Franz Kafka

Kafka in 1923 Franz Kafka, ; ; ; in Czech, he was sometimes called František Kafka.}} (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was an Austrian-Czech novelist and writer from Prague. He is widely regarded as a major figure of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It typically features isolated protagonists facing bizarre or surrealistic predicaments and incomprehensible socio-bureaucratic powers. It has been interpreted as exploring themes of alienation, existential anxiety, guilt, and absurdity. His best known works include the novella ''The Metamorphosis'' and novels ''The Trial'' and ''The Castle''. The term ''Kafkaesque'' has entered English to describe absurd situations like those depicted in his writing.

Kafka was born into a middle-class German- and Yiddish-speaking Czech Jewish family in Prague, the capital of the Kingdom of Bohemia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (today the capital of Czechia, also known as the Czech Republic). He trained as a lawyer, and after completing his legal education was employed full-time by an insurance company, forcing him to relegate writing to his spare time. Over the course of his life, Kafka wrote hundreds of letters to family and close friends, including his father, with whom he had a strained and formal relationship. He became engaged to several women but never married. He died in obscurity in 1924 at the age of 40 from tuberculosis.

Kafka was a prolific writer, spending most of his free time writing, often late into the night. He burned an estimated 90 percent of his total work due to his persistent struggles with self-doubt. Much of the remaining 10 percent is lost or otherwise unpublished. Few of Kafka's works were published during his lifetime; although the story collections ''Contemplation'' and ''A Country Doctor'', and individual stories, such as his novella ''The Metamorphosis'', were published in literary magazines, they received little attention.

In his will, Kafka instructed his close friend and literary executor Max Brod to destroy his unfinished works, including his novels ''The Trial'', ''The Castle'', and , but Brod ignored these instructions and had much of his work published. Kafka's writings became famous in German-speaking countries after World War II, influencing German literature, and its influence spread elsewhere in the world in the 1960s. It has also influenced artists, composers, and philosophers. Provided by Wikipedia
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  1. 1
    by Kafka, Franz, 1883-1924
    Published 1977
    Book
  2. 2
    by Kafka, Franz, 1883-1924
    Published 2004
    Book
  3. 3
    by Kafka, Franz, 1883-1924
    Published 1966
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  4. 4
    by Kafka, Franz, 1883-1924
    Published 1992
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  5. 5
    by Kafka, Franz, 1883-1924
    Published 1978
    Book
  6. 6
    by Kafka, Franz, 1883-1924
    Published 1961
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  7. 7
    by Kafka, Franz, 1883-1924
    Published 1999
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  8. 8
    by Kafka, Franz, 1883-1924
    Published 2000
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    Book
  10. 10
    by Kafka, Franz, 1883-1924
    Published 2001
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  11. 11
    by Kafka, Franz, 1883-1924
    Published 2003
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  12. 12
    by Kafka, Franz, 1883-1924
    Published 1981
    Book
  13. 13
    by Kafka, Franz, 1883-1924
    Published 1997
    Book
  14. 14
    by Kafka, Franz, 1883-1924
    Published 2003
    Book
  15. 15
    by Kafka, Franz, 1883-1924
    Published 1999
    Book
  16. 16
    by Kafka, Franz, 1883-1924
    Published 2001
    Book
  17. 17
    by Kafka, Franz, 1883-1924
    Published 1994
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  18. 18
    by Kafka, Franz, 1883-1924
    Published 2003
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  19. 19
    by Kafka, Franz, 1883-1924
    Published 1997
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  20. 20
    by Kafka, Franz, 1883-1924
    Published 1982
    Book
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