Franz Kafka bibliography

Kafka wrote hundreds of letters to family and close female friends, including his father, his fiancée Felice Bauer, and his youngest sister Ottla.

Only a few of Kafka's works were published during his lifetime: the story collections Betrachtung (Contemplation) and Ein Landarzt (A Country Doctor), and individual stories (such as "Die Verwandlung" ("The Metamorphosis")) in literary magazines. He prepared the story collection Ein Hungerkünstler (A Hunger Artist) for print, but it was not published until after his death. Kafka's unfinished works, including his novels Der Process, Das Schloss and Amerika (also known as Der Verschollene, The Man Who Disappeared), were published posthumously, mostly by his friend Max Brod, who ignored Kafka's wish to have the manuscripts destroyed. Brod also published letters, diaries and aphorisms.

Many of Kafka's works have uncertain dates of writing and/or were written over long periods of time. In such cases the year the writing of the work began is used. Year and place of the first publication is shown. For many works the German text is available, for several works also an English translation. It is linked in columns "de" (short for "deutsch", German) and "en" (short for English).

Standard English title	German title	Literal English title	de	en	Genre	Date of writing	Date of first publication	Place of publication	Cover	Remarks
Amerika or The Man Who Disappeared	Amerika or Der Verschollene	America	de		novel	1912	1927	Leipzig		title Amerika by Brod, contains "Der Heizer" ("The Stoker")
The Trial	Der Process		de		novel	1914	1925	Berlin		also spelled in German as Der Prozess and Der Prozeß
The Castle	Das Schloss	The Castle	de		novel	1922	1926	Leipzig		also spelled in German as Das Schloß
Contemplation also known as Meditation	Betrachtung		de		story collection	1904–1912	1912	Leipzig		some stories from 1908 in Hyperion
A Country Doctor	Ein Landarzt		de		story collection	1919	1919	Leipzig
A Hunger Artist	Ein Hungerkünstler		de		story collection	1922	1924	Prague
The Great Wall of China	Beim Bau der chinesischen Mauer		de		story collection	1918	1931	Berlin
The Warden of the Tomb	Der Gruftwächter				play	1916–1917	1958	New York		in Description of a Struggle
"Description of a Struggle" including "Conversation with the Supplicant", "Conversation with the Drunk"	"Beschreibung eines Kampfes" including "Gespräch mit dem Beter", "Gespräch mit dem Betrunkenen"		Urteil, Beter, Betrunkener		story	1904	1909	Munich		dialogues first in Hyperion
"Wedding Preparations in the Country"	"Hochzeitsvorbereitungen auf dem Lande"		de		story	1907–1908	1954	London		an incomplete work intended to be a novel
"The Aeroplanes At Brescia"	"Die Aeroplane in Brescia"		de		story	1909	1909 September	Prague		first in Bohemia
The First Long Journey by Rail (Prague-Zurich)					story	1912	1912 May	in Herderblätter		first chapter of unfinished novel Richard und Samuel: Eine kleine Reise durch mitteleuropäische Gegenden
"The Judgment"	"Das Urteil"	The Verdict	de		story	1912 22–23 September	1913	Leipzig		in the literary yearbook Arkadia
"The Metamorphosis"	"Die Verwandlung"	The Transformation	de	en	story	1912	1915	Leipzig		in Die Weißen Blätter
"The Stoker"	"Der Heizer"		de		story	1913	1927	Leipzig		in Amerika
"Before the Law"	"Vor dem Gesetz"		de	en	story	1914	1915	Prague		in the independent Jewish weekly Selbstwehr, in Ein Landarzt, in Der Process
"In the Penal Colony"	"In der Strafkolonie"		de	en	story	1914	1919	Leipzig
"The Village Schoolmaster" ("The Giant Mole")	"Der Dorfschullehrer" or "Der Riesenmaulwurf"		de		story	1914–1915	1931	Berlin		in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer
"Blumfeld, an Elderly Bachelor"	"Blumfeld, ein älterer Junggeselle"		de		story	1915	1958	New York		in Description of a Struggle
"The Hunter Gracchus"	"Der Jäger Gracchus"		de		story	1917	1931	Berlin		in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer
"A Common Confusion"	"Eine alltägliche Verwirrung"		de		story	1917	1931	Berlin		in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer
"The Bridge"	"Die Brücke"		de		story	1917	1931	Berlin		in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer
"A Report to an Academy"	"Ein Bericht für eine Akademie"		de	en	story	1917	1917	Prague		in Der Jude
"Jackals and Arabs"	"Schakale und Araber"		de	en	story	1917	1917	Prague		in Der Jude
"A Crossbreed"	"Eine Kreuzung"		de		story	1917	1931	Berlin		in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer
"The Knock at the Manor Gate"	"Der Schlag ans Hoftor"		de		story	1917	1931	Berlin		in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer
"The Silence of the Sirens"	"Das Schweigen der Sirenen"		de		story	1917	1931	Berlin		in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer
"The Truth about Sancho Panza"	"Die Wahrheit über Sancho Pansa"		de		story	1917	1931	Berlin		in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer
"The Great Wall of China"	"Beim Bau der chinesischen Mauer"	At the building of the Chinese Wall	de	en	story	1918	1931	Berlin		in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer
"Prometheus"	"Prometheus"		de		story	1918	1931	Berlin		in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer
"A Country Doctor"	"Ein Landarzt"		de	en	story	1919	1919	Leipzig		in Ein Landarzt
"An Old Manuscript"	"Ein altes Blatt"	"An old page" or "An old leaf"	de		story	1919	1920	Leipzig		in Ein Landarzt
"The City Coat of Arms"	"Das Stadtwappen"		de		story	1920	1931	Berlin		in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer
"The Problem of Our Laws"	"Zur Frage der Gesetze"		de		story	1920	1931	Berlin		in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer
"On Parables"	"Von den Gleichnissen"		de		story		1931	Berlin		in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer
"A Little Fable"	"Kleine Fabel"		de		story	1920	1931	Berlin		in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer
"Poseidon"	"Poseidon"		de		story	1920	1936			in collection Beschreibung eines Kampfes
"The Refusal"	"Die Abweisung"	The Rejection			story	1920	1970	Frankfurt		title by Brod, same as a different earlier story by Kafka
"The Bucket Rider"	"Der Kübelreiter"		de (1921), de (1931)		story	1921	1921	Prag		in Prager Presse
"A Hunger Artist" ("A Fasting Artist", "A Starvation Artist")	"Ein Hungerkünstler"		de	en	story	1922	1922	Prague		in Die neue Rundschau, then in Ein Hungerkünstler
"First Sorrow"	"Erstes Leid"		de		story	1921–1922	1922	Leipzig		in periodical Genius
"Investigations of a Dog"	"Forschungen eines Hundes"		de		story	1923	1931	Berlin		in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer
"A Little Woman"	"Eine kleine Frau"		de		story	1923–1924	1924	Prague		in Prager Tagblatt, then in Ein Hungerkünstler
"The Burrow"	"Der Bau"		de		story	1923–1924	1924			in Ein Hungerkünstler
"Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk"	"Josefine, die Sängerin, oder Das Volk der Mäuse"		de		story	1923	1924	Prague		in Prager Presse, then in Ein Hungerkünstler
Franz Kafka's Diaries	Tagebücher				diary	1910–1923	1948	New York
The Blue Octavo Notebooks	Oxforder Oktavhefte	Oxford Octavo Notebooks			notebook	1917–1919	1954	New York		also known as The Eight Octavo Notebooks
Letter to His Father	Brief an den Vater		de		letter	1919 November	1966	New York
Letters to Felice	Briefe an Felice				letter collection	1912–1917	1967	Frankfurt am Main
Letters to Ottla	Briefe an Ottla und die Familie	Letters to Ottla and to the family			letter collection	1909–1924	1974	Frankfurt am Main		includes some letters to his parents and other family members
Letters to Milena	Briefe an Milena				letter collection	1920–23	1952	Frankfurt am Main
Letters to Family, Friends, and Editors	Briefe 1902–1924				letter collection	1900–24	1959	New York		most of the letters are to Brod
Zürau Aphorisms, The	Die Zürauer Aphorismen or Betrachtungen über Sünde, Hoffnung, Leid und den wahren Weg	Reflections on Sin, Hope, Suffering, and the True Way	de		aphorisms	1917–18	1931	Cologne		Title by Brod

Kafka often made extensive use of a characteristic particular to the German language allowing for long sentences that sometimes can span an entire page. Kafka's sentences then deliver an unexpected impact just before the full stop—that being the finalizing meaning and focus. This is achieved due to the construction of certain sentences in German which require that the verb be positioned at the end of the sentence. Such constructions are difficult to duplicate in other languages, so it is up to the resourceful translator to provide the reader with the same (or at least equivalent) effect found in the original text.[1] German's more flexible word order is not the only problem translating German into other languages. German also lacks an informal language register, uses modal connectives, and syntactic structures which can be translated in more than one way.[2] Kafka did not write in standard High German, but rather in a Praguean German heavily influenced by the Yiddish and Czech languages.[3] This has led philosophers Deleuze and Guattari to describe Kafka's linguistic style as "deterritorialized", characterized by a "withered vocabulary" and an "incorrect syntax".[3]

German sentences also have a different syntactic structure. Unlike English, German is a verb-final language, which places the main verb of a verb string (e.g., "transformed" in "had been transformed") at the end of a phrase. The difference can be seen in the contrast between the original German version of the first sentence in Kafka's "The Metamorphosis":

Dependency tree illustrating the difference in syntax between the first sentence of Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" in translation by Ian Johnston and in the original German

Als Gregor Samsa eines Morgens aus unruhigen Traumen erwachte fand er sich in seinem Bett zu einem ungeheuren Ungeziefer verwandelt. (Original)

As Gregor Samsa one morning from restless dreams awoke, found he himself in his bed into an enormous vermin transformed. (literal word for word translation)[4][5]

Another virtually insurmountable problem facing translators is how to deal with the author's intentional use of ambiguous idioms and words that have several meanings which result in writings difficult to precisely translate.[6][7] One such instance is found in the first sentence of "The Metamorphosis".[6] English translators have often sought to render the word Ungeziefer as "insect"; in today's German it means vermin. It is sometimes used colloquially to mean "bug" – a very general term, unlike the scientific sounding "insect". Kafka had no intention of labeling Gregor, the protagonist of the story, as any specific thing, but instead wanted to convey Gregor's disgust at his transformation. Translators have chosen numerous inexact and unsatisfactory ways to represent "[zu einem] ungeheuren Ungeziefer", unable to convey the repetition of the first two syllables and the equal four syllables of the two words in German:

• "gigantic insect" (Muir, 1948)
• "monstrous vermin" (Corngold, 1972, Neugroschel, 1993/1995, Freed, 1996)
• "giant bug" (Underwood, 1981)
• "monstrous insect" (Pasley, 1992)
• "enormous bug" (Appelbaum, 1996)
• "monstrous cockroach" (Hofmann, 2007)

Another example is Kafka's use of the German noun Verkehr in the final sentence of The Judgment. Literally, Verkehr means intercourse and, as in English, can have either a sexual or non-sexual meaning; in addition, it is used to mean transport or traffic. The sentence can be translated as: "At that moment an unending stream of traffic crossed over the bridge".[8] What gives added weight to the obvious double meaning of 'Verkehr' is Kafka's confession to Brod that when he wrote that final line, he was thinking of "a violent ejaculation".[9][10]