Willa Muir

Franz Kafka

A fantasy novel, depicting human attempts to arrive closer to God, considered to be a symbolic classic

The Castle

Translated and with a preface by Mark Harman Left unfinished by Kafka in 1922 and not published until 1926, two years after his death, The Castle is the haunting tale of K.’s relentless, unavailing struggle with an inscrutable authority in order to gain access to the Castle. Scrupulously following the fluidity and breathlessness of the sparsely punctuated original manuscript, Mark Harman’s new translation reveals levels of comedy, energy, and visual power previously unknown to English language readers.

A New Translation Based on the Restored Text

Sad how it got cut off mid-sentence, but it was still worth the read. Kafka created such a strangerly satisfying atmosphere here, everything feels like a metaphor that will took you a while to get through. Idk what left me more unsettled, the unfinished sentence or the fact that K. never reaches the castle and losing himself in the process.

(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) Arriving in a village to take up the position of land surveyor for the mysterious lord of a castle, the character known as K. finds himself in a bitter and baffling struggle to contact his new employer and go about his duties. As the villagers and the Castle officials block his efforts at every turn, K.’s consuming quest–quite possibly a self-imposed one–to penetrate the inaccessible heart of the Castle and take its measure is repeatedly frustrated. Kafka once suggested that the would-be surveyor in The Castle is driven by a wish “to get clear about ultimate things,” an unrealizable desire that provided the driving force behind all of Kafka’s dazzlingly uncanny fictions. Translated by Willa and Edwin Muir From the Hardcover edition.

A New Translation, Based on the Restored Text

Un livre avec une ambiance PESANTE qui se termine sur une phrase non aboutie (r.i.p franz).. un tout qui donne l’impression de réussir à s’échapper d’un rêve interminable et insensé grâce à la sonnerie du réveil

skch skch

Varol Aksoy

Kafka'nın tamamlayamadan öldüğü üç romanından biri Şato. Sonunun olmadığını bildiğim bir romanı okuma deneyimini yaşayacağım :) Bismillaaaa

poprika

** spoiler alert **
           Despite my unconditional love for Kafka, The Castle was pretty painful, partly because i dragged it for weeks (even though i was planning to finish it in couple day but life got in our way ^^ ) partly before jumping into it you already know that there is no end since Kafka died before he got to finish it... so i guess it's kinda makes sence in that unique way and follows the hole "pointless nightmare" more accurate. 
Any ways it's a great book, a true masterpiece and i learned my lesson - not dragging any books anymore ^^

The castle

I can't give a book that the author didn't finish the full five stars, but there's something about the way Kafka evokes a very particular and unusual atmosphere in this novel that I really appreciate.

Doug Belshaw

Translated by J. A. Underwood with an Introduction by Idris Parry. 'K., he said, had taken the rousing from sleep, the interrogation, and the obligatory threat of explusion from the country with a very bad grace' The Castleis 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 experiences 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 existence. Kafka began The Castlein 1922 and it was never finished, yet this, the last of his great novels, feels strangely complete.

Very Kafka of Kafka to write a book where absolutely nothing happens, then end it as soon as things do in fact start happening. Maybe I hate myself, maybe I've read one too many of his diary entries, but I can't say that reading this didn't hold a perverted sense of satisfaction.

Francesca

jannik

The Castle, one of Kafka's unfinished novels, is the second work of his I have read, the first being The Trial. Again, we follow a main character named only "K.", again, we are presented with an insurmountable bureaucracy that obstructs K. at every step of his way. A tale of modern man in a society that dehumanises its inhabitants. Kafka's precise prose — I read it in the original German, I cannot judge the translation — is well-suited to this novel. Some passages are unwieldy, but it is, after all, an unfinished novel; furthermore, the unwieldiness and the lack of ease in reading this book at times even strengthen its effect. This read has deepened my appreciation for Kafka.

Juan Sebastián Escobar

If you're a fan of Kafka, it may be a must-read, otherwise you should probably stay away of this book, it's boring, really boring, it's unfinished as you might know, and even Franz Kafka himself didn´t want it published, way to go Max Brod.

The Castle

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