probing of the deep flaw in their relationship spared neither his father nor himself. He could not help seeing the failure of communication between father and son as another moment in the larger existential predicament depicted in so much of his work. Probably realizing the futility of her son’s gesture, Julie Kafka did not deliver the letter but instead returned it to its author. (knihydobrovsky.cz)

The reports collected in this volume are not simply about Franz Kafka and his work. As the title suggests, the Kafkian universe is examined here with respect to the problem of minority, which can be treated in many ways, but what is decisive here is the notion of minority developed by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari in A Thousand Plateaus, in which the difference between Majority and Minority is not simply quantitative, for various minorities can be more numerous than representatives of majority. The Majority appears rather as a certain model of life which is constant, standard and to which everyone should conform, whereas minorities involve various deviations from the majoritarian way of life. From the majoritarian point of view, minorities can be objectified and determined by the degree of their divergence from the dominant model of life. In themselves, however, they are not static entities with more or less negative values, but dynamic processes of escape from the majoritarian model of life: processes that are both positive and creative, as they bring mutations and variations into the standardized way of life. Minority, insofar as it remains minority, is therefore a becoming; it is a becoming-minoritarian, which uncontrollably passes beyond the established limits of social life. Contributors include Gregg Lambert, Catarina Pombo Nabais, Petr Kouba, Miroslav Petricek, Ronald Bogue, Nick Nesbitt. (knihydobrovsky.cz)

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'The writing glimmers with sensitivity, and openness to the world' - The Wall Street JournalDating from 1909 to 1923, Franz Kafka’s Diaries contains a broad array of writing, including accounts of daily events, assorted reflections and observations, literary sketches, drafts of letters, records of dreams, and unrevised texts of stories. This volume makes available for the first time in English a comprehensive reconstruction of Kafka’s handwritten diary entries and provides substantial new content, restoring all the material omitted from previous publications — notably, names of people and undisguised details about them, a number of literary writings, and passages of a sexual nature, some of them with homoerotic overtones. By faithfully reproducing the diaries’ distinctive — and often surprisingly unpolished — writing as it appeared in Kafka’s notebooks, translator Ross Benjamin brings to light not only the author’s use of the diaries for literary invention and unsparing self-examination but also their value as a work of genius in and of themselves. (knihydobrovsky.cz)

Das Werk von Franz Kafka ist ein Klassiker der modernen Literatur schlechthin. In sein faszinierendes Erzähluniversum führen keine Abkürzungen und Hintertürchen: Man muss es ganz für sich persönlich entdecken und lesend erkunden. Ein Glück für jeden, der diese große Erfahrung vor sich hat. Dieser Band bietet dazu die beste Gelegenheit. Er umfasst Kafkas Romane "Der Prozess" und "Das Schloss", den "Brief an den Vater" sowie sämtliche Erzählungen, unter ihnen "In der Strafkolonie" und "Die Verwandlung". (knihydobrovsky.cz)

eBook:,Marek Nekula připravil soubor studií o tom, jak Praha formovala Kafkovu osobnost a dílo. Kniha začíná kritickou diskuzí o problematickém přijímání Franze Kafky v Československu, které začalo na konferenci v Liblici v roce 1963. Zde byl Kafka zachráněn před cenzurou za cenu "přepsání" jeho německého a židovského literárního a kulturního kontextu s cílem vyzdvihnout český vliv na jeho tvorbu. Studie se zaměřují na židovské sociální a literární prostředí v Praze, Kafkovu německo-českou dvojjazyčnost a jeho znalost jidiš a hebrejštiny. Kafkův bilingvismus je probírán v kontextu současných esencialistických názorů na spisovatelův jazyk a identitu. Nekula také věnuje zvláštní pozornost Kafkovu vzdělání, zkoumá jeho studia českého jazyka a literatury, jakož i jeho českou četbu a její roli v jeho intelektuálním životě. Knihu uzavírá otázkou, jak Kafka "četl" své městské prostředí. (knihydobrovsky.cz)

The complete stories of one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century, the author of The Metamorphosis and The Trial. "An important book, valuable in itself and absolutely fascinating. The stories are dreamlike, allegorical, symbolic, parabolic, grotesque, ritualistic, nasty, lucent, extremely personal, ghoulishly detached, exquisitely comic, numinous, and prophetic.” -The New York Times The Complete Stories brings together all of Kafka's stories, from the classic tales such as "The Metamorphosis,” "In the Penal Colony,” and "A Hunger Artist” to shorter pieces and fragments that Max Brod, Kafka's literary executor, released after Kafka's death. With the exception of his three novels, the whole of Kafka's narrative work is included in this volume. "[Kafka] spoke for millions in their new unease; a century after his birth, he seems the last holy writer, and the supreme fabulist of modern man's cosmic predicament.” -from the Foreword by John Updike (knihydobrovsky.cz)

These stories cover the whole span of Kafka's writing career, from "Looking to See" written in his twenties, to his last work, "Josephine", and culminating in "The Metamorphosis" (knihydobrovsky.cz)

Written in 1914, The Trial is 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. (knihydobrovsky.cz)

Nové miniknížky nakladatelství Vitalis představují ideální suvenýr či dárek z cest za senzační cenu, pestrobarevný pozdrav v miniaturním formátu, který nejenže staví pomník významným osobnostem, ale představuje i známá a méně známá místa v novém světle! Na 52 stranách najdete kromě ilustrací v nejvyšší kvalitě i citáty a tu či onu informaci, kterou jste dosud možná neznali. Nechte se překvapit! (knihydobrovsky.cz)

Nové miniknížky nakladatelství Vitalis představují ideální suvenýr či dárek z cest za senzační cenu, pestrobarevný pozdrav v miniaturním formátu, který nejenže staví pomník významným osobnostem, ale představuje i známá a méně známá místa v novém světle! Na 52 stranách najdete kromě ilustrací v nejvyšší kvalitě i citáty a tu či onu informaci, kterou jste dosud možná neznali. Nechte se překvapit! (knihydobrovsky.cz)

In this new selection and translation, Peter Wortsman mines Franz Kafka's entire opus of short prose-including works published in the author's brief lifetime, posthumously published stories, journals, and letters-for narratives that sound the imaginative depths of the great German-Jewish scribe from Prague. It is the first volume in English to consider his deeply strange, resonantly humane letters and journal entries alongside his classic short fiction and lyrical vignettes "Transformed” is a vivid retranslation of one of Kafka's signature stories, "Die Verwandlung,” commonly rendered in English as "The Metamorphosis.” Composed of short, black comic parables, fables, fairy tales, and reflections, Konundrums also includes classic stories like "In the Penal Colony,” Kafka's prescient foreshadowing of the nightmare of the Twentieth Century, refreshing the writer's mythic storytelling powers for a new generation of readers. (knihydobrovsky.cz)

Rodiče poslali šestnáctiletého Karla Rossmana do Ameriky. Chtěli se vyhnout pikantnímu skandálu - chlapce totiž svedla jejich služka. Pracovitého a čestného, nicméně i velmi naivního hocha na začátku ubytuje zámožný strýc. Brzy se nepohodnou, Karel dostane kufr, jízdenku do San Franciska a musí se začít protloukat životem na vlastní pěst. Podle některých odborníků je román Amerika nejlepší Kafkova kniha. Kromě typických popisů osamocení v absurdním a bezohledném světě v ní najdeme také nemalou dávku specifického situačního humoru, který není u tohoto autora příliš obvyklý. (knihydobrovsky.cz)

Když si Zámek pročteme pozorně, přesněji rozpoznáme vlastnosti světa, v němž žijeme - a protože skutečné poznání osvobozuje, bude se nám o něco volněji dýchat, plněji a smysluplněji žít. Západ má po bibli jen Shakespeara a Cervantese a Kafku… Tímto svazkem a následujícími třemi dáváme dnešní generaci možnost procítit to nejpodstatnější z Kafkova díla v naprosto současném - vlastně před pár dny dokončeném překladu. Jeho autor Hanuš Karlach vložil do knihy veškeré pochopení svého citu a rozumu, a připojil doslov osvětlující vznik románu i jeho další osudy a charakterizující jeho hodnoty. K hlubokému prožitku z četby přispívají svébytné, výrazné ilustrace malíře Michala Singera. Se vztyčenou hlavou si přečtěme svého Kafku! (knihydobrovsky.cz)

Život se může někdy změnit doslovně z minuty na minutu. Tento pocit musel asi mít i velmi slušný a spořádaný bankovní úředník Josef K. Místo kuchařky se snídaní do jeho pokoje vstoupil úplně cizí muž a z místnosti vedle uslyšel neznámé hlasy. Když se rozhodl s nečekanou situací něco udělat, uslyšel šokující slova. „Jste přece zatčen.“Proces je často označován za vrcholné dílo Franze Kafky. V tomto absurdním románu čtenář může prožít postupnou psychickou změnu člověka, který je drcen nemilosrdným soukolím státní mašinérie. Z dnešního pohledu vnímáme knihu nejen jako prorockou, ale i jednoznačně nadčasovou. (knihydobrovsky.cz)

Zámek – nedokončený román Franze Kafky z roku 1922 – znovu a znovu oslovuje, znovu vybízí k interpretaci a ukazuje možnosti chápání literárního díla. Hrdina K., který se vydává za zeměměřiče, přichází do vesnice a marně se pokouší kontaktovat úředníky ze zámku. Prožívá milostný vztah s výčepní Frídou. Bezvýsledně usiluje o uznání své profese a existence. Naše edice představuje první překlad do češtiny podle kritického německého vydání. Kniha vychází padesát let od posledního překladu a devadesát let od úmrtí autora. (knihydobrovsky.cz)

Hlavní roli v románu hraje zeměměřič K., který je zámkem povolán do vesnice, aby zde provedl úřední měření. Už při svém příchodu se setkává se zvláštnostmi zdejšího prostředí, především pak samotných obyvatel, kteří z něj mají strach, straní se ho a bojí. Kvůli úředním nesrovnalostem mu starosta obce nechce dát zeměměřičskou práci a přiděluje k němu dva otravné pomocníky. Po románku se zdejší vysoce postavenou servírkou Frídou z Panského hostince, která je údajnou milenkou váženého a obávaného zámeckého úředníka Klamma, se K. dostává do nemilosti hostinské, je vyhozen z Hospody u mostu a je mu nabídnuto místo školníka. Zde nalezne útočiště i se svou snoubenkou. Jejich vztah však netrvá dlouho. Po návštěvě zámeckého posla Barnabáše, jehož rodina je ve vesnici nechvalně proslulá kvůli skandálu sestry Amálie, se po debatě s mladší ze sester - Olgou - dovídá mnoho o hierarchii na zámku, o postavení úředníků a pravidlech ve vesnici... (knihydobrovsky.cz)

Kafka's last great, unfinished novel - the book that hangs over the whole modern era like a nightmare. With a new introduction and notes by John Zilcosky The Castle is the story of K., the unwanted Land Surveyor who is never to be admitted to the Castle nor accepted in the village, and yet cannot go home. As he encounters dualities of certainty and doubt, hope and fear, and reason and nonsense, K.'s struggles in the absurd, labyrinthine world where he finds himself seem to reveal an inexplicable truth about the nature of existence.Kafka began The Castle in 1922 and it was never finished, yet this, the last of his three great novels, draws fascinating conclusions that make it feel strangely complete. (knihydobrovsky.cz)

Kafka's gripping work of psychological horror, with a new introduction and notes by Carolin Duttlinger A terrifying psychological trip into the life of one Joseph K., an ordinary man who wakes up one day to find himself accused of a crime he did not commit, a crime whose nature is never revealed to him. Once arrested, he is released, but must report to court on a regular basis--an event that proves maddening, as nothing is ever resolved. As he grows more uncertain of his fate, his personal life--including work at a bank and his relations with his landlady and a young woman who lives next door--becomes increasingly unpredictable.As K. tries to gain control, he succeeds only in accelerating his own excruciating downward spiral. (knihydobrovsky.cz)

Je pozdní večer v pražské Mikulášské ulici. V rodičovském bytě konečně zavládne ticho, otec, matka a sestry se uložili ke spánku. Jen Franz sedí čilý u svého psacího stolu - rychlými tahy začíná psát znepokojivý příběh. Už první věta uvozuje mistrovské dílo, které uchvátí miliony čtenářů: "Když se Řehoř Samsa jednoho rána probudil z neklidných snů, zjistil, že se ve své posteli proměnil v ohavný hmyz." Kromě původního Kafkova textu z roku 1915 obsahuje toto vydání v Pražské edici poprvé také pokračování "hmyzího příběhu" z pera Kafkova mladého předčasně zesnulého spisovatelského kolegy Karla Branda. Přímo sběratelskou perlu činí z předkládaného vydání Proměny také bohatě ilustrovaný doslov ke vzniku povídky a jejím ohromujícím celosvětovém ohlasu. Je to kniha nejen pro zaryté milovníky Franze Kafky, ale i pro všechny, kdož chtějí tohoto pražského spisovatele pro sebe teprve objevit. Těší nás, že jste mezi nimi i Vy. (knihydobrovsky.cz)

Z kratších próz Franze Kafky je povídka Proměna bezesporu nejznámější a stala se reprezentativní ukázkou myšlenkových a fabulačních postupů tohoto pozoruhodného autora. Čtenáře vrhne rovnou do absurdní situace, kdy se hlavní postava povídky ráno probudí a zjistí, že se proměnila v prapodivný hmyz. A právě to, že autor pracuje s podobným nápadem jako s možnou skutečností, logicky ji rozvíjí a vtahuje do děje další postavy, je zdroj Kafkova svérázného myšlení a temného humoru. Z kratších próz Franze Kafky je povídka Proměna bezesporu nejznámější a stala se reprezentativní ukázkou myšlenkových a fabulačních postupů tohoto pozoruhodného autora. Čtenáře vrhne rovnou do absurdní situace, kdy se hlavní postava povídky ráno probudí a zjistí, že se proměnila v prapodivný hmyz. A právě to, že autor pracuje s podobným nápadem jako s možnou skutečností, logicky ji rozvíjí a vtahuje do děje další postavy, je zdroj Kafkova svérázného myšlení a temného humoru. Klasickou prózu čte Vladimír Budař. (knihydobrovsky.cz)

Introducing Little Clothbound Classics: irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. Celebrating the range and diversity of Penguin Classics, they take us from snowy Japan to springtime Vienna, from haunted New England to a sun-drenched Mediterranean island, and from a game of chess on the ocean to a love story on the moon. Beautifully designed and printed, these collectible editions are bound in colourful, tactile cloth and stamped with foil. One morning, ordinary salesman Gregor Samsa wakes up to find himself transformed into a giant cockroach. Metamorphosis, Kafka's masterpiece of unease and black humour, is one of the twentieth century's most influential works of fiction, and is accompanied here by two more classic stories. 'He is the greatest German writer of our time. Such poets as Rilke or such novelists as Thomas Mann are dwarfs or plaster saints in comparison to him' - Vladimir Nabokov Review He is the greatest German writer of our time. Such poets as Rilke or such novelists as Thomas Mann are dwarfs or plaster saints in comparison to him -- Vladimir Nabokov Kafka described with wonderful imaginative power the future concentration camps, the future instability of the law, the future absolutism of the state, the paralysed, inadequately motivated, floundering lives of the many individual people; everything appeared as a nightmare and with the confusion and inadequacy of a nightmare -- Bertolt Brecht (knihydobrovsky.cz)