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Wayne Dohms

Franz Kafka

The Trial Paperback – Oct. 14 2020

by Franz Kafka (Author), Oswaldo Hernandez (Editor, Illustrator)

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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 Dostoyevsky 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.

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128 pages
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English
Publication date

Oct. 14 2020
Dimensions

15.24 x 0.74 x 22.86 cm
ISBN-13

979-8697522783

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ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08L47S18S
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Independently published
Publication date ‏ : ‎ Oct. 14 2020
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Print length ‏ : ‎ 128 pages
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 979-8697522783
Item weight ‏ : ‎ 249 g
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.24 x 0.74 x 22.86 cm
�鶹�� Rank: #508,546 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,556 in Classic Literature (Books)
Customer Reviews:
2,646 ratings

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Wayne Dohms
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Franz Kafka
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Franz Kafka was born in 1883 in Prague, where he lived most of his life. During his lifetime, he published only a few short stories, including “The Metamorphosis,” “The Judgment,” and “The Stoker.” He died in 1924, before completing any of his full-length novels. At the end of his life, Kafka asked his lifelong friend and literary executor Max Brod to burn all his unpublished work. Brod overrode those wishes.
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Franz Kafka (Praga, Imperio austrohúngaro, 3 de julio de 1883 - Kierling, Austria, 3 de junio de 1924) fue un escritor de origen judío nacido en Bohemia que escribió en alemán. Su obra está considerada una de las más influyentes de la literatura universal y está llena de temas y arquetipos sobre la alienación, la brutalidad física y psicológica, los conflictos entre padres e hijos, personajes en aventuras terroríficas, laberintos de burocracia, y transformaciones místicas.
Fue autor de tres novelas, El proceso (Der Prozeß), El castillo (Das Schloß) y El desaparecido (Amerika o Der Verschollene), la novela corta La metamorfosis (Die Verwandlung) y un gran número de relatos cortos. Además, dejó una abundante correspondencia y escritos autobiográficos. Su peculiar estilo literario ha sido comúnmente asociado con la filosofía artística del existencialismo --al que influenció-- y el expresionismo. Estudiosos de Kafka discuten sobre cómo interpretar al autor, algunos hablan de la posible influencia de alguna ideología política antiburocrática, de una religiosidad mística o de una reivindicación de su minoría etnocultural, mientras otros se fijan en el contenido psicológico de sus obras. Sus relaciones personales también tuvieron gran impacto en su escritura, particularmente su padre (Carta al padre), su prometida Felice Bauer (Cartas a Felice) y su hermana (Cartas a Ottla).
El término kafkiano se usa en el idioma español para describir situaciones surrealistas como las que se encuentran en sus libros y tiene sus equivalentes en otros idiomas. Solo unas pocas de sus obras fueron publicadas durante su vida. La mayor parte, incluyendo trabajos incompletos, fueron publicados por su amigo Max Brod, quien ignoró los deseos del autor de que los manuscritos fueran destruidos.
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Frank Bergdoll
Reading the classics is always rewarding
Reviewed in Canada on July 2, 2025
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A classic book that has had far more qualified people than I review it.
It's an important book and absolutely a great read (if not a little frightening!)

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Jean-Nicolas Poirier
What if you were accused of a crime but never ...
Reviewed in Canada on July 10, 2015
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What if you were accused of a crime but never told what was the crime? The more you try to learn what you did, the more you put yourself in trouble and the less you seam innocent.

This is the awkward story of The Trial.

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The Trial
Reviewed in Canada on May 9, 2003
The story follows the tale of Joseph K who is awaken on his thirtieth birthday to be accused of a crime that is never told to him. The law court that K goes to be interviewed is hidden in the middle of hoses. Other accused mend spend days awaiting at the law court offices and never get a chance to address their cases. The cases are passed from one unknown judge to another with out any progress to resolve the issue.
At first K is determined to fix the false accusations. With time he learns that he cannot beat the system and that all of the energy was a waste of time because is aware that K has been accused and he is alienated form his society.
It wrecks his life to the point that he can no longer work and brings his status in the community to the ground. As with time goes by he learns to live with the fact that he became like one of the other guys just waiting in the law court.
After his whole ordeal K still was not cleared form the false accusation that ruined his life. At the end of the novel K was killed but I was reminded on how the novel started. He is killed which happen to look like the two guys that started the novel and that arrested K in the begging of the story. The story is intriguing and quite interesting if you understand what is going on during the story.

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Bianca
A very engaging read that embodies the many ways a ...
Reviewed in Canada on August 16, 2015
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A very engaging read that embodies the many ways a bureaucratic society can succumb to corruption and become bogged down by pointless legislation.

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Jason Robey
Evocative, Engrossing, But Ultimately Frustrating
Reviewed in Canada on June 16, 2001
Although not in the same league as some of the great literature that I've read over the years, Franz Kafka's "The Trial" is an evocative, engrossing novel, albeit, ultimately a frustrating one.
"The Trial" tells the story of a man, one Joseph K., that is accused of a crime of which he has no knowledge and must defend himself against, despite his increasing awareness of the improbability of an acquittal. It is a very human story. One can understand and sympathize with K.'s reactions to the absurd circumstances with which he is compelled to negotiate. We see K. attempt to deal with the situation in a range of approaches. Initially, upon his arrest, he is disbelieving and indignant. Then, when called to court for interrogation, K. attempts to be done with the matter once and for all with a zealous rebuke of the Court and the manner in which he has been handled thus far. But K. soon realizes that the proceedings cannot be brushed off so easily. Over the course of the coming days, weeks, and months, he becomes acquainted with others who have had dealings with, or who have tenuous relations with, the elusive Court. It becomes apparent that K. has no chance of winning his case without the help of others, who insist that the only way to help is behind closed doors, through the strength of their political ties, gradually convincing officials of K.'s innocence. K. is acquiescent at first, but becomes increasingly agitated and unpredictable when no apparent progress is being made. I leave the remainder of the plot to those who wish to experience it for themselves.
The type of justice that we take for granted in the States - burden of proof, the sovereignty of "innocence before proven guilty" - is an alien concept to the Court in Kafka's "The Trial." What makes it all the more frightening is that, not long after Kafka's death in 1924, this type of "justice" became commonplace in Eastern Europe. This unfortunate reality makes "The Trial" a surrealistically prophetic novel, one of paramount importance and undeniable relevancy.
In the end however, "The Trial" is a frustrating experience. As other �鶹�� readers have pointed out, the alleged crime is never disclosed. I'm quite sure that Kafka never meant to elucidate the nature of the transgression. The desire to find out what K. is accused of is part of what propels one through the novel, and the fact that it is never revealed is what lends the novel its surreal punch. Nevertheless, when you've spent the entire novel trying to guess and are left without an answer, it's frustrating.
More frustrating however is the fact that "The Trial" was left unfinished. I suppose the fact that the novel was never finished is common knowledge among the literati, but it came as an unpleasant surprise for me. This incompleteness doesn't detract from the story until the very end. The "Dismissal of the Lawyer" section in Chapter 8 trails off in mid-paragraph. The conclusion to K.'s internal debate regarding whether or not to dismiss his lawyer never arrives. (Granted, the conclusion is assumed, but I would've liked to have followed K.'s thought process to completion.) It also leaves the question of the lawyer's true nature uncertain. The novel ends rather abruptly after the next chapter, "In the Cathedral." (One gets the feeling that the majority of the unfinished sections of the novel were between Chapters 9 and 10.) The reason behind Kafka's failure to finish the novel becomes apparent when reading the Appendix; Kafka abandoned "The Trial" in 1915, approximately nine years before his death, and as such never meant it for publication.
I for one am glad the novel was published. Although we may never know how great this story could have been, we should feel fortunate to have it, even in unpolished form.
P.S. The introduction to this edition by George Steiner is a dense and convoluted treatise on how Kafka is an inheritor of a Talmudic tradition of endless commentary... Only those well-versed in ancient Judaic literature (anyone?) need feel compelled to read it.

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Koush
this book will not disappoint.
Reviewed in Canada on January 21, 2015
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If you are a fan of Camus or Nietzsche, this book will not disappoint.

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One person found this helpful

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celine
THIS WAS WAS STARTED BY ONE PERSON AND FINISHED BY ANOTHER.
Reviewed in Canada on February 28, 2022
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JUST DID NOT LIKE HOW IT WAS WRITTEN. A lot of things were repeated.

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"gayleyee"
Not worth the effort
Reviewed in Canada on November 17, 2018
I found this book very dull, I understand that it illustrates the opacity and incoherence of a bureaucratic totalitarian state, and the discomfort of living in a society in which one can trust no one. The characters were flat and nondescript, the plot was frustrating and I admit I bailed halfway through as it was not worth the endeavour, and I like challenges. I have read Tolstoy and Dostoevsky and Dickens, far greater writer philosophers.

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Bashir Murani
Good reading.
Reviewed in Germany on March 11, 2025
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Great reading, you get emerged into the bureaucracy and the injustice, but you wouldn't find why, lofe itself is a bureaucracy.

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Rlotz
Everything You'd Expect
Reviewed in the United States on March 27, 2014
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Back in university, I had a part-time job at a research center. It was nothing glamorous: I conducted surveys over the phone. Some studies were nation-wide, others were only in Long Island. A few were directed towards small businesses. There I would sit in my little half-cubicle, with a headset on, manipulating a multiple-choice click screen.

During the small business studies, a definite pattern would emerge. I would call, spend a few minutes navigating the badly recorded voice menu, and then reach a secretary. Then my menu instructed me to ask for the president, vice-president, or manager. “Oh, sure,” the receptionist would say, “regarding?” I would explain that I was conducting a study. “Oh…” their voice would trail off, “let me check if he’s here.” Then would follow three to five minutes of being on hold. Finally, she would pick up: “Sorry, he’s out of the office.” “When will he be back?” would be my next question. “I’m not sure…” “Okay, I’ll call back tomorrow,” I would say, and the call would end.

Now imagine this process repeating again and again. As the study went on, I would be returning calls to dozens of small businesses where the owners were always mysteriously away. I had no choice what to say—it was all on the menu—and no choice who to call—the computer did that. By the end, I felt like I was getting to know some of these secretaries. They would recognize my voice, and their announcement of the boss’s absence would be given with a strain of annoyance, or exhaustion, or pity. I would grow adept at navigating particular voice menus, and remembered the particular sounds of being on hold at certain businesses. It was strait out of this novel.

When I picked up The Trial, I was expecting it to be great. I had read Kafka’s short stories—many times, actually—and he has long been one of my favorite writers. But by no means did I expect to be so disturbed. Maybe it was because I was groggy, because I hadn’t eaten yet, or because I was on a train surrounded by strangers. But by the time I reached my destination, I was completely unnerved. For a few moments, I even managed to convince myself that this actually was a nightmare. No book could do this.

What will follow in this already-too-long review will be some interpretation and analysis. But it should be remarked that, whatever conclusions you or I may draw, interpretation is a second-level activity. In Kafka's own words: “You shouldn’t pay too much attention to people’s opinions. The text cannot be altered, and the various opinions are often no more than an expression of despair over it.” Attempts to understand Kafka should not entail a rationalizing away of his power. This is a constant danger in literary criticism, where the words sit mutely on the page, and passages can be pasted together at the analyst’s behest. This is mere illusion. If someone were to tell you that Picasso’s Guernica is about the Spanish Civil War, you may appreciate the information; but by no means should this information come between you and the visceral experience of standing in front of the painting. Just so with literature.

To repeat something that I once remarked of Dostoyevsky, Kafka is a great writer, but a bad novelist. His books do not have even remotely believable characters, character development, or a plot in any traditional sense. Placing The Trial alongside Jane Eyre or Lolita will make this abundantly clear. Rather, Kafka's stories are somewhere in-between dream and allegory. Symbolism is heavy, and Kafka seems to be more intent on establishing a particular visceral feeling than in telling a story. The characters are tools, not people

So the question naturally arises: what does the story represent? Like any good work of art, any strict, one-sided reading is insufficient. Great art is multivalent—it means different things to different people. The Trial may have meant only one thing to Kafka (I doubt it), but once a book (or symphony, or painting) is out in the world, all bets are off.

The broadest possible interpretation of The Trial is as an allegory of life. And isn’t this exactly what happens? You wake up one day, someone announces that you’re alive. But no one seems to be able to tell you why or how or what for. You don’t know when it will end or what you should do about it. You try to ignore the question, but the more you evade it, the more it comes back to haunt you. You ask your friends for advice. They tell you that they don’t really know, but you’d better hire a lawyer. Then you die like a dog.

Another interpretation is based on Freud. Extraordinary feelings of guilt is characteristic of Kafka’s work, and several of his short stories (“The Judgment,” “The Metamorphosis”) portray Kafka’s own unhealthy relationship with his father. Moreover, the nightmarish, nonsensical quality of his books, and his fascination with symbols and allegories, cannot help but remind one of Freud’s work on dreams. If I was a proper Freudian, I would say that The Trial is an expression of Kafka’s extraordinary guilt at his patricidal fantasies.

A different take would group this book along with Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 as a satire of bureaucracy. And, in the right light, parts of this book are hilarious. Kafka’s humor is right on. He perfectly captures the inefficiency of organizations in helping you, but their horrifying efficiency when screwing you over. And as my experience in phone surveys goes to show, this is more relevant than ever.

If we dip into Kafka’s biography, we can read this book as a depiction of the anguish caused by his relationship with Felice Bauer. (For those who don’t know, Kafka was engaged with her twice, and twice broke it off. Imagine dating Kafka. Poor woman.) This would explain the odd current of sexuality that undergirds this novel.

Here is one idea that I’ve been playing with. I can’t help but see The Trial as a response to Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment. As their names suggest, they deal with similar themes: guilt, depression, alienation, the legal system, etc. But they couldn’t end more differently. Mulling this over, I was considering whether this had anything to do with the respective faiths of their authors. Dostoyevsky found Jesus during his imprisonment, and never turned back. His novels, however dark, always offer a glimmer of the hope of salvation. Of course, Kafka’s universe is devoid of hope. Kafka was from a Jewish family, and was interested in Judaism throughout his life. Is this book Crime and Punishment without a Messiah?

I can go on and on, but I’ll leave it at that. There can be no one answer, and the book will mean something different to all who read it. And what does that say about Kafka?

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Nerea
Genial
Reviewed in Spain on February 26, 2023
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Era un regalo y le encantó. Llegó en perfecto estado.

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Stiven Skyrah
A book everyone must read!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 22, 2018
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It is not necessary to accept everything as true, one must only accept it as necessary

Nothing speaks a more profound truth than a pristine metaphor…

Funny, us, worming through the world ascribing meaning, logic and order to the dumb, blind forces of void. It’s all one can do to maintain sanity in the absurd reality of existence, but what is it worth? Are we trees in gale force winds fighting back with fists we do not possess? Is life the love of a cold, cruel former lover bating us on while only concerned with themselves? What use is logic in an illogical prison where the opinion of the masses reigns supreme? Franz Kafka’s The Trial is the world we all live in, unlocked through layers of allegory to expose the beast hidden from plain sight. On the surface it is an exquisite examination of bureaucracy and bourgeoisie with a Law system so complex and far-reaching that even key members are unable to unravel it’s complicated clockwork. However, this story of a trial—one that never occurs other than an arrest and a solitary conference that goes nowhere—over an unmentioned crime serves as a brutal allegory for our existence within a judgemental societal paradigm under the watch of a God who dishes out hellfire to the guilty. This is a world where man’s noose is only a doorway. The Trial is not for the faint of heart or fragile psyche yet, while the bleakness is laid on thick, it is also permeated with a marvelous sense of humor and a fluid prose that keeps the pages flipping and the reading hours pushing forward towards dawn. This is a dark comedy of the human comedy, full of the freeing chortles of gallow humor. Kafka’s nightmarish vision is the heartbeat of our own existence, chronicling the frustrations of futility when applying logic to the reality of the absurd, yet factual, nature of life.

Someone must have slandered Josef K., for one morning, without having done anything wrong, he was arrested.

Seriously this is a book everyone should read. It teaches us about life in so many ways!

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I will read it again
Reviewed in Mexico on December 24, 2020
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He makes you think. It might not be his intention but that's the effect I have from a piece that should have never been seen.

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