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The Castle

by Franz Kafka, Mark Harman (Translator)

4.01 of 5 stars 4.01 · rating details · 11,114 ratings · 416 reviews

Translated and with a preface by Mark Harman

Left unfinished by Kafka in 1922 and not published until 1926, two years after his death, The Castle is the haunting tale of K.’s relentless, unavailing struggle with an inscrutable authority in order to gain access to the Castle. Scrupulously following the fluidity and breathlessness of the sparsely punctuated original manuscrip...more

Paperback, 316 pages

Published December 15th 1998 by Schocken (first published 1926)

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Jun 28, 2007 George rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everyone

I'm re-reading The Castle 10 years later with older, more patient eyes and it's proving to be a wonderful time, especially with the new translation.

"The Eighth Chapter" of The Castle is, perhaps, some of the most beautifully composed writing in all of modern literature. The new translation adds a dreamy, sudden stillness and frightening sense of desolate open space in Kafka's work which is better known for his breathless, claustophobic style of writing and description. This feeling was lost and...more

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Aug 18, 2012 Sonky rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: 19th-Century Czech and German editors

Recommended to Sonky by: It is society's fault as a hole.

Honestly, I quit.

It was too, how do I say it?...Kafkaesque. But am I greater than the writer himself? No. Kafka quit too and just as mid-sentence as I--only later in the text. Evidently, he died of tedium. Thank goodness I stopped before Kafka's work killed me too.

I was not enriched by the petty squabbles of German? Czech? villagers and the gyrating evasions of bureaucrats worshiped in detail by said squabbling villagers. I didn't like the protagonist; I couldn't even admire K. for not liking K....more

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Apr 29, 2010 TD rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: re-read, fiction

“...there are things that are wrecked on nothing but themselves.”

‘The Castle’ is a difficult read. I find so not in the sense in which some other readers have suggested the novel is a slog; personally, I find Kafka’s superficial perfunctoriness mesmerising and his expansiveness is only seemingly so (in fact these elements are crucial to Kafka’s voice and vision and thus add to the power of the novel). What I do believe makes ‘The Castle’ difficult is the adverse interference the mythologised fig...more

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Apr 09, 2012 Israa rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

ربما نبذ الظلم وسعى الى العدل والإنسانيه
ربما كانت فلسفته فلسفه وجوديه عظيمه يقدرها رواد التعبيريه والسرياليه والوجدانيه وهؤلاء
ولكن أنا فقط لا أبالى
هذا هو رائد الأدب الألمانى

فرانتس كافكا
القصر

رواية أخرى لم ينهيها كافكا ونشرت بعد وفاته
كل شئ فى هذه الروايه غارق فى الخوف
خوف من الناس وعلى الناس, خوف من الوجود,خوف من العدم...واحساس الخوف هذا هو الفكره الأساسيه فى الروايه
فى الروايه فتور يدفع بك الى الجنون
وفيها هدوء يدفع بك الى الثوره او ربما الحنق الشديد
وفيها تشاؤم يدفع بك_ربما_الى التماس التفاؤل

ربما ف...more

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Jan 31, 2009 L.S. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009

The book starts with K. arriving in the village near the castle. I found the first 40 pages a bit annoying because I was expecting him to get to the castle and let the story begin. But only when I finally understood that he is never to get to that castle I could finally enjoy the book. I think that the story could go on forever. It is said that the book is not finished. Maybe. But it is like it was left like that. After finishing it I had an odd reaction: I thought that I should re-read it at on...more

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Mar 06, 2007 Cody rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: modernism, mittel-europe, favorites

I had the esteemed (and terrifying?) pleasure of reading this after having traveled to Prague. The landscape of Městská čast Praha 1, encompassing the Jewish quarter, Josefov, and the Prague Castle, illuminated this text tremndously; a perfectly example of mise en scene. Upon a return to Prague this past year, I couldn't shake many of these mortifying images from my head, even when confronted with the recent massive influx of tourists, which are, sadly, rapidly changing the dynamics of the city....more

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Sep 27, 2012 Shan Jago added it · review of another edition

I barely remember this novel, though from what I do recall it’s about a man dispossessed (much like Jane Eyre after she’d been whisked off to Oz that time; from Jane and the Anarchist Pigs of Oz, Oz # 526, I believe) and lost in the labyrinthine castle corridors of the Baron Boo Radley. Although I might be confusing it with something else. It’s very existential, I’m sure.

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Jun 28, 2008 Nick Black rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Had Kafka lived to finish and edit this, it would be remembered as his greatest novel and one of the absolute masterworks of the Western canon. Le sigh, his death left a great cultural artiface incomplete and is a tremendous loss to us all.

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Jan 31, 2012 miaaa rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ophelia-s-library, fictions-others

Two things:

One, this is one unfinished book. So of course there are some inconsistencies. But even if Kafka finished it, you think it would be less complicated? We can keep dreaming the world would be a peace altar.

Two, again Kafka lowered himself, put the whole world burden on his main characters, humiliated him, belittled him. It leaves you pulling your hairs off feeling -first sorry then irked- to K.

Somehow I am sure, Lamya is quite annoyed herself for suggesting us reading this book together...more

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Jun 23, 2011 Nicholas Karpuk rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I think my reaction to the ending was roughly, "What? Really? Damn it!"

It ends in mid-sentence, and unlike Amerika, there's not a damn bit of closure. Most of the plot threads were left open, and it feels like most of the third act had been left undone.

I guess I didn't understand the level of completion, The Trial and Amerika giving me a sense that it might be mostly done, with a few holes and missing pieces.

Nope, it's a big damn tease.

And insult to injury, it feels like the least well edited...more I think my reaction to the ending was roughly, "What? Really? Damn it!"

It ends in mid-sentence, and unlike Amerika, there's not a damn bit of closure. Most of the plot threads were left open, and it feels like most of the third act had been left undone.

I guess I didn't understand the level of completion, The Trial and Amerika giving me a sense that it might be mostly done, with a few holes and missing pieces.

Nope, it's a big damn tease.

And insult to injury, it feels like the least well edited book of Kafka's writing. Entire chapters break the "show don't tell rule", feeling more like a summary than a proper chapter. It feels like they were written quickly, with great intensity, and never revised for flow or accessibility.

And it's a shame, because there are some great ideas here. Previous books always gave off the impression that the protagonist was innocent, suffering at the hands of an unfair bureacracy. In contrast, K. is kind of a dick. He hits people when he gets impatient, he acts like a child when things don't go his way, and he's not above using people to get what he wants.

It's a more mature statement on the concept of what's Kafkaesque. Bureacracies don't just fail because they're a bad idea. the failures of a bloated system come from the laziness, impatience, ineptitude, and arrogance of those involved. K is just as much a problem as everyone he encounters, and collectively they paint a picture of why bureaucracies fail. Too much corruption sends society screeching to a halt.

But at times it's a pain to read. Conversations are often circuitous, several area contradict each other in ways that seem like a continuity error rather than clever writing. Multiple pages go by with one character going on a needless rant. On a structural level it's just broken.

And it can never be fixed. The most any Kafka fan gets is those intense editions with all the scraps and original documents included, which seems like an elaborate form of self-abuse to wade through.

I'm glad I've finished reading Kafka's major works, because damn it am I frustrated.(less)

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Mar 05, 2011 Alessandro rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: confusing

The devil has a library. Alongside Necronomicon and Malleus Maleficarum, you can find a copy of Franz Kafka's The Castle. To read this is to know pain. This book is an ungodly torment. It doesn't even have proper paragraph division. There are paragraphs that contain chapters inside themselves. How much of a mind twist is that? Wall of text of death! The narrative unravels in a feverish and dream-like state and never breaks from it. Nevertheless, I manage to finish reading this sucker. Oh! I am t...more The devil has a library. Alongside Necronomicon and Malleus Maleficarum, you can find a copy of Franz Kafka's The Castle. To read this is to know pain. This book is an ungodly torment. It doesn't even have proper paragraph division. There are paragraphs that contain chapters inside themselves. How much of a mind twist is that? Wall of text of death! The narrative unravels in a feverish and dream-like state and never breaks from it. Nevertheless, I manage to finish reading this sucker. Oh! I am the baddest motherfucker alive and I wasn't going to give up just like that. While reading The Castle, I experienced nausea, boredom, anxiety, nervous breakdown and unsurpassed rage. I survived through it all. I half expected that, in the last chapter, Franz Kafka would reveal this book as being a big joke. He would congratulate the reader for reading thus far and offer his sincerest apologizes for such torture. It never happened. I hear he died before finishing The Castle. Maybe that was his intended ending.

Spoilers ahead! The Castle is an obvious commentary about bureaucracy and about an individual oppressed by society. Nonetheless, I cooked up my own interpretation of this bloody mess. The next paragraph exposes it.

The villagers and castle-officers share two common traits. First off, they both are proud of their station in life and job. Some of the villagers work at the most mundane jobs possible. Nevertheless, they are proud of it. The castle-officers are shamelessly inefficient and The Castle fails to provide solution to anything during the novel. Nonetheless, these officers regard themselves as semi-gods and are proud of it. The other common trait is that they all believe that life is out of control. They never act. Instead, they accept every circumstance and let every occurrence mold their lives without resistance. Except the disgraced family, but that’s precisely why they are disgusting to the villagers. Every time a villager reinterprets everything that happens to K as being profoundly and inexorable important to his or her own life, Kafka is pointing out that the commoners never act to fix their lives. They accept it as it is. I perceived this when Pepi (the most unimportant character imaginable) reviews everything that happened thus far from her point of view. Moreover, blamed K. for every affect it had in her life. She is just a passive victim. All the villagers and castle-folk are passive. As a foreigner, K. is different. First, K. does not have a clear job and that hurts his pride. In the first chapters, he is completely pissed off but the book never tells it to you straightaway. He is hurling snowballs at people to catch their attention. If that is not the action of an angry person, I do not know what it is. Second, and most important, K. is active. He acts and tries to solve his problem. That is completely alien to the villagers. Their only trade is the art of making excuses and empty (endless) arguments. That is the reason why the villagers consider K. as being childish and naive. Does he not know he is supposed to accept live as it is? When the narrative approaches its end, K. is reasoning like one of the villagers already. Body Snatcher style, he has been assimilated.
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Feb 26, 2011 Mad Dog rated it 3 of 5 stars

"ALL YOU NEED IS ... ARGUMENT" might be an appropriate subtitle for this book. If you like arguing and confrontation (wrapped in an old-fashioned and 'creepy-absurd' shell), then this book is for you. The protagonist K is talkative, clever, egoistic, high-strung, brash, and goal-driven. He'll lie to get what he wants, and then argue that he is not 'technically' lying. Absurdity abounds: doors that are too small, kids taking a bath in a big tub in the kitchen (in front of a visitor), a schoolroom...more "ALL YOU NEED IS ... ARGUMENT" might be an appropriate subtitle for this book. If you like arguing and confrontation (wrapped in an old-fashioned and 'creepy-absurd' shell), then this book is for you. The protagonist K is talkative, clever, egoistic, high-strung, brash, and goal-driven. He'll lie to get what he wants, and then argue that he is not 'technically' lying. Absurdity abounds: doors that are too small, kids taking a bath in a big tub in the kitchen (in front of a visitor), a schoolroom doubling as a residence, etc. Heck, the book starts with K being mistakenly (or is it a mistake) called to 'the Village' to be a land surveyor as a result of bureacratic bungle. He is told (upon arrival) that a land surveyor is not needed. That begins K's darkly comic quest to reach 'the Castle' ('not so easy' to reach), which houses the officials that run 'the Village'. 'The Castle' and 'the Village' seem to exist in a remote European area that is isolated from the rest of the world.

K is ultimately a boring individual to me, as his relentless pursuit of self-interest is grating (and he is in every 'scene' in this book). Some might appreciate his different perspective and challenging of the 'goings on' in 'the Village', but ultimately he is predictably selfish in all situations. There may be nuances to his arguments, but there are no nuances to his character. He is not principled or compassionate. He just wants to get to 'the Castle'. If I want endless arguments, confrontation and self-pursuit, I can go spend some more time with my teenage boys.

Faring better with me is support character Olga. She was not in this book much, but she provided an pleasant alternative to K. She and K shared the same misery: being shunned by 'the Castle'. But she worked constructively (to gain influence with 'the Castle') and she worked in a friendly manner. And she worked to help her family (especially her brother). And she got some small results. She is self-effacing. She loves her family and her brother. For me, her presence and her story 'anchors' the book.

I really couldn't fit any specific metaphors to 'the Castle'(although I am sure that they exist and have been much discussed). I see 'the Castle' as representing this: the 'material place and position' that we deeply desire. And the bureaucracy (of 'the Castle') represents the obstacles (both internal and external) that keep us getting there. So many of us never get there. Or if we do get there, it doesn't bring the happiness we anticipate. "Wherever you go, thats where you are". Reference the Bible book Ecclesiastes. But I might just be reading what I want out of this book (like the infamous narrator of Nabokov's Pale Fire).

Another way the book impacted me: Be more like Olga and less like K.

Reverse view: As I think what I wrote above, I am taking a little more kindly to this book. Surely, Kafka is trying to present a hellish harsh culture (as that must be what he observed). But I can see some of myself in K. I catch myself easily getting into 'argument mode'. And I argue even though it mostly gets me nowhere. And I work at a big company, so I can relate to a bureaucratic maze (like in the book). And I like the creepy-absurd-remote environment of 'the Village'. But most of all, I liked the writing of the book. Kafka's high-strung, detailed and 'rabid' writing style perfectly fit the environment of this book. I am sure that so much of what Kafka observed was so absurd to Kafka, and Kafka enjoyed turning the absurdity up a notch in his own writing. Surely the translator (Harman) of my edition did an outstanding job.(less)

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Jun 13, 2010 Emir Never rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"The present English edition is based on the definitive German edition of Das Schloss (New York: Schoken Books; 1951). Thus it is considerably larger than the previous editions, which followed the text of the first German publication of the novel. The additions--results of Max Brod's later editing of Franz Kafka's posthumous writings--are: the concluding section of Chapter xviii the whole of Chapters xix and xx, and the Appendix, consisting of variations, fragments, and, above all, of many passa...more "The present English edition is based on the definitive German edition of Das Schloss (New York: Schoken Books; 1951). Thus it is considerably larger than the previous editions, which followed the text of the first German publication of the novel. The additions--results of Max Brod's later editing of Franz Kafka's posthumous writings--are: the concluding section of Chapter xviii the whole of Chapters xix and xx, and the Appendix, consisting of variations, fragments, and, above all, of many passages struck through and thus deleted by the author, but deemed sufficiently interesting by the editor to be made accessible to all," the Publisher's Note reads in my copy of The Castle. Including the Appendix, my copy is 471 pages, brown and with pages falling off.

Is there any significance to this page counting? See, when I made my currently reading update for this book when I was at page 241, the indicator showed that there are 481 pages in The Castle. So I might be missing some extra 10 pages, probably additions to additions since Kafka did not get to finish the book and it is mentioned somewhere that he related to a friend how the book would end when he was on his deathbed. These additions may be negligible, after all Kafka himself saw fit not to include them, but the jetsams and flotsams of ideas of a literary giant are considered precious and essential in consideration of his life’s works.

Now into the story: K. arrives in the village late in the evening, in the territory of the Castle which commissioned him as a Land Surveyor. Land-surveying— what a flimsy, ordinary thing to anchor a story on. But K.would do almost anything but his purported job. And he would do all his might to be able to present himself to the Castle, to make a connection, a meaning to his stay in the village not his own.

This is the hardest read I have had in my reading life (that would be 23 years, counting the komiks days ). Reading The Castle is like plodding through a river against a very strong current, it takes utmost effort to move from page to page. It’s as if Kafka intended the hardships of the main character K. to be experienced by the audacious reader—not directly, but in parallel—as the benefit of K reaching the Castle is as difficult to grasp as the value of finishing the book. Surely, K. could have abandoned his effort at the early signs of ridiculous resistance by the villagers and authorities. On my part, I could have stopped reading this work and moved on to a thinner, lighter read. But, no. Just as dogged as K. was in trying to connect to the Castle, I was determined to finish this book, fighting boredom all the way. Kafka’s setting is mundane and logically incongruous but he hints on something more.

"Now he could see the Castle above him, clearly defined in the glittering air, its outline made still more definite by the thin layer of snow covering everything. There seemed to be much less snow up there on the hill than down in the village, where K. found progress as laborious as on the main road the previous day. Here the heavy snowdrifts reached right up to the cottage windows and began again on the low roofs, but up on the hill everything soared light and free into the air, or at least so it appeared from below.”

Through subtleties like this, the Castle becomes not just a castle; K.’s efforts take on different proportions; the whole story is not just an ordinary tale. And here is the genius of Kafka. And here is the problem about reading him. If a story cannot be told directly and must be coated in layers, does it make the tale grander? Does the truth the novel carries becomes more potent when extracted with great effort and difficulty?

"If a man has his eyes bound, you can encourage him as much as you like to stare through the bandage, but he’ll never see anything. He’ll be able to see only when the bandage is removed."

The Castle is a taxing read. Consider its pages as bandages you peel from layer to layer, hoping truth(s) would be revealed at the end.

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Nov 13, 2009 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I originally read the Muir translation of The Castle years ago, and have just finished the recent one by Harman. I think I prefer the Muirs on a literary basis, and Harman's as to linearity and style. In both versions I cannot give a five-star rating, as, like all of Kafka's big three novels, they were unfinished when he died - indeed, The Castle ends in mid-sentence - and this flaw, this lack of resolution, cannot be overcome by editing regardless the number of times it is attempted.

Harman's tr...more I originally read the Muir translation of The Castle years ago, and have just finished the recent one by Harman. I think I prefer the Muirs on a literary basis, and Harman's as to linearity and style. In both versions I cannot give a five-star rating, as, like all of Kafka's big three novels, they were unfinished when he died - indeed, The Castle ends in mid-sentence - and this flaw, this lack of resolution, cannot be overcome by editing regardless the number of times it is attempted.

Harman's translation delivers a grittier, more breathless version of Kafka's detailing of a surreal, bureaucratic nightmare. The characters speak more harshly, K. himself is somewhat more shifty and selfish, and the employees of the omnipresent Castle colder and less congenial. As always with Kafka, the sinister can intrude upon the banal in mid-sentence. Many authors have subsequently blended the dreamlike with the everyday, the absurd with the ordinary - Auster, Ishiguro, Murakami, Banks - but none can improve upon the master; fewer still can make formal speech appear so fluid and natural. He is also funny, in a dry and subtle manner, like the other great Austrian German writers of his time.

The story itself is fairly simple: K., a land surveyor, is summoned (allegedly) to the seat of the Count Westwest to perform his duties. Once there, facing a Castle and village that deny having requested him in the first place, K. must attempt to pierce the multi-layered, dizzying bureaucracy that stands between the protagonist and his ever-elusive goal, entry into the Castle itself. Scrounging up a few half-hearted allies (and a fiancée) out of an otherwise hostile village populace, K. tries to use reason to deal with the ever-changing methods and rules that are cast his way to impede his progress. Along the way, K. is faced with doubts as to the veracity of his point-of-view; and his motives, his truth, cast in a questionable light. Multi-page conversations ensue with the gentlemen, servants and villagers - devout believers in the imperfect "perfection" emanating from his crenellated nemesis.

This is an enigmatic work. It has been stated that Kafka was writing about the spiritual, with the Castle representing salvation or a unreachable God, though Harman shies from this point of view in his introduction. Others have postulated that K. and the Castle stand for the unresolved - and unresolvable - tensions and barriers that existed between Kafka and his father. I made notes myself, whilst reading, positing K. as God (or the Devil) with the Castle and villagers representing an unbelieving and obfuscatory modernity alienating themselves through doublespeak and rationalized irrationality; they call for God through prayer, but deny him when he appears; long for him from afar, yet cannot bear his presence. From a different approach, perhaps K. reflects the scientific truth depends upon the observer(s) - K.'s version of reality differs from that of his interlocutors; they can argue back-and-forth all day, but who is right? Or is The Castle simply a mirror to the absurdity of life, complex rules and obscure rituals that serve to mask the utter pointlessness of existence as the twentieth-century began to really gather speed? Kafka always raises questions, but provides no firm answers.

One can only imagine the true masterpiece Kafka might have been able to produce if his vision and drive hadn't stalled during its creation, the unfinished manuscript abandoned and never resumed before his death shortly after. If the talented Czech had been able to polish and tighten the novel, and furnish an ending (if not a resolution), the novel would be near perfect. As it stands, The Castle is still a fascinating, puzzling, and necessary book, well worth the reader's time and effort.(less)

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Jan 03, 2008 Andy rated it 2 of 5 stars

Unlike in "The Trial," where banal moments were given a terrifying atmosphere, in this book I had trouble caring whether or not K. ever got to the castle. In "The Trial" I wanted Joseph K. to get the hell out of the process he was trapped in; with "The Castle" I really felt I was reading an incomplete book that wasn't quite sure what it was doing. And whereas I like the humor in most of Kafka's work, here the slapstick and side treks seemed forced. Instead of eerie and surreal, the book felt...w...more

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May 29, 2007 علی rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novels

در این رمان هم تصور می کنم بجای "قصر" باید "قلعه" گذاشته می شد چرا که خود واژه ی "کسل" هم بیشتر به قلعه شبیه است تا قصر. به همین علت نرسیدن یا عدم دسترسی "کا" به قلعه که یک نماد بلند و آسمانی و دست نیافتنی ست، بیشتر مفهوم می شود تا "قصر"! این البته یک سلیقه ی شخصی ست ولی تصور من از کارهای کافکا آنچه از پیش به ما داده شده نیست. بلکه یک جستجوست. همان گونه که قهرمان محاکمه از ابتدا با آن روبروست و "کا" هم که از سوی ناشناسی یا نیرویی نادیدنی به قلعه دعوت شده، خود نمی داند که برای مساحی قلعه ای دست ن...more

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Jun 11, 2013 Daniel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Kafka sempre fala de alguma coisa que só pode ser falada, nunca acessada. O sentido fica como um efeito da linguagem (penso no Processo, no A construção e o próprio O Castelo). Aqui, no lugar do direito encontramos a administração, o poder executivo.

Aqui, o Castelo, ou mais precisamente a administração burocrática é o poder ubíquo do qual ninguém consegue escapar e contra qual K. luta ou, mais propriamente, se debate.

K. começa numa postura segura e esclarecida, como estrangeiro que chega em uma...more Kafka sempre fala de alguma coisa que só pode ser falada, nunca acessada. O sentido fica como um efeito da linguagem (penso no Processo, no A construção e o próprio O Castelo). Aqui, no lugar do direito encontramos a administração, o poder executivo.

Aqui, o Castelo, ou mais precisamente a administração burocrática é o poder ubíquo do qual ninguém consegue escapar e contra qual K. luta ou, mais propriamente, se debate.

K. começa numa postura segura e esclarecida, como estrangeiro que chega em uma vila - para ele desconhecida-, e com seu bom-senso nos identificamos. Sua posição é apoiada em um uso da razão. No entanto, conforme K. vai travando contato com os diversos personagens que, de algum modo, representam mais imediatamente o poder burocrático, sua lógica vai sendo corroída até que seja totalmente arrastado pelo puro efeito burocrático e mergulhe num universo familiar ao criado por Carroll, onde crescer é simultaneamente diminuir: um zelo desproporcional pela coisa administrativa convive com os mais incríveis caprichos das autoridades, é impossível a K. manter o bom-senso em um lugar assim.

Sua relação com barnabás é marcada pela falta de objetivo, pelo menos algum que seja sensato, já que o mensageiro se recusa a realizar de modo direto sua função e de modo não-ostensivo frustra todas as expectativas de K., mesmo as mais simplórias.

As conversas de K. que na verdade são longos monólogos de seus interlocutores, são sinuosas e entorpecentes (a dona do Albergue, Olga, Momus e Brügel). Há sempre uma coisa óbvia que permanece opaca a K., ele é frequentemente comparado a uma criança que nada entende do funcionamento administrativo, sempre está enganado a respeito do real sentido de algum fato. Suas conclusões soam sempre bizarras para os habitantes da aldeia, como se K. viesse não do estrangeiro mas do outro lado do espelho.

É verdade que algum estranhamento com relação a K. chegue ao leitor desde as primeiras páginas: é estranho que K. chame de antigos ajudantes dois rapazes que nem conhecia. Também ele permanece opaco ao leitor.

Há um processo de degradação de K. que termina agindo como os próprios habitantes da vila, já sem a dignidade dos primeiros momentos. O monólogo de Pepi – notadamente em outro tom, às vezes parece a voz de um narrador onisciente emitindo novas e esclarecedoras opiniões sobre fatos anteriores ocorridos a K. – já é ouvido por um K. degradado, incapaz de ser diferenciado dos servos mais humildes.

Sua trajetória é um longo caminho que apenas circunda seu objetivo: por mais que tente traçar um raio em direção ao centro só consegue chegar até outra periferia, o centro mesmo está sempre em outro lugar.
Vale notar que há uma inteligência cômica muito afeita ao Chaplin: aparente no aspecto cartunesco dos ajudantes e na cena que descreve, sob os olhos de K., o funcionamento da máquina administrativa em algum dos corredores da Hospedaria dos Senhores. (less)

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Apr 12, 2013 Jesse rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, classics

This was really good, but I didn't like it as much as "The Trial". I do think that this one might have been more fun and harder to write...

Once again, as with "The Trial", the reader is tormented in a sea of buracracy. However, in this tale, it seems like Kafka was more interested in social politics. In "The Trial" the main character is facing the unconcurable beast of government. A multi-headed monster with thousands of facets that must be satified if he is ever to move his trial along, let alo...more

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Feb 27, 2013 Jerry Levy rated it 4 of 5 stars

There was a period in my life when I read a lot of Kafka. Not so much anymore. So it was interesting to see if The Castle, perhaps his most enigmatic book (although The Trial is quite the same) would stand the test of time. It does. I would have given the book 5 stars except in rereading it, I found the last 50 pages or so unnecessary and could have been cut. Also, he book was never finished...it ends in mid-sentence. Of course it's one hell of a strange book, with the land-surveyor K coming to...more

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Jan 20, 2013 Adam Davis rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Hard Work

That title refers to the subject of the novel, as much as it does to reading it. 'The Castle' is the tale of one man's seemingly endless struggle against bureaucracy, and the apparent apathy of the locals. In places, I could clearly see what Kafka was driving at, (working for local government helps), and I started to forgive the book its failings. The trouble is, characters are introduced and forgotten with no apparent purpose, and this disrupts the flow of the piece, making reading it...more Hard Work

That title refers to the subject of the novel, as much as it does to reading it. 'The Castle' is the tale of one man's seemingly endless struggle against bureaucracy, and the apparent apathy of the locals. In places, I could clearly see what Kafka was driving at, (working for local government helps), and I started to forgive the book its failings. The trouble is, characters are introduced and forgotten with no apparent purpose, and this disrupts the flow of the piece, making reading it difficult.
To begin with, K.s motives are never described. He is shunned time and again, but never once has the inclination to leave the village; instead he steadfastly sticks to his task of reaching the castle through the unattainable Klamm. Obviously, his reasons are very important. The trouble is, we are never even given an inclination of what they might be. Some may think this adds intrigue, but actually, it is annoying.
Almost as annoying, is the writing itself. Sentences can last a full page, with the subject altered along this length, before finally returning to the subject at the end. This is difficult to read, and especially towards the end of the book, boring.
Stories such as this need at least one grounded character to work effectively, but the main character, the only reasonably straight thinking one, behaves bizarrely too. He knows full well that the assistants given to him aren't his own, but he accepts them regardless,and scarcely refers to this afterwards. It becomes rather difficult to care about his actions when you don't fully understand them, and then there are the final two chapters.
Things seemed to be picking up towards the last third, and I started to enjoy the story more, feeling a conclusion must be coming. However, the book then deviates once more, with a series of rambling monologues, which don't really give any more clues to the reader.
Then there comes the ending, or rather the lack of it. With no clues whatsoever about how the novel should end, it feels like a waste when you finally reach the half, unfinished sentence. Undoubtedly, there is some excellent imagery in this story, and for those patient enough to analyse it, much to discover, but as a casual reader, I cannot really recommend 'The Castle.'(less)

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Dec 20, 2012 Smcleish rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: owned

Originally published on my blog here in September 2001.

Kafka's unfinished novel, which has gained two and a half chapters not in the original published version due to the editorial work of Max Brod, inhabits a similar paranoid world to The Trial. It is not as forceful, the bureaucracy being less sinister and the tone more optimistic, but its frustrations are perhaps as a result more readily related to the reader's everyday life; in the late twentieth century and the twenty-first it can feel that...more

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Nov 30, 2012 Johnny rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I gave The Castle 3 stars, but that is out of respect for Kafka's body of work, for I didn't enjoy it enough to merit it that rating.
First off- I didn't enjoy it because I didn't like K. He was missing so many of the traits that I found so endearing in 2 of my favorite Kafka characters, and really any literature characters of stories I've read--Gregor Samsa and Karl Rossmann. Where Gregor and Karl were sincere and helplessly lovable, K. was self-serving and indignant.
I can't help but equate The...more I gave The Castle 3 stars, but that is out of respect for Kafka's body of work, for I didn't enjoy it enough to merit it that rating.
First off- I didn't enjoy it because I didn't like K. He was missing so many of the traits that I found so endearing in 2 of my favorite Kafka characters, and really any literature characters of stories I've read--Gregor Samsa and Karl Rossmann. Where Gregor and Karl were sincere and helplessly lovable, K. was self-serving and indignant.
I can't help but equate The Castle to David Lynch's Inland Empire. The allusion seems reasonable for me mostly because of how much I value these 2 gentlemen as artists. The Metamorphosis was an inspiration to me in so profound a way as to only be matched by maybe Lynch's Mulholland Dr. Being aware of the influence that F.K. had on Lynch, of course I can't help but to attribute so much of Kafka's themes/motifs he employs in the Metamorphosis at work in Mulholland Dr.
Recently I've read scholarly articles praising Inland Empire as a "never-before-seen subjective take on the psychotic state" that point to the structural juxtaposition in the movie as a first-hand look through the eyes of a person suffering from schizophrenia-like symptoms. While I must admit that the scholarly writing on the movie gives me a refurbished and more informed outlook with which to base my opinion of the movie on, I'm not sure I'd want to wade those murky waters for another 2.5 hours.
I feel the same way about The Castle. People would argue that it's the most "Kafka0esque", and it might be, in the sense that from the very first word you just know he's never gaining entrance in to the Castle--but like Inland Empire, it plods along in sometimes engaging movements, but mostly meanders along from plotline (if we can call an event in an unfinished story such) to plotline with no apparent point to be made other than that K. isn't getting in to the Castle.
I think maybe Franz agreed with me and decided to pull the plug on this one and move on to other literary endeavors instead of continuing to waste his time on this one. (less)

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Jul 24, 2012 Jess rated it 3 of 5 stars

Normally, I love Kafka, but this book I didn't really get.

K. finds himself in a strange, gloomy village, aiming to pursue his job as a land surveyor for which he has been contracted but finds increasingly absurd and frustrating obstacles preventing him from doing so.

I think the reason I didn't love this book as much as I thought I would is that there is very little plot. Each chapter works as a cross-section of society - focusing on one aspect or character of that strangle little village. Every...more

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Jul 23, 2012 Sarah Smith rated it 4 of 5 stars

If you're looking for aesthetic diversions while encamped at your parents' 250-acre rural farm for a summer of reading and writing before moving on to grad school for major leagues reading and writing activities, let me suggest dipping into the heavily annotated books at your local and increasingly religious small-town university for one hilarious joyride. Yes, writing in library books is tacky enough, but what if the marginalia attempts doggedly to make a case for the Castle, Kafka's emblem of...more If you're looking for aesthetic diversions while encamped at your parents' 250-acre rural farm for a summer of reading and writing before moving on to grad school for major leagues reading and writing activities, let me suggest dipping into the heavily annotated books at your local and increasingly religious small-town university for one hilarious joyride. Yes, writing in library books is tacky enough, but what if the marginalia attempts doggedly to make a case for the Castle, Kafka's emblem of hamstrung bureaucracy, as instead a manifestation of god, and all useless petitions to the Castle on behalf of K., the land-surveyor stymied by large-scale mismanagement, as unanswered but rapturous prayers? It's tempting to at first categorize this as a sadly limited scope for reading the work of a master, some problematic hiccup in the design of higher ed in the service of religious belief rather than some secular belief in knowledge, and maybe it's because I've read the book with this weird voice in my ear the whole time, but now I'm not certain that's the case. Or, most troubling of all, I can see a way for this note writer to make a good argument based on an analogy aligning the Castle with god as well as I can see a myopic and ultimately failed argument.

There comes a point in grad school – and I'm assuming this is true across most of the English-related disciplines in which classes resemble American Gladiator-style combat over sets of books – when you realize that the brightest person in the room makes their arguments not always based on personal conviction but rather on perversity. This isn't devil's advocacy, really, but an exercise in applying their rhetorical acumen to increasingly difficult topics in order to demonstrate control, because if it's pulled off, the stance has the added benefit of making everybody else seem wrong and dull while the interlocutor looks dazzling, able to make connections nobody else is even aware of seem obvious. I won't claim to having been the brightest person in the class, but I have been guilty of employing this technique. Trust me, it works, but it's not very satisfying. Doubt is a successful technique for thinking, but it becomes overwhelmingly sad (yes, I mean feelings-wise) to spray doubt onto everything you encounter just for the sake of attempting to control it. I could doubt that the previous reader of Waynesburg University's copy of The Castle caught any overtones of sardonic critique of massively powerful governance, or I could doubt my own automatic assumption that a religious reading of Kafka is bound to distort the book in order to arrive at a predetermined conclusion. One of these is more interesting – and more generous.

I mention all of this because rhetoric and apparent truthfulness are the object of nearly every interaction in The Castle. Doubt is the hellish and self-abnegating substance that makes for woe; it's possible to see K. and the others as subjects of exactly the kind of grad-school battle described above. The real question, for my money, is why they choose to stay in the village and endure it. If I were the one writing in the margins, I would have written "So just leave, then! Cripes!" as often as the ghost reader wrote "Night prayer! Aha!" during a fruitless ten-page-long discussion between K. and an undersecretary. Somehow, this makes a "god=the Castle" analogy a little more apt, if kind of radical for the educational institution this book was borrowed from. My final recommendation is that borrowed and with puzzling, theological side discourse is really the way, the only way to read this book. Two embattled thumbs up.(less)

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Jul 11, 2012 Stephen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Kafka's last novel, "The Castle," was left unfinished. Moreover, scholars continue up to the present day to establish the text of this highly problematic work. Many years ago I read the Muir translation, which was based upon Max Brod's reworking of Kafka's German text. This newer translation of Mark Harmon makes use of the textual work done under the direction of Malcolm Pasley in the 70s and 80s and apparently "restores" much that was not included in the earlier version. Perhaps this newer Harm...more Kafka's last novel, "The Castle," was left unfinished. Moreover, scholars continue up to the present day to establish the text of this highly problematic work. Many years ago I read the Muir translation, which was based upon Max Brod's reworking of Kafka's German text. This newer translation of Mark Harmon makes use of the textual work done under the direction of Malcolm Pasley in the 70s and 80s and apparently "restores" much that was not included in the earlier version. Perhaps this newer Harman version accounts for my somewhat different reaction to "The Castle" at second reading, although I confess to being too lazy to scout out the Muir translation and do a careful comparison. At any rate, the Harmon version in some ways seems rougher, and that may well be because he adheres as closely as possible to Kafka's language and punctuation. The message remains intact and all too familiar to anyone who has worked in or against bureaucracies. "The Castle" takes features we all know are a part of bureaucracy and carries them to a nightmarish extreme. No one quite knows how the distant centers of power work and how their demands or requests find their way through the mysterious networks to the people they ultimately affect, but everyone agrees the bureaucracy, however inscrutable, is handling its myriad files with great care, even infallibility. K., the sad protagonist of the novel, has been invited by "The Castle" to act as a land surveyor, but he has no way to penetrate the bureaucracy, indeed cannot ever get beyond obscure secretaries and messengers, and may indeed have been given his appointment by mistake--or not, since the numerous bureaucratic "controls" make mistakes "impossible." This is a novel, at least on the surface, of immense human frustration--the insignificant man pitted against huge, distant forces he will never understand. But all this is fairly obvious. Where my second reading of this novel differed from my earlier reading, which may have something to do with the newer translation, is that this time I felt the protagonist was actually less frustrated, at least by the end of the novel, than I had remembered. While K. is trying to find his way into the castle, he has a series of relationships which begin to create for him a new life in the village. Slowly, at least so it seems to me, his obsession is blunted somewhat as he turns to more immediate relationships, mostly with women. By the end, he is even caught up in the originally antagonistic landlady's interests in clothing, of all things. In other words, life actually goes on, and relationships develop, while we are waiting for the higher powers to deal with our files. In some ways, the very slow, tangled procedures of bureaucracy make it less and less relevant to our mundane existence. Ultimately we push the mysterious bureaucrats into the back of our minds and find some little niche where we can live on, if not happily at least less miserably. This is not a message usually associated with Kafka, but it somehow was what struck me in this recent rereading. (less)

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Apr 20, 2012 Will rated it 5 of 5 stars

I'm surprised I haven't done a review of this before now. I found it to be the best of Kafka's books, and Kafka to be a uniquely talented and enjoyable author.

When I was reading this, somebody (well actually it was my dad -- don't know why I should cover that up!) commented, "I bet it's pretty depressing?" No! It's not depressing, it's funny. It's true that Kafka's world moves according to a logic of absurdity and futility, which can both be depressing in real life. But they also on display in...more

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Sep 25, 2011 Христо Блажев rated it 4 of 5 stars

Бюрокрацията властва в “Замъкът” на Кафка
http://www.knigolandia.info/2010/02/b...

Подобно на “Процесът”, и в “Замъкът” светът е разделен, а героя има дял проклет да е роден, за да го сложи в ред. Да, малко пошекспирувам, но след мааалко тебеширената проза на Кафка поезията ми се струва най-прекрасното нещо на света.

Мистериозният К. пристига, в бедно село, над което се извисява странен замък. Авторът не ни дава и думичка за миналото на героя, какъв е, що е, нищичко, освен че май е земемер, но и т...more

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Apr 24, 2013 David Ramirer rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: early-readings, favorites

...wahrscheinlich das buch, das ich bei meinem ableben am öftesten durchgelesen haben werde, obgleich fragment: was bis zum abgebrochenen ende alles erzählt und WIE es erzählt wurde, bannt mich vom ersten satz an immer wieder unaufhörlich.
ich stehe dem roman hilflos gegenüber: er ist kalt, aussichtsfrei, im bäuerlichen mileu angesiedelt aus dem er nicht herauskommt, die situation von K. wird mit jeder seite schwächer und schlechter ... dennoch hat er bei mir eine ganz andere stellung als andere...more

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Jun 17, 2012 Herman Gigglethorpe rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: why-is-this-a-classic

"The Castle" is one of my most hated books of all time. I don't know if some of the work was butchered in J.A. Underwood's translation, or if Kafka is just a really dry and boring author. A previous owner of my copy wrote a note saying it "reads like an instruction manual" and "doesn't elucidate fear and pain in life anymore than living it". He is probably a better reviewer than I am, because his description fits the book perfectly!

*SPOILERS AHOY*

For those fortunate enough not to have read the...more

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May 12, 2012 Joshua Burns rated it 5 of 5 stars

Franz Kafka’s longest work, The Castle, is not a book with much forward momentum as the protagonist gets bogged down in the town, never in sight of the castle. This is not a review in which mincing spoilers would do much for the reader. Events are of a fanciful, exaggerated manner as one should (not) expect from the author of mole stories, chinese walls, and mouse singers. Our protagonist comes bearing a message. He gets the runaround (not) expected from a bureaucratic establishment and must by...more

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About Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka (German pronunciation: [ˈfʀants ˈkafka]) was one of the major fiction writers of the 20th century. He was born to a middle-class German-speaking Jewish family in Prague, Bohemia (presently the Czech Republic), Austria–Hungary. His unique body of writing—much of which is incomplete and which was mainly published posthumously—is considered to be among the most influential in Western lite...more Franz Kafka (German pronunciation: [ˈfʀants ˈkafka]) was one of the major fiction writers of the 20th century. He was born to a middle-class German-speaking Jewish family in Prague, Bohemia (presently the Czech Republic), Austria–Hungary. His unique body of writing—much of which is incomplete and which was mainly published posthumously—is considered to be among the most influential in Western literature.

His stories include The Metamorphosis (1912) and In the Penal Colony (1914), while his novels are The Trial (1925), The Castle (1926) and Amerika (1927).

Kafka learned German as his first language, but he was also fluent in Czech. Later, Kafka acquired some knowledge of French language and culture; one of his favorite authors was Flaubert.

Kafka first studied chemistry at the Charles-Ferdinand University of Prague, but switched after two weeks to law. This offered a range of career possibilities, which pleased his father, and required a longer course of study that gave Kafka time to take classes in German studies and art history. At the university, he joined a student club, named Lese- und Redehalle der Deutschen Studenten, which organized literary events, readings and other activities. In the end of his first year of studies, he met Max Brod, who would become a close friend of his throughout his life, together with the journalist Felix Weltsch, who also studied law. Kafka obtained the degree of Doctor of Law on 18 June 1906 and performed an obligatory year of unpaid service as law clerk for the civil and criminal courts.

Kafka's writing attracted little attention until after his death. During his lifetime, he published only a few short stories and never finished any of his novels, unless "The Metamorphosis" is considered a (short) novel. Prior to his death, Kafka wrote to his friend and literary executor Max Brod: "Dearest Max, my last request: Everything I leave behind me ... in the way of diaries, manuscripts, letters (my own and others'), sketches, and so on, [is] to be burned unread." Brod overrode Kafka's wishes, believing that Kafka had given these directions to him specifically because Kafka knew he would not honor them—Brod had told him as much. Brod, in fact, would oversee the publication of most of Kafka's work in his possession, which soon began to attract attention and high critical regard.

Max Brod encountered significant difficulty in compiling Kafka's notebooks into any chronological order as Kafka was known to start writing in the middle of notebooks, from the last towards the first, etc.

All of Kafka's published works, except several letters he wrote in Czech to Milena Jesenská, were written in German.(less)

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The Metamorphosis, in the Penal Colony and Other Stories: The Great Short Works of Franz Kafka

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Quotes from The Castle

“I dream of a grave, deep and narrow, where we could clasp each other in our arms as with clamps, and I would hide my face in you and you would hide your face in me, and nobody would ever see us any more” — 28 people liked it

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