The Trial (The 100 Greatest Books of All Time)

341, [3] pp. Grey full leather, gilt titles and decorations, all edges gilt, silk moire endpapers, ribbon marker bound in. Illustrated with woodcuts by Phero Thomas. Translated from the German by Willa & Edwin Muir, revised, and with additional material translated, by E.M. Butler. Appendices following text include unfinished chapters, deleted passages, and postscripts by Max Brod to the first, second, and third editions, with a translator's note. "Written in 1914, The Trial is one of the most important novels of the twentieth century: the terrifying tale of Josef K., a respectable bank officer who is suddenly and inexplicably arrested and must defend himself against a charge about which he can get no information. Whether read as an existential tale, a parable, or a prophecy of the excesses of modern bureaucracy wedded to the madness of totalitarianism, Kafka's nightmare has resonated with chilling truth for generations of readers."