Publisher's Synopsis
The Trial (German: The Trial) (English: The Trial) Der Process) is a novel by Franz Kafka about the years 1914 as well as 1915 and published on 26 April 1925 following his death. It's one of his most well known works and also tells the story of Josef K., a man who was held and tried by an unknown, unavailable authority without the specifics of his crime being exposed to either him or the audience. Greatly influenced by Dostoevsky's Crime as well as Punishment and also the Brothers Karamazov, Kafka even went so far as to call Dostoevsky a blood relative.Unlike Kafka's 2 other novels, The Trial was never finished, though it does have a chapter that seems to take the story to an intentionally abrupt end.
Max Brod, Kafka's good friend as well as literary executor following his death in 1924, rewrote the manuscript for Verlag Die Schmiede following Kafka died. The initial manuscript is kept at the Museum of Modern Literature in Marbach am Neckar, Germany. The very first German translation, by Willa and Edwin Muir, was released in 1937.In 1999, the book was included in Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century as well as No. 2 of the most useful German Novels of the Last 100 years.
Here is the complete text of the novel with the followings annotations:
*Biographical Information:
Kafka's parents most likely spoke a German affected by Yiddish which was sometimes pejoratively called Mauscheldeutsch, but, as German was regarded as the automobile of social mobility, they likely encouraged the children of theirs to speak Standard German.Hermann and Julie had 6 kids, of who Franz was the eldest. Franz's 2 brothers, Heinrich and Georg, died in infancy before Franz was seven; his 3 sisters were Gabriele ("Ellie") (1889 1944), Valerie ("Valli") (1890 1942 Ottilie and) ("Ottla") (1892 1943). All 3 had been murdered in the Holocaust of World War II. Valli was deported on the Lódz Ghetto in occupied Poland in 1942, but that's the final information of her; it's assumed she didn't endure the battle. Ottilie was Kafka's favourite sister.
Hermann is discussed by the biographer Stanley Corngold as a "huge, selfish, overbearing businessman"and also by Franz Kafka as "a true Kafka in power, well being, appetite, loudness of speech, eloquence, self satisfaction, worldly dominance, endurance, presence of mind, understanding of man nature".
