The Trial
In Kafka's powerful and disturbing novel, an innocent man is arrested and repeatedly interrogated for a crime that is never ever explained. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library, a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold-foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is translated from German by Douglas Scott and Chris Waller, and features an afterword by David Stuart Davies. On the morning of his thirtieth birthday, a young bank official named Joseph K is arrested although he has done nothing wrong and is never told what he’s been charged with. The Trial is the chronicle of his fight to prove his innocence, of his struggles and encounters with the invisible Law and the untouchable Court where he must make regular visits. It is an account, ultimately, of state-induced self-destruction presenting in a nightmarish scenario the persecution of the outsider and the incomprehensible machinations of the state. Using the power of simple, straightforward language Kafka draws the reader into this bleak and frightening world so that we too experience the fears, uncertainties and tragedy of Joseph K.
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37recommend
150mentions
132people
2008–2026years
27% recommend70% neutral3% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Personally I like Kafka’s short stories more than his novels, so I’d look for a collection of those first. (And The Trial too.)
- The Trial does deserve the term mindfuck, I think, both because of the story and because it upends the notion of what most people expect of a novel. Kafka's other words are weird and wonderful and not nearly as hard to read as some seem to think, but if you've read The Trial, they're not very mindfuck-y, and that's a big problem with a list like this - each book you read that is still a mindfuck will make a lot of the rest seem pretty pedestrian (though often still good).
- Read Kafka's The Trial [0]
The protagonist just turned 30.
- Would you say that honor is worth more than now having the works of Kafka available for all of humanity to read?
What would human kind have gained from not having read The Metamorphosis or The Trial and so many others?
- As you have a good sense of humour, try
Kafka "The Trial", and his other short works
Hesse "Steppenwolf", and if you like it "The Glass Bead Game"
Stendahl "The Red and the Black"
and Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita"
Once you've read them come back for more! And if I may note, literature is a world thing that opens up new domains. No way to limit it to one place. However in your stated context, how about
Steinbeck "The Pearl"
and Miller "Death of a Salesman"
- I think Kafka's The Trial is an even better fit - in Brazil, you could at least see some of the machinations unfolding - in The Trial, like in reality, you only hit a wall of the bureaucrats telling you that your case is being studied with no way of knowing when or if you will ever get anything more.
