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."
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
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: 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
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Schocken Books, New York
Date Published: 1975
Description: 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. Assume First Edition thus since there is no indication otherwise. Tiny pencil mark on rear board, else Fine Condition without a DJ. read more
Description: Kafka, Franz., edited by Nahum N. Glatzer., Schocken Books, nd, c1971, (No Price, BCE? ), boards, light dampstains & soil o/w vg w/dj, 486 pp w/selected writings on Kafka, chronology & bibliography, tall 8vo, 'For the first time all the stories of...' read more
Edition: First Thus
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Schocken Books
Date Published: 1971
Description: Very Good/No Jacket. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall Nice clean unmarked hardcover, stout orange cloth binding, first complete US collection. First printing in English with bibliography and other materials at back. read more
Edition: Edition or Printing Not Stated
Binding: Red Cloth
Publisher: Schocken Books, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1971
Description: Near Very Good. No Jacket. 9 1/4 X 5 3/4. Edited by Nahum N. Glatzer Pages are tight, bright and clean. End sheets faint foxing. Binding firm and straight, sewn signatures. Boards, spine, edges and corners very good. No conspicuous wear. 486 pages. If needed for research, reference, analysis, dissertation or just enjoyment, this is the one. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Schocken Books
Date Published: 1995-10-01
ISBN-13:9780805210552ISBN:0805210555
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780805210552. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Schocken Books
Date Published: 1971
ISBN-13:9780805234190ISBN:0805234195
Description: Very good in good dust jacket. Text in English, German. 486 p. Audience: General/trade. Nice clean pages, tight binding. Light shelfwear to dj. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Schocken
Date Published: 1995
ISBN-13:9780805210552ISBN:0805210555
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Edition: 2nd Printing
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Schocken Books, New York
Date Published: 1972
Description: Very Good+ in Very Good- jacket. Light shelf wear. Jacket chipped with a few tears and a small piece missing along fold of front flap. 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."
We guarantee every item's condition, as described on Alibris. If you are not satisfied that an item is as described, return your purchase for a refund.
rating
