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Top 15 Best Kafka Books Updated 03 /2024

Dennis Lehane
  Mar 28, 2024 5:32 PM

Here we ranked and reviewed the top 15 Best Kafka Books that are highly rated by 61,165 customers.

 


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1
  • SCORE
    9.4
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    AI Score is a ranking system developed by our team of experts. It from 0 to 10 are automatically scored by our tool based upon the data collected(at the time of writing, more than 4,000 books and 3,000 authors). This score has no relationship or impact from any manufacturer or sales agent websites.

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2
  • SCORE
    9.4
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    AI Score is a ranking system developed by our team of experts. It from 0 to 10 are automatically scored by our tool based upon the data collected(at the time of writing, more than 4,000 books and 3,000 authors). This score has no relationship or impact from any manufacturer or sales agent websites.

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    Schocken
3
  • SCORE
    9.2
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    Harper
4
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    9.0
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5
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    9.0
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    AI Score is a ranking system developed by our team of experts. It from 0 to 10 are automatically scored by our tool based upon the data collected(at the time of writing, more than 4,000 books and 3,000 authors). This score has no relationship or impact from any manufacturer or sales agent websites.

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6
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    Vintage
7
  • SCORE
    9.0
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    Knopf
8
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    9.0
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9
  • SCORE
    8.8
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    Schocken
10
  • SCORE
    8.8
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    imusti
11
  • SCORE
    8.6
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    Vintage
12
  • SCORE
    8.6
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    N/A
13
  • SCORE
    8.6
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    AI Score is a ranking system developed by our team of experts. It from 0 to 10 are automatically scored by our tool based upon the data collected(at the time of writing, more than 4,000 books and 3,000 authors). This score has no relationship or impact from any manufacturer or sales agent websites.

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14
  • SCORE
    8.2
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    Dover Publications
15
  • SCORE
    8.2
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    Manning Publications

Last update on 2024-03-28 / Affiliate links / Images, Product Titles, and Product Highlights from Amazon Product Advertising API


Best Kafka Books

During the 20th century, Franz Kafka was a great artist when it came to depicting both the political and personal problems that people faced at the time. They talk about loneliness, hidden desires, and pointless bureaucratic rules that keep us from living the way we want to. Kafka's works, on the other hand, are also very funny, which is another reason to read the following books.

The Trial

The Trial is Kafka's best-known book, and it has become a symbol of the modern world's anxiety and disconnection from the world around us. Bank clerk Josef K. is the main character in this story. He's a young man who gets arrested and has to defend himself against a charge he doesn't understand. To both him and the reader, he doesn't know what he did, and the authorities who are going to prosecute him can't be reached.

It was very much inspired by Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky, who Kafka even called "a blood relative," which is how close they were. This book is a shining example of Kafka's visionary mind. His predictions about totalitarianism may be strange, but they're not that far off from the truth, which is why the story still has an impact on people today.

The Metamorphosis

The Metamorphosis is a short story about Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman who wakes up one morning to find that he has been turned into a huge, monstrous insect. It is thought to be one of the most important works of the 20th century. This sudden change affects Samsa and his family as he tries to adapt to the new situation. The story looks at important questions about life and how people interact with each other, and there are many different ways to look at it.

The Castle

The Castle is Kafka's last book and one of his most mysterious. He died before he could finish it, and the book came out two years after he did. The story is about a land surveyor named K. who was called to a village. Then, he has a hard time getting into the castle where the secretive people who run the village live. The book's main character is on a quest, but it's not clear why or what the goal is. Often surreal, The Castle is about alienation and the frustration of a man who is trying to stand up against a controlling system.

Amerika

Like the other two novels written by Kafka, Amerika didn't come out until after he died, like the other two novels. It's also called "The Man Who Disappeared," "The Missing Person," and "Lost in America." This is the story of a 16-year-old boy from Europe who was forced to move to New York after being seduced by a housemaid. As soon as he gets on the ship, he makes friends with a stoker. Then, strange things start to happen. Amerika was based on the experiences of Kafka's relatives who also moved to the United States, and it was written about them.

The Country Doctor

A doctor has to go to a boy who is sick on a winter night. The Country Doctor was written in the winter of 1916/17, when Kafka lived in Prague's Golden Lane. A series of strange, funny things happen to the doctor as he travels to the boy's home. These things make it difficult for him to get there. The story is written in first person, which makes it seem more real and draws the reader in. Kafka's signature, nightmarish humor makes this another good book to read, as well.

Letters to Milena

Kafka first met Milena Jesenska in 1920, when she was translating his early short stories into the Czech language. They quickly became very close, and Kafka was very fond of her. "Jesenska was a talented and charismatic woman," says Kafka, who called her "a living fire, such as I have never seen." He confided in her and gave his diary to her for safekeeping, and she was the person he chose to keep it in. She was very passionate, and Kafka may have grown tired of her after two years together. Nonetheless, Letters to Milena is still a very moving record of their relationship. The expanded edition also has Jesenska's four essays, which show that she is good at writing.

The Judgement

Kafka's "The Judgement" is a short story that many people think is his best work. It's about a young man named Georg and his father, who is very powerful. His father doesn't like the news that Georg is getting married, so he tells him about it. His father is very sick, but he doesn't appreciate Georg's care for him, and he always makes fun of him. This has a very bad effect on his son because of this. In the story, Kafka's father wasn't very close to him, and it's dedicated to Felice Bauer, Kafka's two-time fiancée who he never married.

A Hunger Artist

A Hunger Artist was written by Franz Kafka near the end of his life. It's about a man who can starve to death, which is his job. For the people who come to see him, he sits in a cage with nothing but a clock in front of him. After a while, the public loses interest in his show because they think he's secretly eating.

For the most part, the main character in many of Kafka's works is a lonely person who has been left out and punished by society. It's possible that the misunderstood artist in the story is Kafka, who has to deal with an audience that isn't very interested in his work.

In The Penal Colony

There is a short story called "The Penal Colony" that takes place in an unknown exile colony (a remote location where prisoners were sent in order to be separated from the general population). It talks about the last time a torture and execution device was used on a person who was going to be killed. Officer: This character is in charge of the device. The Condemned: A man who is going to be executed. The Soldier: This person is in charge of protecting the prisoner. The Traveler: A person from Europe who came to see the device.

Before World War I broke out, Europe was in a very bad place. This story was written at a time when Europe was in that bad place. The device, like the weapons used in war, is a result of technological progress, but it only leads to death and destruction, just like the weapons used in war.

Letter To His Father

Felice Bauer broke off their engagement to Kafka in November 1919, and Kafka wrote a letter to his father Hermann in which he talked about their relationship. For example, Kafka slammed his father for his emotional abuse and hypocrisy, as well as the way it shaped his life. In spite of the letter being filled with sadness and disappointment, Kafka hoped that it would help them to get to know each other better and find common ground. Kafka's mother didn't send the letter to his father. Instead, she gave it back to him.

Wedding Preparations in the Country

He also wrote a short story that was published after he died called "Wedding Preparations In The Country." This short story tells about a man and a woman getting ready for their wedding. In the middle of a lot of information about the road, people, and the train station, Eduard's doubts about his impending marriage are hidden behind a lot of other information. It doesn't matter that the story is broken up, because its structure is simple and it feels like an anecdote. Kafka wanted to make the story into a novel, but it didn't work out the way he thought it would. This story is in a book called The Complete Stories of Franz Kafka. You can read an English version of the story there.


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