The Trial by Franz Kafka (PDF)

Description

The Trial is a novel written by Franz Kafka from 1914 to 1915 and published in 1925. One of his best-known works, it tells the story of a man arrested and prosecuted by a remote, inaccessible authority, with the nature of his crime revealed neither to him nor to the reader. Heavily influenced by Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov, Kafka even went so far as to call Dostoevsky a blood relative. Like Kafka’s other novels, The Trial was never completed, although it does include a chapter which brings the story to an end.After Kafka’s death in 1924 his friend and literary executor Max Brod edited the text for publication by Verlag Die Schmiede. The original manuscript is held at the Museum of Modern Literature, Marbach am Neckar, Germany. The first English language translation, by Willa and Edwin Muir, was published in 1937. In 1999, the book was listed in Le Monde’s 100 Books of the Century and as No. 2 of the Best German Novels of the Twentieth Century.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐This remarkable book by Kafka is a terrifying insight into the ultimate in legal trials, when neither the accused, his trial lawyer (who looks to his client for instructions as to how he should plead, what evidence he should lead and the general response of the client to the trial, so that he may do his or her best to represent the interests of the client. What kind of frustration must the accused feel at being told that the state has said that the trial is about, just to pick a topic that is inapplicable in this book, say terrorism, and that the interests of the state might be jeopardised if the accused was to know exactly what law it was alleged he broke, and the circumstances in which that conduct of the accused occurred. How can any lawyer, court or judge function under such a repressive system?So, unsurprisingly, Kafka looses his notional trial and his lawyer must discuss with him whether he should appeal or not, but in so doing, the lawyer cannot tell Kafka what has been alleged and now found against him, or what the trial judge ruled. Under such monstrous circumstances how can any lawyer procure instructions to allow a meaningful (for the client, not the lawyer, he will be paid anyway) appeal to the appeals court.Here the exercise goes from a farce to the theatre of the absurd as the lawyer has only himself to consult since nothing can be discussed with Kafka.The book is an object lesson in one sense: if society values a right to a fair trial, then that right should never be abridged in the name of some false ‘concerns’ by governmental authorities as to the consequences of allowing such an accused to properly participate in his own trial, particularly when the consequences of loosing a trial about which the accused knows nothing can be quite a shock to person convicted , once at his ‘trial’ and again at his ‘appeal’.

⭐Didn’t pay close attention to the dimensions; turns out it’s printed as it’s ordered on standard sheets of paper; uncomfortable to hold and read.

⭐An always engrossing story of “K” (the protagonist) who wakes up one morning to find his breakfast eaten by one of two ‘policemen’ who have arrived to charge him for a ‘crime’ never named and notify him of his pending court appearance, the place and time for which are not provided him. During the months that follow we watch “K’s” attitude morph from shock to arrogance to paranoia through the rest of the read as he gropes for help, understanding, even sympathy. It is as ‘odd’ as the coined word for such events…Kafkaesque.The novel was never finished – abandoned by Franz Kafka before finishing chapter 9. His long time editor cobbled together a chapter 10, following Kafka’s death (who apparently asked that all three of his novel manuscripts be destroyed!). The book is on most lists of “100 greatest books”, the story will not disappoint and is recommended, but you may agree that the incomplete novel was not satisfied by the editor’s slap-dash ‘patch’.

⭐I read it because it’s a classic and I try to read a couple of year. The free Kindle version is not well-edited, which is a bit distracting (but what do you expect for free?). Having read Hesse in my younger days, I should have known what I was getting in early 20th century central European fiction. If you love Hesse, you’ll love this. Unfortunately, I don’t.

⭐After finally reading ‘The Trial’ I am feeling as a heretic, since I did not really like it. I knew the plot, we have all been bombarded with that for 80 years, but the execution were really not to my liking I do not find this book nearly as fulfilling or even interesting as I had expected.The age of the book should not matter, the story is as far as I am concerned ‘timeless’ but this one did not move me as I had expected that it would. Possibly we all get this type of ‘ohh is that all’ experiences on occasion when reading a ‘Classic’ I am just very surprised that it happened to me with this one.

⭐It is certainly a difficult book to read with all the stream of consciousness writing and the a trial is mind boggling. But, ultimately it is a book we should all read! Our own society is very close to being like this. Eerily close.It is also a good mental exercise to learn how to read these books that make us work hard to follow.

⭐The TOC in the kindle version is nearly worthless. I am not sure about whether there were some format changes made/lost in the conversion to a digital edition but there seemed to be no real sense as to punctuation or paragraph formation. The strength of the writing carried the reader over these bumps.

⭐The book is a very awkward size and format. In addition to the pages being 8.5x11in the text is fully justified without any paragraph brakes.Each line becomes extremely long (20+ words pr line) and makes this book impossible to read.Do not buy.

⭐It’s one of those books an educated person really ought to have read, isn’t it? How handy that there’s a nice Kindle edition, with interactive table of contents, at such a good price. I also did a bit of research and it seems that this is a very modern and well-regarded translation, which is more than you can expect with something this inexpensive.

⭐At times I found this book to be frustrating as I found little sympathy with the lead character who seemed pompous in the extreme and mumbled his way through life. The whole tale had a dreamlike quality to it which at times seemed tedious and lacking in definition. Not one I would recommend.

⭐I tried to read this as I have heard so much about it. I was somewhat disappointed. It is drawn out and ultimately boring. Perhaps a lot has been lost in translation. It may suit others but it was not for me

⭐Thought-provoking. I am really glad I purchased this and will be coming back for more. There’s nothing like a Kafka turn of phrase.

⭐Impossible to read. Formatting has removed paragraph spacings and dialogue runs on.

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