Kafka: A Very Short Introduction
E-Book: 150 English pages
Publisher: Oxford University Press
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Franz Kafka is among the most intriguing and influential writers of the last century. During his lifetime he worked as a civil servant and published only a handful of short stories, the best known being The Transformation. His other three novels, published after his death, helped to found his reputation as a uniquely perceptive interpreter of the twentieth century.
Discussing both Kafka’s crisis-ridden life and the subtleties of his art, Ritchie Robertson provides an intriguing and accessible look at the life of this fascinating author. Using Metamorphosis as a recurring example, Robertson shows how Kafka’s work explores such characteristically modern themes as the place of the body in culture, the power of institutions over people, and the possibility of religion after Nietzsche had proclaimed “the death of God.”
Review
Wonderful…Wagenbach is the doyen of Kafka scholars, and this is easily the best guide to the life and work: succinct, handsomely produced, and endlessly informative.
— Eric Ormsby New York Sun 2004-06-30
About the Author
Ritchie Robertson is a Professor of German at Oxford University and a Fellow of St John’s College.