The Castle (Everyman's Library 127)

xxxviii, 378, [8] pp. Translated by Willa & Edwin Muir, including text from the original German edition and the definitive German edition (the latter of which included extra chapters), introduction by Irving Howe. Select bibliography and chronology of Kafka's life precede text, five appendices follow text, including: Continuation of the Manuscript; Another Version of the Opening Paragraphs; Fragments; Two Additional Passages Included in the Text of the Definitive German Edition; Passages Deleted by the Author. From the author of The Metamorphosis and The Trial, and one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century: Arriving in a village to take up the position of land surveyor for the mysterious lord of a castle, the character known as K. finds himself in a bitter and baffling struggle to contact his new employer and go about his duties. As the villagers and the Castle officials block his efforts at every turn, K.'s consuming quest - quite possibly a self-imposed one - to penetrate the inaccessible heart of the Castle and take its measure is repeatedly frustrated. Kafka once suggested that the would-be surveyor in The Castle is driven by a wish "to get clear about ultimate things," an unrealizable desire that provided the driving force behind all of Kafka's dazzlingly uncanny fictions.