The Complete Stories Read online

  In 1909, Kafka published in the March-April issue of the bimonthly Hyperion (Munich), edited by Franz Blei, two pieces taken from the manuscript of version A of Beschreibung eines Kampfes: "Gespräch mit dem Beter" ("Conversation with the Supplicant") and "Gespräch mit dem Betrunkenen" ("Conversation with the Drunk"). The Hyperion version is reprinted in Erzählungen (Schocken B1 and C5), pp. 9-22. See also Beschreibung eines Kampfes, pp. 37-47 and 52-56. Penal Colony (Schocken 03), pp. 9-17, includes "Conversation with the Supplicant." The two pieces are not reproduced in the present volume.

  Wedding Preparations in the Country

  "Hochzeitsvorbereitungen auf dem Lande," "fragments of a novel" of which three transcripts are extant, was written in 1907-8. The manuscript turned up in Max Brod's library together with "Description of a Struggle" (q.v.). Brod edited it as the title story (pp. 7-54) of a volume of posthumously published Kafka material (Gesammelte Werke, Schocken C7), which includes the "Letter to His Father," the eight octavo notebooks, and the "fragments from notebooks." The piece originally appeared in Die Neue Rundschau, Frankfurt a. M., 1951. English edition of the volume: Dearest Father. Stories and Other Writings (Schocken D7).

  The Judgment

  "Das Urteil," written during the night of September 22-23, 1912, was first published in the annual Arkadia, edited by Max Brod (Leipzig: Kurt Wolff Verlag, 1913), dedicated "to Miss Felice B.," in later editions "for F." English title also "The Verdict." Erzählungen (Schocken B1 and C5), pp. 51-66. Penal Colony (Schocken 03), pp. 49-63.

  Diaries, September 23, 1912, following the complete draft of "The Judgment": "This story, 'The Judgment,' I wrote at one sitting during the night of the 22nd-23rd, from ten o'clock at night to six o'clock in the morning. I was hardly able to pull my legs from under the desk, they had got so stiff from sitting. The fearful strain and joy, how the story developed before me, as if I were advancing over water. Several times during this night I heaved my own weight on my back. How everything can be said, how for everything, for the strangest fancies, there waits a great fire in which they perish and rise up again. . . Only in this way can writing be done, only with such coherence, with such a complete opening out of the body and the soul."

  Diaries, February n, 1913: "While I read the proofs of 'The Judgment,'. . . the story came out of me like a real birth, covered with filth and slime, and only I have the hand that can reach to the body itself and the strength of desire to do so." There follow notes toward an interpretation of the story.

  Max Brod, Franz Kafka, p. 141: "At [Oskar] Baum's he read 'The Verdict' to us and had tears in his eyes. 'The indubitability [Zweifellosigkeit] of the story is confirmed.' Those are strong words of self-conviction [Überzeugt-sein von sich selbst], rare enough in the case of Franz."

  The Metamorphosis

  "Die Verwandlung," written in the second half of November and the first days of December 1912, was first published in the monthly Die Weissen Blatter, October 1915; reprinted in the series Der jüngste Tag, vols. XXII-XXIII (Leipzig: Kurt Wolff Verlag, 1915). Erzählungen (Schocken B1 and C5), pp. 67-142. Penal Colony (Schocken 03), pp. 67-132.

  Diaries, January 19, 1914: "Great antipathy to 'Metamorphosis.' Unreadable ending. Imperfect almost to its very marrow." Gustav Janouch suggested that Samsa, the hero of the story, sounds like a cryptogram for Kafka. "Kafka interrupted me. 'It is not a cryptogram. Samsa is not merely Kafka and nothing else [Samsa ist nicht restlos Kafka]. The Metamorphosis is not a confession, although it is — in a certain sense — an indiscretion'." (Conversations with Kafka, p. 35).

  In the Penal Colony

  "In der Strafkolonie," written October 1914, was first published by Kurt Wolff Verlag as a Drugulin Press edition, Leipzig, 1919. Erzählungen (Schocken B1 and C5), pp. 179-213. Penal Colony (Schocken D3), pp. 191-227.

  Kafka to Janouch on this story: "Personal proofs of my human weakness are printed. . . because my friends, with Max Brod at their head, have conceived the idea of making literature out of them, and because I have not the strength to destroy this evidence of solitude." (Conversations with Kafka, p. 32).

  The Village Schoolmaster [The Giant Mole]

  The unfinished "Der Dorfschullehrer" or "Der Riesenmaulwurf" (Kafka used both titles), written in December 1914 and the beginning of 1915, appeared first in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer (Berlin, 1931), pp. 131-53. Great Wall of China (Schocken D1), pp. 98-113.

  Diaries, December 19, 1914: "Yesterday wrote 'The Village Schoolmaster' almost without knowing it, but was afraid to go on writing later than a quarter to two; the fear was well founded, I slept hardly at all, merely suffered through perhaps three short dreams. . . Then went home and calmly wrote for three hours." "The one gravely incomplete story in the book [Great Wall of China] (E. Muir, Introductory Note to the first English edition, p. xvii).

  Blumfeld, an Elderly Bachelor

  The incomplete "Blumfeld, ein alterer Junggeselle," written probably in the beginning of 1915, first appeared in Beschreibung eines Kampfes (Schocken Bv), pp. 142-71. Description of a Struggle (Schocken D8), pp. 97-145.

  Diaries, February 9, 1915: "Just now read the beginning. It is ugly and gives me a headache. In spite of all its truth it is wicked, pedantic, mechanical, a fish barely breathing on a sandbank." This entry, mentioning the "dog story," is understood to refer to "Blumfeld."

  The Warden of the Tomb

  "Der Gruftwächter," a piece in drama form, written in the winter of 1916-17, was first published in Beschreibung eines Kampfes (Schocken Bv), pp. 288-305. Description of a Struggle (Schocken D8), pp. 147-78.

  "Talking about a play he had written — probably 'The Warden of the Tomb' — when we very much wanted to hear it, he said: 'The only thing about the play that is not dilletantish, is that I shall not read it to you" (Max Brod, Franz Kafka, p. 74, quoting Oskar Baum's "Memories of Franz Kafka," 1929).

  A Country Doctor

  "Ein Landarzt," written not before the winter of 1916-17, was first published in the almanac Die neue Dichtung (Leipzig: Kurt Wolff Verlag, 1918). Included in the collection of stories Ein Landarzt. Kleine Erzählungen (Munich and Leipzig: Kurt Wolff Verlag, 1919). Erzählungen (Schocken B1 and C5), pp. 146-53. Penal Colony (Schocken D3), pp. 136-43.

  Kafka dedicated the collection to his father. "Not as if I could appease the father; the roots of this hostility are irradicable. . ." (to Max Brod, end of March 1918; Briefe, p. 237). Max Brod, Franz Kafka, p. 31: "Franz often recounted the reply with which his father received the book — he certainly meant no harm by it — his father said nothing but, 'Put it on my bedside table.' "

  The Hunter Gracchus

  "Der Jäger Gracchus," written in the first half of 1917, was first published in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer (pp. 43-50), and reprinted in Beschreibung eines Kampfes (Schocken Bv), pp. 102-7, which contains also a "Fragment zum 'Jäger Gracchus' " (pp. 331-35). Great Wall of China (Schocken D1), pp. 115-20. The "Fragment": in Description of a Struggle (Schocken D8), pp. 234-41. See also the reference to the Hunter Gracchus motif in Diaries, April 6, 1917.

  The Great Wall of China

  "Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer," written in the spring of 1917, was first published in the volume bearing that title (pp. 9-28) and reprinted in Beschreibung eines Kampfes (Schocken Bv), pp. 67-82. Great Wall of China (Schocken D1), pp. 83-97. The story "though apparently a fragment, is so perfect in itself that it may be read as a finished work" (E. Muir, Introductory Note to the first English edition, p. xvii). The "Fragment" ("The News of the Building of the Wall"): in Description of a Struggle (Schocken D8), pp. 226 ff.

  A Report to an Academy

  "Ein Bericht für eine Akademie," written in mid-1917, was first published in the monthly Der Jude, edited by Martin Buber, vol. II (November 1917), pp. 559-65. Included in Ein Landarzt, 1919. Erzählungen (Schocken B1 and C5), pp. 184-96. Penal Colony (Schocken D3), pp. 173-84. The "Fragment": in Description of a Struggle (Schocken D8), pp. 219-25.

  The Refusal

  "Die Abweisung,
" written in the fall of 1920, was first published in Beschreibung eines Kampfes (Schocken Bv), pp. 83-89. Description of a Struggle (Schocken D8), pp. 179-91.

  A Hunger Artist

  "Ein Hungerkunstler," written in the spring of 1922, was first issued in Die Neue Rundschau, edited by Rudolf Kayser, published by S. Fischer Verlag, October 1922. Included in the collection Ein Hungerkünstler. Vier Geschichten, published by Verlag Die Schmiede, Berlin, 1924 (Die Romane des XX. Jahrhunderts). The volume comprises, besides the title story, "First Sorrow," "A Little Woman," and "Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk." Kafka read the proofs of the first signature; the book appeared after his death (Briefe, p. 519, note 9). Erzählungen (Schocken B1 and C5), pp. 255-68. Penal Colony (Schocken D3), pp. 243-56.

  Investigations of a Dog

  "Forschungen eines Hundes," written probably in the spring of 1922, was first published in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer, pp. 154-211, and reprinted in Beschreibung eines Kampfes (Schocken Bv), pp. 233-78. Great Wall of China (Schocken D1), pp. 1-43. The story "is virtually complete" (E. Muir, Introductory Note to the first English edition, p. xvii).

  A Little Woman

  "Eine kleine Frau," written toward the end of 1923, was included in Bin Hungerkünstler (q.v.), Erzählungen (Schocken B1 and C5), pp. 244-54. Penal Colony (Schocken D3), pp. 234-43.

  At the end of September 1923, Kafka, with his companion Dora Dymant, moved to Berlin-Steglitz. "There was written the comparatively happy story, 'A Little Woman.' The 'little woman-judge' who lives her life in constant anger with her own 'ego,' which is really a stranger to her, is none other than their landlady." (Max Brod, Franz Kafka, p. 197).

  The Burrow

  "Der Bau," written in the winter of 1923-24, was first published in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer, pp. 77-130, and reprinted in Beschreibung ernes Kampfes (Schocken Bv), pp. 172-214. The end of the story was lost. Great Wall of China (Schocken D1), pp. 44-82. The story "is virtually finished" (E. Muir, Introductory Note to the first English edition, p. xvii).

  Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk

  "Josephine, die Sängerin, oder Das Volk der Mäuse," written in the spring of 1924, is Kafka's last finished work. It was first published in the Prager Presse, April 20, 1924 (Easter edition), and included in Bin Hungerkünstler (q.v.). Erzählungen (Schocken B1 and C5), pp. 268-91. Penal Colony (Schocken D3), pp. 256-77.

  The Shorter Stories

  The first eighteen stories (from "Children on a Country Road" to "Resolutions") were written between 1904 and 1912. In 1908, Kafka published eight pieces, selected from this group, entitled "Betrachtung," in the bimonthly Hyperion, vol. I, edited by Franz Blei and Carl Sternheim. It was Kafka's first publication. In 1910, he selected five more pieces for publication in the Prague daily Bohemia (March 27). "The Trees," "Clothes," and "Excursion into the Mountains" are taken from "Description of a Struggle" (Schocken D8), pp. 84, 89 f., and 36 f. "Children on a Country Road" is taken from the same story, chap. II of version B, a section not included in the version of "Description of a Struggle" reprinted in this volume. The first version of "Bachelor's Ill Luck" appeared in Diaries, November 14, 1911. "The Sudden Walk": see the entry in the Diaries, January 5, 1912. "Resolutions": see the text in Diaries, February 5, 1912. The entire group appeared, in a sequence established by Kafka, under the title Betrachtung (Leipzig: Rowohlt Verlag, 1913) — Erzählungen (Schocken C5), pp. 23-50. Penal Colony (Schocken D3), pp. 21-45 ("Meditation").

  Kafka's own sequence in the collection "Meditation" is as follows: "Children on a Country Road"; "Unmasking a Confidence Trickster"; "The Sudden Walk"; "Resolutions"; "Excursion into the Mountains"; "Bachelor's Ill Luck"; "The Tradesman"; "Absent-minded Window-gazing"; "The Way Home"; "Passers-by"; "On the Tram"; "Clothes"; "Rejection"; "Reflections for Gentlemen-Jockeys"; "The Street Window"; "The Wish to Be a Red Indian"; "The Trees"; "Unhappiness."

  Diaries, August 15, 1912: "Again read old diaries instead of keeping away from them. I live as irrationally as is at all possible. And the publication of the thirty-one pages is to blame for everything. Even more to blame, of course, is my weakness, which permits a thing of this sort to influence me."

  Diaries, August 11, 1912: "Now, after the publication of the book, I will have to stay away from magazines and reviews even more than before, if I do not wish to be content with just sticking the tips of my fingers into the truth."

  The next fifteen stories (from "A Dream" to "The Cares of a Family Man") were written between 1914 and 1917. Some were originally published in Das jüdische Prag, the periodicals Marsyas (Berlin) and Selbstwehr (Prague). In 1919, Kurt Wolff Verlag (Munich and Leipzig) published a collection of Kafka stories, Bin Landarzt. Kleine Erzahlungen, which contains this group of stories (except "The Bridge," "The Bucket Rider," "The Knock at the Manor Gate," "My Neighbor," and "A Crossbreed" ["A Sport"]). "Jackals and Arabs" ("Schakale und Araber"), written early in 1917, was first published in the monthly Der Jude, edited by Martin Buber, vol. II (October 1917), pp. 488 ff., and in Neue deutsche Erzähler, edited by J. Sandmeier, vol. I (Berlin: Furche Verlag, 1918). The longer stories "A Country Doctor" (the title story) and "A Report to an Academy" (included by Kafka in Bin Landarzt) are reprinted in the first section of the present volume. Erzählungen (Schocken C5), pp. 133-77; Penal Colony (Schocken D3), pp. 135-84, with the addition of "The Bucket Rider" (pp. 184-87), which Kafka intended for Ein Landarzt and later withdrew from it.

  Kafka's own sequence for the collection "A Country Doctor" is as follows: "The New Advocate"; "A Country Doctor"; "Up in the Gallery"; "An Old Manuscript"; "Before the Law"; "Jackals and Arabs"; "A Visit to a Mine"; "The Next Village"; "An Imperial Message"; "The Cares of a Family Man"; "Eleven Sons"; "A Fratricide"; "A Dream"; "A Report to an Academy"; "The Bucket Rider."

  Kafka to Brod on "Eleven Sons": "The eleven sons are quite simply eleven stories I am working on this very moment" (Max Brod, Franz Kafka, p. 140).

  "The Bridge," "The Knock at the Manor Gate," "My Neighbor," and "A Crossbreed ["A Sport"] were first published in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer, then in Beschreibung eines Kampfes (Schocken Bv and C8). Great Wall of China (Schocken D1).

  Of the last group of twenty-two stories, written between 1917 and 1923, only one, "First Sorrow," was published by Kafka. "Erstes Leid," probably written between the fall of 1921 and the spring of 1922, appeared in Kurt Wolff Verlag's art periodical Genius, III, No. 2 (1921; actually, 1922). It is included in Bin Hungerkünstler. Vier Geschichten (see note on "A Hunger Artist"). Erzählungen (Schocken C5), pp. 241-43. Penal Colony (Schocken D3), pp. 231-34.

  The next five stories ("A Common Confusion" to "The City Coat of Arms") first appeared in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer; the following three ("Poseidon," "Fellowship," and "At Night") were first issued in Beschreibung eines Kampfes (Schocken Av, Bv). The first publication of "The Problem of Our Laws" was in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer (pp. 29-32). The following five stories (from "The Conscription of Troops" to "The Top") appeared first in Beschreibung eines Kampfes (Schocken Av, Bv). "A Little Fable" was first issued in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer (p. 59); "Home-Coming," "The Departure," and "Advocates" in Beschreibung eines Kampfes (Schocken Av, Bv); "The Married Couple" in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer (pp. 66-73); "Give it Up!" in Beschreibung eines Kampfes (Schocken Av, Bv); and "On Parables" in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer (pp. 36 f.). English translations appeared in Great Wall of China (Schocken D1), Penal Colony (Schocken D3), and Description of a Struggle (Schocken D8).

  Diaries, June 21, 1913: "The tremendous world I have in my head. But how free myself and free it without being torn to pieces. And a thousand times rather be torn to pieces than retain it in me or bury it. That, indeed, is why I am here, that is clear to me." March 26, 1912: "Only not to overestimate what I have written, for in that way I make what is to be written unattainable."

  CHRONOLOGY

  1883 Born in Prague, July 3, son of Hermann (1852-1931) and Julie (née Löwy) (1856-1934).

&n
bsp; 1889-93 Elementary school at Fleischmarkt.

  1889,1890,1892 Birth of sisters Elli, Valli, Ottla. Two younger brothers died in infancy.

  1893-1901 German gymnasium, Prague; friendship with Oskar Pollak. Family resides in Zeltnergasse.

  ca. 1899-1900 Reads Spinoza, Darwin, Nietzsche. Friendship with Hugo Bergman.

  1899-1903 Early writings (destroyed).

  1901-6 Study of German literature, then law at German University, Prague; partly in Munich. Influenced by Alfred Weber's critical analysis of industrial society.

  1902 Vacation in Schelesen and Triesch, with uncle Dr. Siegfried Löwy (the "country doctor"). Met Max Brod; friendship with Felix Weltsch and Oskar Baum.

  1903 Working on a novel The Child and the City (lost).

  1904-5 "Description of a Struggle." Reads diaries, memoirs, letters: Byron, Grillparzer, Goethe, Eckermann.

  1905-6 Summers in Zuckmantel. Love affair with an unnamed woman. Meetings with Oskar Baum, Max Brod, Felix Weltsch.

  1906 Works in the law office of Richard Löwy, Prague.

  June: Gets degree of doctor juris at German University, Prague.

  From October: One year's internship in the law courts.

  1907-8 "Wedding Preparations in the Country" (fragments of a novel).