The Castle
€0,00
Written in 1922 and published posthumously in 1926, The Castle follows K., a land surveyor who arrives in a snowbound village claiming to have been summoned by the authorities of the castle above it. Yet his appointment cannot be confirmed, and every attempt to reach the officials draws him deeper into a labyrinth of messages, intermediaries and contradictory explanations. As K. struggles to establish his place in the village, even the simplest matters of work, lodging and belonging become subject to an elusive authority.
Kafka’s final, unfinished novel is at once an unsettling study of bureaucracy and a deeply human account of the desire for recognition. Its strange comedy, shifting perspectives and atmosphere of perpetual uncertainty leave open questions of guilt, faith, power and the possibility of ever finding one's place in the world. More oblique and expansive than The Trial, it stands among the defining works of literary modernism, its unresolved journey as compelling as the destination K. can never quite reach.
From the book
“The castle, whose contours were already beginning to dissolve, lay as still as ever.”
— Franz Kafka, The Castle
On The Castle
“Kafka’s snow-bound castle is almost unbearably evocative.”
— William Burrows, The Guardian