The Castle: Introduction by Irving Howe -- Franz Kafka

<p>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 <i>The Castle</i> 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.</p><p> </p><p>Translated by Willa and Edwin Muir</p><br><br><b>Author:</b> Franz Kafka<br><b>Publisher:</b> Everyman's Library<br><b>Published:</b> 11/03/1992<br><b>Pages:</b> 416<br><b>Binding Type:</b> Hardcover<br><b>Weight:</b> 1.14lbs<br><b>Size:</b> 8.45h x 5.28w x 1.16d<br><b>ISBN:</b> 9780679417354<br><p><b>About the Author</b><br>The son of a well-to-do merchant, Franz Kafka was born in Prague in 1883 and died of tuberculosis in a sanitorium near Vienna in 1924. After earning a law degree in 1906, he worked most of his adult life at the Workers Accident Insurance Company for the Kingdom of Bohemia in Prague. Only a small portion of his writings were published during his lifetime; most of them, including the three unfinished novels, <i> Amerika, The Trial, </i> and <i>The Castle, </i> were