About this title: Kafka's stories--bleak, painfully comic, enigmatic--are invariably about man's alienation from daily life, but he creates a rich variety of worlds, from the absurdity of the hunger artist in his cage, to Gregor Samsa's vividly imagined transformation into a cockroach, to the profoundly ironic view of capital punishment in "The Penal Colony."
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Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Schocken Books
Date Published: 1988
ISBN-13:9780805208733ISBN:0805208739
Description: Good. Used Condition-GOOD can be a well cared for Book that is in great condition to a Book that may show some signs of wear. GOOD Books sometimes are permanently marked; have some spine or page creases; exibit signs of aging or an ExLibrary copy. ** Sometimes grease pencil or permanent marking on cover. May contain limited notes and or highlighting. 100% Satisfaction guaranteed on all purchases. ** SHIPS FROM USA-Domestic Delivery takes 5-14 days ** read more
Description: Good. Purchasing this book supports the King County Library System Foundation. Thriftbooks and KCLSF have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Very Good in Good jacket. Binding VG, Minor edge & shelf wear. DJ G, Edge wear, tears & chips. DJ tape repaired on inside edges. Former owners name & address rubberstamped in black ink twice on FFE. Underlining & Margin Notes in red ink throughout text. Personal Name: Kafka, Franz, 1883-1924. Uniform Title: Selected works Main Title: The complete stories. Edited by Nahum N. Glatzer. Published/Created: New York, Schocken Books [1971] Related Names: Glatzer, Nahum Norbert, 1903-ed. Description: ... read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Schocken Books
Date Published: 1995
ISBN-13:9780805210552ISBN:0805210555
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 512 p. Audience: General/trade. Used trade paperback edition Book = VG Condition read more
Description: Good. Softcover; former library book, edges worn, library stickers and stamps on binding, cover, and first few pages, now writing in text; RTB813. read more
"No spoilers; this collection of short stories, novellas, and paragraphs leaves me wishing I had picked up one of Kafka's finished novels instead. Just as I would get into his ideas put forth in a page or two, many of the "stories" end unfinished. After reading the bibliography or other info at the back does the reader discover how many of these stories are either unfinished or small scenes setting up a larger novel. The classic short story "The Metamorphosis" is included and is worth a read. Unfortunately, that alone doesn't give me reason to rate this higher than a 2."
"Kafka's Complete Stories is the rare book to which I could give two stars or five. Beyond his writing, I love him for his humanity, his authenticity, and his painful incompatibility with the modern world. His attempts, however, to put all this in writing are unfortunately inconsistent, ranging from mesmerizing to incomplete "scribbling" as he referred to his own writing. As a reader I am repeatedly wishing beyond wishing that he had expanded, developed, and completed more of the stories and fragments that he left behind, even if he did not expect or desire them to be published. But then there are also stories like "A Little Woman," "A Country Doctor," the famous "Metamorphosis," and probably my favorite, "The Judgment," along with several others, which really begin to communicate Kafka's inner self in a moving way. Other readers will surely find other stories to be their favorites, a further testament to his work.
Bureaucracy. Offices. Forms. Social expectations. Domineering fathers. Managers. Jobs. A world of talk talk, cheap talk, dispirited organization(s), deceptive systems and their propagating individuals. So cheap and disgusting that it sets forth a frightening gloom and apocalyptic sense of loss. Kafka deeply felt one of the greatest tragedies of modernity: the loss of spirit to ingrained, mass-produced socialization serving mere manipulation, the victory of faceless egotism and vapid professionalism packaged in self-importance for the sake of materialism and pseudo-rationalism, normally at the expense of beauty and originality. Since his death, I'm sorry to report, nothing has improved. I still feel Kafka's dread, it is real, when I go into the doctor's office, Philadelphia restaurants, public schools. At his best, Kafka's writing offers safe harbor from the trembling, or at least a pillow of criticism to rest one's head while on this insufferable road Western society calls the 20th/21st century, a moment to recall our own humanity as it inevitably gets lost in this massive shuffle, Kafka's greatest fear."
"Although this is not the exact collection that I read it is close enough. Works in the copy I read included the Metamorphosis, THe penal colony, the country doctor, the hunger artist, and a whole slew of short one page only paragraphs brief short pieces. Overall, I had mixed feelings about Kafka's work. An enigmatic writing style with frequent long run-on sentences and multiple digressions Kafka takes some time to get used to. His very short (page length) stories are less rewarding, but the longer pieces are fantastic.
The Penal Colony is a masterpiece, as is the dark and tradgic Metamorphosis and make this book well worth reading."
"kafka is very strange for me to read. i guess listening to radiohead often reminds me of reading his works. i feel like i don't understand it, yet sometimes something sort of hooks me and i get choked up or feel unsettled or something."
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