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The Trial

Franz Kafka,

Max Brod (Afterword),

Willa Muir (Translator),

Edwin Muir (Translator)

3.96 · Rating details · 242,430 ratings · 7,951 reviews

Written in 1914 but not published until 1925, a year after Kafka’s death, The Trial is the terrifying tale of Josef K., a respectable bank officer who is suddenly and inexplicably arrested and must defend himself against a charge about which he can get no information. Whether read as an existential tale, a parable, or a prophecy of the excesses of modern bureaucracy wedded ...more

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Paperback, Vintage Classics, 255 pages

Published April 9th 2001 by Vintage (first published 1925)

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Aug 28, 2008 Stephen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics-european, audiobook, easton-press, literature, classics, 1900-1929, reality-sucks

Kafka is tough.
Kafka doesn’t play and he doesn’t take prisoners.
His "in your grill" message of the cruel, incomprehensibility of life and the powerlessness of the individual is unequivocal, harsh and applied with the callous dispassion of a sadist.

Life sucks and then you die, alone, confused and without ever having the slightest conception of the great big WHY.

Fun huh?

Finishing The Trial I was left bewildered and emotionally distant, like my feelings were stuck looking out into the middle di ...more

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Jul 26, 2015 s.penkevich rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Seriously, read this one

Shelves: trials, damnation, crush-yo-soul, kafkaesque, society, important, favorites

It is not necessary to accept everything as true, one must only accept it as necessary

Nothing speaks a more profound truth than a pristine metaphor…

Funny, us, worming through the world ascribing meaning, logic and order to the dumb, blind forces of void. It’s all one can do to maintain sanity in the absurd reality of existence, but what is it worth? Are we trees in gale force winds fighting back with fists we do not possess? Is life the love of a cold, cruel former lover bating us on while only ...more

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Sep 07, 2010 Aubrey rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: translated, german, antidote-translated, person-of-translated, 5-star, r-2013, reviewed, r-goodreads, person-of-everything, antidote-think-twice-all

Has this ever happened to you? You're chugging your way through a book at a decent pace, it's down to the last legs, you've decided on the good ol' four star rating, it's true that it had some really good parts but ultimately you can't say that it was particularly amazing. And all of the sudden the last part slams into your face, you're knocked sprawling on your ass by the weight of the words spiraling around your head in a merry go round of pure literary power, and you swear the book is whisper Has this ever happened to you? You're chugging your way through a book at a decent pace, it's down to the last legs, you've decided on the good ol' four star rating, it's true that it had some really good parts but ultimately you can't say that it was particularly amazing. And all of the sudden the last part slams into your face, you're knocked sprawling on your ass by the weight of the words spiraling around your head in a merry go round of pure literary power, and you swear the book is whispering 'You know nothing, you snot nosed brat' through its pages of magnificence as the author leaves you far behind.

If you haven't, read this book. If you have, and crave more of the same, see the previous.

Now, what did the Goodreads summary call this book again? 'A terrifying, psychological trip'. Yes, I suppose you could say that. I mean, it is terrifying, it is psychological, and it makes for one hell of a ride. But, you see, those three words strung together convey the sense of otherworldliness, some diabolical satire that's made a nightmare of a reality that's usually pretty good about behaving itself. The problem with that is the fact that this story adheres more closely to reality than most books dare to dream of doing. There's no phantasmagorical twisting of the entire face of reality. This is reality. And it needs no aid in inspiring the most abject of terror.

Arrests of innocents. Hazy procedures. Courts obscured by other courts. Files disappearing into the dark.

"I see," said K., nodding, "these books are probably law books, and it is an essential part of the justice dispensed here that you should be condemned not only in innocence but also in ignorance." "That must be it," said the woman, who had not quite understood him.

Judgment determined by accusation rather than by trial.
"We are only being punished because you accused us; if you hadn't, nothing would have happened, not even if they had discovered what we did. Do you call that justice?
Guilty until proven less guilty. Less guilty via the right connections rather than the right evidence. Innocence with an expiration date. Complaints about any of the previous injustices accelerating the inevitable, and for what? The hope that the future might be better? What difference will that make to you, the individual life currently at stake? The invisible pendulum will still be suspended over the more invisible pit, and your every forthright movement will still be swallowed in the obscurity of the Law, and nothing will result but a building sense of anxiety and despair.

Look at the Law of the past and more importantly the Law of the present, and tell me none of this applies, in the days where banks are 'too big' to be brought to justice and everything from the individual to the government is held hostage from a better tomorrow by the inane struggles of today.

"No," said the priest, "it is not necessary to accept everything as true, one must only accept it as necessary."
History repeats itself.
History repeats itself.
History fucking repeats itself.

Get it? Got it? Good.

Doing something about it is another matter entirely. ...more

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Jul 12, 2009 Ahmad Sharabiani rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-book, german, fiction, literature, 20th-century, novels

701. Der Prozess = The Trial, Franz Kafka

The Trial is a novel written by Franz Kafka between 1914 and 1915 and published posthumously in 1925.

One of his best-known works, it tells the story of a man arrested and prosecuted by a remote, inaccessible authority, with the nature of his crime revealed neither to him nor to the reader. Heavily influenced by Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov, Kafka even went so far as to call Dostoyevsky a blood relative.

Like Kafka's other 701. Der Prozess = The Trial, Franz Kafka

The Trial is a novel written by Franz Kafka between 1914 and 1915 and published posthumously in 1925.

One of his best-known works, it tells the story of a man arrested and prosecuted by a remote, inaccessible authority, with the nature of his crime revealed neither to him nor to the reader. Heavily influenced by Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov, Kafka even went so far as to call Dostoyevsky a blood relative.

Like Kafka's other novels, The Trial was never completed, although it does include a chapter which brings the story to an end.

محاکمه - فرانتس کافکا (نیلوفر، فرخی، نگارستان، ماهی، نیلا، کوله پشتی، ...) تاریخ نخستین خوانش: در سال 1975میلادی

عنوان: محاکمه؛ نویسنده: فرانتس کافکا؛ مترجم: حسینقلی جواهرچی؛ تهران، فرخی، 1353؛ در 216ص؛

عنوان: محاکمه؛ نویسنده: فرانتس کافکا؛ مترجم: امیرجلال الدین اعلم؛ تهران، کتابسرا، 1370، در 342ص؛ تهران، نیلوفر، 1370؛ در 342ص؛ چاپ هفتم 1387؛ چاپ یازدهم 1395؛

عنوان: محاکمه؛ نویسنده: فرانتس کافکا؛ مترجم: منوچهر بیگدلی خمسه؛ تهران، نگارستان کتاب، چاپ دوم 1395؛ در 314ص؛

عنوان: محاکمه؛ نویسنده: فرانتس کافکا؛ مترجم: علی اصغر حداد؛ تهران، ماهی، 1388؛ در 271ص؛ چاپ ششم 1393؛ شابک 9789649971544؛

مترجمهای دیگری که محاکمه را ترجمه کرده اند: خانمها و آقایان «حمید احیاء تهران، نیلا، 1392، در 100ص؛ شابک: 9786001221026»؛ «سارا رحیمی، تهران، قاصدک صبا، 1389، در 283ص؛ شابک 9786005675016»؛ «محمد رمضانی؛ تهران، کوله پشتی، 1391، در 310ص؛ شابک 9786006687087»؛ «کامل روزدار، تهران، اشاره، 1395؛ در 504ص؛ شابک 9789648936902»؛

رمانی ناتمام از «فرانتس کافکا» ست، که نخستین بار در سال 1925میلادی، چاپ شد؛ از مشهورترین آثار ایشانست؛ داستان مردیکه، به دست حاکمی خارج از صحنه، و دور از دسترس، به جرمی که ماهیت جرم، در طی داستان نیز برای خوانشگر، مشخص نمی‌شود، دستگیر و مجازات می‌شود.؛ همانند سایر آثار «کافکا»، محاکمه هم کامل نشد، اگرچه فصلی دارد، که در آن، داستان به سرانجام هم می‌رسد.؛ پس از درگذشت «کافکا»، دوست و فعال ادبی اش «ماکس برود»، نوشته‌ ها را برای چاپ آماده کردند؛ برای دانستن اینکه چه کسانی به جای «ک» تصمیم میگیرند، و سرانجام چه میشود بهتر است کتاب را خود بخوانید.؛

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 30/05/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی ...more

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Jun 09, 2017 Vit Babenco rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Guilt and innocence: Who can be considered innocent and who can be considered guilty?

After all, K. lived in a state governed by law, there was universal peace, all statutes were in force; who dared assault him in his own lodgings?

The state is an ogre… The citizen is a pygmy… And an ogre can do with a pygmy whatever it wishes… But ogres prefer to eat pygmies and for appearance’s sake they use law… And to apply law there are courts and bureaucracy.

The gradations and ranks of the court are infinite

...more

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Apr 13, 2015 Sean Barrs rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 4-star-reads, modernist-movement, mystery-crime-and-thrillers

This book haunts me. I can’t stop thinking about it because I have questions, questions and more questions; I have so many unanswered questions that I will never know the answer to, and it’s slowly killing me!

What is the trial? Is K actually guilty or is he innocent? Is this novel a nightmare sequence or a paranormal encountering? Why are so many characters never heard from again? And who is that mysterious figure at the end of the novel that witnesses K's fate? There are just so many questions, ...more

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Aug 17, 2012 Lynn Beyrouthy rated it did not like it

WHAT IS THIS SHIT.

I have read many reviews and saw that I belong to the minority who just didn’t like or get this book.

Like the author, I am going to leave The Trial unfinished and surrender to the fact that, unfortunately, Franz Kafka’s writing is way too bizarre, inane and unrealistic for my tastes.

The protagonist, a pretentious banker named Josef K. woke up one morning to find two strangers in his room who told him he was under arrest. The reason for his conviction is never revealed and even WHAT IS THIS SHIT.

I have read many reviews and saw that I belong to the minority who just didn’t like or get this book.

Like the author, I am going to leave The Trial unfinished and surrender to the fact that, unfortunately, Franz Kafka’s writing is way too bizarre, inane and unrealistic for my tastes.

The protagonist, a pretentious banker named Josef K. woke up one morning to find two strangers in his room who told him he was under arrest. The reason for his conviction is never revealed and even the officers who came to deliver the news are uniformed.
In the next chapters, we follow K. in a series of encounters that are ground for meaningless and empty discussions with various characters that seldom reappear throughout the story and don’t seem to have an efficient role in the progress of the narrative.
K’s so-called quest to seek answers and vindicate his name turn out to be futile as he never musters enough courage or audacity to extract definite answers and instead, allows his complacency to let him act in a way that harms him more than it helps him in his case.
(I especially loved how almost every female character seem to want him, which feeds his arrogance all the more)

For a year, Josef K awaits a trial that never happens; he’s never told the reason behind his criminal charge and the ultimate zenith of befuddlement comes with K’s death that is also underdone in mystifying circumstances. Nothing is explained or elucidated and yet people seem to abundantly laud Kafka for an unfinished, miserable excuse for a novel which the author himself wanted to be burned posthumously.

It really saddens me ‘cause after hearing copious praise for Kafka, the anticipation upon starting this novel was great and I was eager to be acquainted with his “genius”, but my high expectations were annihilated by an immense disappointment.

The Trial is among the most disturbing books I’ve laid eyes on to this day. It was an excruciating experience from which my brain cells are still suffering aftershocks. The atmosphere of the novel was so odd and gruesome; the rooms with low ceilings and stuffy, fetid offices made me feel like I’m having a bizarre nightmare. (Well, at least it’s better than his other unfinished book about a man metamorphosed into an insect).

Kafka intentionally delineated an inhuman world inflicted with the depravity of the law (which is ironic because Kafka was a lawyer himself). And when you finally finish this story of 200ish pages (but you feel like it’s 2000, I don’t know how Kafka managed to do that), you’re supposed to be in a state of awe ‘cause it’s so fucking deep and philosophical, aiming to depict life and the big fat interrogation point behind our existence and its purpose.

Well. That was a waste of time. Max Brod should’ve listened to Kafka and set fire to his manuscripts. There, I said it.
...more

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May 12, 2020 Greta rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, best-reviews

Arrested and executed without knowing why

"The Trial" is my favorite Kafka novel, written in 1915. It tells the story of Josef K., a man arrested and prosecuted, with the nature of his crime revealed neither to him nor to the reader, leading to an intentionally abrupt execution. It is horrifying uncertainty, anxiety and powerlessness put into words.

“Someone must have slandered Josef K., for one morning, without having done anything truly wrong, he was arrested.”

Franz Kafka

Justice vs. The Law

J ...more

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Jan 11, 2018 Kevin Ansbro rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: gentle-humour, literature-for-grown-ups, years-ahead-of-its-time, human-cruelty, human-psyche, modern-fable, morality, parable, recommended-by-cecily

"A mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it isn’t open."
—Franz Kafka

Someone must have been telling lies about Josef K., he knew he had done nothing wrong but, one morning, he was arrested.
This famous opening line becomes yet more intriguing as it pitches us directly into a scene whereby the first two protagonists are granted a degree of anonymity by the author, as he seeks to lure us into his philosophical daydream.
K is clearly under house arrest, but his perplexing captors aren’t at ...more

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Dec 20, 2008 Manny rated it really liked it

Shelves: parody-homage, well-i-think-its-funny, story-review, pooh-dante, too-sexy-for-maiden-aunts

The tortured bureaucratic world described in The Trial always strikes me as startlingly modern. I wondered

How The Trial might have started if Kafka had been an academic writing in 2010

K's latest conference paper had been rejected, and now he sat in front of his laptop and read through the referees' comments. One of them, evidently not a native speaker of English, had sent a page of well-meaning advice, though K was unsure whether he understood his recommendations. The second referee had only wri ...more

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Sep 15, 2013 Perry rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: libri-classici, credshelf

A Crazy Train
All Aboard!

No novel comes close to this one in the intensely nightmarish portrayal of the type of dark "justice" of dictatorial governments, particularly those that came to power after its 1925 publication.

THE TRIAL, also like no other, gives the reader a special, and by all means necessary, appreciation for the criminal justice system and the fundamental rights of life and liberty that we take for granted in a democracy.

Imagine: you are charged with a crime, but no one will ...more

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Oct 06, 2018 Lisa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 1001-books-to-read-before-you-die

Such is life that some people are convicted of nonexistent crimes while others are elevated to brilliant careers despite evident character deficiencies.

Who but Kafka can show the absurdity of "justice" in a world where power trumps reason, and political strength trumps fairness?

Is it only me turning paranoid, or does Kafka become more and more "realistic", as our world turns more and more "kafkaesque"?

Maybe the Non-Nobel Prize in Literature this year could go posthumously to all those dystopia ...more

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Jun 22, 2012 Henry Avila rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Josef K. (just his initial is revealed), a banker in the beautiful city of Prague, now the capital of the Czech Republic, during the last days of the crumbling Austro- Hungarian Empire, before World War 1, such a man at the young age of thirty, to be in charge of a large bank's finances, yet he lives in a boarding house of Frau Grabach, why a successful person does, is a mystery. Maybe he likes the attractive women there, especially Fraulein Burstner, Josef is a bit of a wolf, then out of the sk Josef K. (just his initial is revealed), a banker in the beautiful city of Prague, now the capital of the Czech Republic, during the last days of the crumbling Austro- Hungarian Empire, before World War 1, such a man at the young age of thirty, to be in charge of a large bank's finances, yet he lives in a boarding house of Frau Grabach, why a successful person does, is a mystery. Maybe he likes the attractive women there, especially Fraulein Burstner, Josef is a bit of a wolf, then out of the sky, two men come to his room and arrest him, the arrogant guards even eat his breakfast, and try to take his good clothes too, the charge, they don't say or know or care! K. is shocked to the bone, but permitted to continue his ordinary work routine, a Twilight Zonish situation develops, K. ordered to see an examining magistrate and goes to an old apartment building, in a poor, shabby suburb of the city, finally after asking directions, Josef arrives on the fifth floor, late and finding the filthy hall full of people of various kinds, all of them look at Josef, as the main attraction there . The uncaring judge thinks he's a house painter, when K. informs him that he's the chief financial officer of a bank, the crowd has a big, long laugh, how can Josef take his trial seriously? The angry magistrate is powerless to control the boisterous gathering, and after many more such meetings , in rooms with dirty air, which makes the defendant quite sick, Josef in one place, is carried out of the building, to get fresh air, to resuscitate him. Days and weeks pass, Uncle Karl, from the country visits K. the concerned uncle, has heard of his nephew's troubles, and takes him to an old lawyer friend, Dr. Huld, the lawyer has lots of contacts but Huld is a very sick, old man, K. doesn't trust him either or anybody else. Other men he sees for aid, a painter, merchant, manufacturer and a priest, as his final hope, but nothing can get him off, his unknown perilous path, his darkness increases steadily. A nightmarish life hits hard the accused , and still no one tells him what crime was committed! The helpless banker feels the power of the State's Bureaucracy and his work at the bank suffers, as a consequence, substantially, it matter not that K. is innocent, no one asks him if he is guilty! Will this bad, horrendous dream ever end? The limited rights that any man has against an omniscient , totalitarian government, is shown in this remarkable novel. ...more

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Feb 08, 2016 MJ Nicholls rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: penguin-classics, novels, eastern-europe

Somebody must have made a false accusation against me, for I was accused of not having read The Trial without having even raised the topic. I fixed up a brew, poked in a madeleine, and summoned up the liars of recall. I recalled my sixteen-year-old self, in his bedroom in his backwater home town, feasting on Vonnegut, Poe, and Kafka one miserable summer . . . then the liars spoke to me: “Are you merely inserting Kafka’s The Trial as a book you ought to have read during that summer of pain, when ...more

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Aug 02, 2018 Fergus rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

If, like me, you walk a plainly spiritual path, the world is probably none too friendly toward you.

That’s understandable. And I think you should also know that should you plainly persist in it, you’ll probably be Put on Trial. Figuratively speaking.

Welcome to the Absurd.

But there’s also an UP side to that.

I think that anyone who has lived a highly idiosyncratic life, like Franz Kafka and my own totally colossally unsuperstar self, has in time developed a larger ideological container for their ...more

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Jan 27, 2018 Samra Yusuf rated it really liked it

Shelves: translated

I vividly remember asking my mother at quite earlier in my years, from where do we get babies, did you buy me from god? The corners of her eyes crinkled, she was reddened deep in effort to try not to burst in her husky laughter, I remember her asking me back with her flushed face, and what do you be doing with answer? I said quite prudently and emphatically, I want to have some. I don’t know where the tail of this baby-talk ended, but I didn’t manage to have any, to this date, albeit being conve
I vividly remember asking my mother at quite earlier in my years, from where do we get babies, did you buy me from god? The corners of her eyes crinkled, she was reddened deep in effort to try not to burst in her husky laughter, I remember her asking me back with her flushed face, and what do you be doing with answer? I said quite prudently and emphatically, I want to have some. I don’t know where the tail of this baby-talk ended, but I didn’t manage to have any, to this date, albeit being conversant of the source. And the core of Kafka’s trial lays in this state of unknowingness whetted by the utter frustration to know. Joseph K is not so much mad at being held house arrested, he merely is surprised by the two agents seeming in his apartment at the first ray of sun, he is little bothered at the mention of ‘trial’. All his focus is on keep claiming himself ‘innocent’, this insistence is of no use as the priest says: "But that is how the guilty speak"
So, to claim himself innocent is a proof enough of his guilt, then where he stands in the case? He is at defeat at the very start, as never will he see his accusers nor will come to learn what he is accused of, and ironically, he never stands at a trial, there simply isn’t any, Joseph is trapped in faceless fate that strikes him from behind the dark, he has no Judge in view who judges him, and on what basis, no court to plea, and evidently no Laws to speak of (or prudent lawyers for that matter) I’d cease myself belittling the focus of it’s existential angst and absurdity of life by tagging it an “allegory to original sin “The Trial speaks of and about, every single being entombed in the totalitarian coop of so-called convictions and their representative faceless deities, Story and characterization are not the meat here, Kafka can be pardoned on that account, as the plot droll you at times as their aren’t any active actions ,painstaking effort’s made on tiniest of details, to make the impression vibrant, but the picture as a whole is hopelessly blurred; thus even the reader is left frustrated, and each of us will be prone to understand this trial as per our own perception.
And as for Joseph, he was ignorant of the parable narrated by priest, gullible enough to entertain hope and naïve enough to prostrate before a faceless savior, as he lays dying “like a dog” and we don’t sense any empathy, we simply condemn him for his belief in law, and his pointless life led into a horrendous death in pursuit of salvation, as there’s nothing beyond death!

...more

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Jun 20, 2012 Dan Schwent rated it really liked it

Shelves: oldies, 2014

On his thirtieth birthday, bank employee Josef K. is arrested for an unknown crime and prosecuted on certain Sundays by an unknown agency.

Yeah, that's a pretty vague teaser but how else do you drag someone into The Trial?

On the surface, The Trial is an absurd legal drama that nicely illustrates how inept bureaucracy can be. However, my little gray cells tell me that's just the tip of the iceberg. The Trial seems to be about how incomprehensible and absurd life can be at times. I don't think it's ...more

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Mar 06, 2012 Ŧi̾l̷͖̀ rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: dystopia, classics

First, a quick summary of this horrible, horrible novel. Some jackass gets arrested, he does things you would not do, sees people you would not see and has thoughts you would not have. After that, a priest and a parable then, mercifully, the end.

Now my thoughts. K. is a pompous ass with a very important job - to him. The bureaucrats are the best part of the whole story, all job description, no brains (like now!). K's uncle, lawyer and landlady are very forgettable. Fräulein Bürstner is intriguin ...more

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Apr 01, 2011 Kinga rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: pub-1925

Kafka's Trial is one of those books that are always present in cultural sphere and referenced ad nauseum. Despite never having read Kafka before I am quite sure I used the word 'Kafkaesque' on many occasions and maintained a semi-eloquent conversation about 'The Trial'.
I could've probably done without ever reading it but recently I resolved to take my literary pursuits seriously and since books seem to be the only thing in this world I truly care for I might as well take it to another level.

'The Kafka's Trial is one of those books that are always present in cultural sphere and referenced ad nauseum. Despite never having read Kafka before I am quite sure I used the word 'Kafkaesque' on many occasions and maintained a semi-eloquent conversation about 'The Trial'.
I could've probably done without ever reading it but recently I resolved to take my literary pursuits seriously and since books seem to be the only thing in this world I truly care for I might as well take it to another level.

'The Trial' does not have any plot to speak of and character development is non-existent. There aren't actually any characters that take any human shape. There is no conflict or resolution and the only epiphany is the one you might or might not have at the end of it. Truth be told, 'The Trial' is nothing but an allegory.

An allegory of what is up to you to decide. I think I interpret it on the most universal level and see The Trial as a symbol of human existence. We don't know why we are here, how it is going to end and even what the rules of the game are. Yet, we take this frustrating journey trying to make sense of it, comforted by little meaningless bogus victories that fool us into believing some progress has been made. We long ago learnt that the 'actual acquittal' is unattainable but we refuse to give up.

This is how I see it. However, many literary critics and other smart people see it differently and that is their prerogative.

There is, for example, a quite interesting theory that 'The Trial' was born as an inmediate result of the break-up of Kafka's engagement to Felice Bauer. Felice Bauer was, one might say, an uncomplicated woman. She was Kafka's muse and his anchor in the reality. Kafka needed her to write and to stay sane. What Felice got out of the affair is unclear as her letters didn't survive. No doubt, it must have been frustrating as Kafka's idea of love was definitely not a healthy one. Their relationship consituted mostly of letters and occasional meetings which made Kafka the happiest just after they were over. He did finally propose to Felice but emphasized he would be a rather rubbish husband as he was simply not cut out for family life. And so it went on. If anyone felt like they were on an endless, incomprehensible trial, it was, in my opinion, Felice. But, of course, Franz maintains it was him - because finally Felice's friends and relatives decided to put an end to it, called Kafka in, forced him to knock it off and leave the poor girl alone. That meeting/interrogation was his 'trial'.

Now, I don't want to entertain this theory because if it is true, I would have to reduce the rating for 'Trial' to some 2-3 stars and put it on my 'brats' shelf I have for selfish, woe-is-me individuals acting like brats.

I prefer to stick to the human-existence allegory which I find quite moving in its Weltschmertz way.

If you are interested in further reading on the subject, check John Banville's article about Kafka's Trial and his affair with Fraulein Bauer here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/...

You can also find fictionalised (by Francine Prose) letter from Felice Bauer to Kafka in this collection of invented love letters : Four Letter Word: Invented Correspondence from the Edge of Modern Romance. The letter is written by Felice long after Kafka's death and basically asserts that Kafka was a dick. ...more

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Apr 10, 2018 J.L. Sutton rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Reading Franz Kafka's The Trial is a frustrating experience, but that's at least partially the point. Our protagonist, Josef K is arrested, but neither he nor the reader know why he's been arrested. The remaining narrative is a sort of judgment on all the decisions he's made. Although he is 'free' for most of the novel, K's trial consumes all his time, and he is locked in a course of events over which he has little or no control.

How are we to judge K's trial? Indeed, K's entire ordeal is imposs ...more

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Oct 07, 2011 Joselito Honestly and Brilliantly rated it really liked it

Look at Joseph K., a bank officer living in a country with a constitution. He wakes up one day with strange men in his apartment telling him he's under arrest. Why or for what offense, no one knows. The arresting officers themselves don't know and can't tell him. Even if he's under arrest, however, no one picks him up or locks him in jail. He can still go to his office, work, perform his customary daily chores, and do whatever he wants to do as he awaits his trial. But he is understandably anxio Look at Joseph K., a bank officer living in a country with a constitution. He wakes up one day with strange men in his apartment telling him he's under arrest. Why or for what offense, no one knows. The arresting officers themselves don't know and can't tell him. Even if he's under arrest, however, no one picks him up or locks him in jail. He can still go to his office, work, perform his customary daily chores, and do whatever he wants to do as he awaits his trial. But he is understandably anxious and worried. He is, after all, charged with an unknown but very grave offense. He has a criminal case. He is an accused. He is under arrest.

For this problem he consults so many. He gets a lawyer. His uncle comes to his aid. He talks with his lawyer's other client--also charged and under arrest like him. He consults other people, a painter (who is said to know the "Court"), some women, a priest, etc. about his case. But no one can tell him what the charge is and what his sentence will be. The "Examining Magistrate," the "Judges," the "Court," the proceedings/ trial, and even the "Law" itself--they all seem to be unsolvable enigmas.

Now, look at yourself. You were born or made to exist without your consent. You live, you do whatever comes to your mind worth doing, you marry or stay single, maybe you've married already and are raising a family, you may be living a life of fame or anonymity, amassing riches or just getting by, happy or sad. But the whys and wherefores of all these, why you're here in the first place, why you're doing whatever it is you're doing, if you have a purpose or was just an accident, if you will outlive your physical death, see God or see darkness, witness corrective justice for all the wrongs you've witnessed or heard about--all these you do not know and never will know. Sometimes you'd think, with all these uncertainties and frightful unknowns it would have been better that you did not exist at all. But you had no choice. You're condemned to this life and had been charged. You can't "not exist" and escape. You are under arrest.

So you seek help. You'll try religion, common sense, reason, study the affairs of men, look back in history, see what the living and dead prophets and philosophers have to say, pray to God and his saints, ask Oprah, google your questions, but all these offer no certitude. Then, you will still die, and you would die bewildered and afraid and, like the death of Joseph K. himself in this novel, your death will be no different from that of a dog--

"...Then one of them opened his frock coat and out of a sheath that hung from a belt girt round his waistcoat drew a long, thin, double-edged butcher's knife, held it up, and tested the cutting edges in the moonlight. Once more the odious courtesies began, the first handed the knife across K. to the second, who handed it across K. back again to the first. K. now perceived clearly that he was supposed to seize the knife himself, as it traveled from hand to hand above him, and plunge it into his own breast. But he did not do so, he merely turned his head, which was still free to move, and gazed around him. He could not completely rise to the occasion, he could not relieve the officials of all their tasks; the responsibility for this last failure of his lay with him who had not left him the remnant of strength necessary for the deed. His glance fell on the top story of the house adjoining the quarry. With a flicker as of a light going up, the casements of a window there suddenly flew open; a human figure, faint and insubstantial at that distance and that height, leaned abruptly far forward and stretched both arms still farther. Who was it? A friend? A good man? Someone who sympathized? Someone who wanted to help? Was it one person only? Or was it mankind? Was help at hand? Were there arguments in his favor that had been overlooked? Of course there must be. Logic is doubtless unshakable, bit it cannot withstand a man who wants to go on living. Where was the Judge whom he had never seen? Where was the High Court, to which he had never penetrated? He raised his hands and spread out all his fingers.

"But the hands of one of the partners were already at K.'s throat, while the other thrust the knife deep into his heart and turned it there twice. With failing eyes K. could still see the two of them immediately before him, cheek leaning against cheek, watching the final act. 'Like a dog!' he said; it was as if the shame of it must outlive him."

A must read for the insanely delirious ones: those who live without thinking and therefore unaware that they, too, are indicted and are under arrest. ...more

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Aug 15, 2019 Calista rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 1900-1929, genre-fantasy, wordsmith, bage-mature, award-various, classic, groundbreaking, genre-drama-tragedy

I will be honest here and say that this went over my head.

I'm not sure why, but I had a hard time getting into the story and understanding what was really going on. I fell like I was a little dazed reading this.

I think I really enjoy reading books like this where there is a lot of metaphor that isn't really explained in a group setting with people who sorta get stuff like this. I enjoy the conversation and then beginning to understand the text more. It's less fun by myself. I have been over-stim ...more

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Feb 16, 2013 Ian "Marvin" Graye rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: reviews-5-stars, re-read, read-2015, kafka, reviews

Who Dared Seize Him?

Ever since first reading this novel in school, I've assumed the word "Kafkaesque" described an aspect of society analogous to living under a totalitarian state.

For much of this thoroughly enjoyable re-read, I persisted with this view.

However, when Joseph K. is arrested with no apparent justification, he is more surprised than an inhabitant of a fascist state. He asks:

"Who could these men be? What were they talking about? What authority could they represent? K. lived in a coun ...more

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Jun 01, 2018 Dave Schaafsma rated it it was amazing

Shelves: best-books-ever, fiction-20th-century

“It is not necessary to accept everything as true, one must only accept it as necessary.”

“A melancholy conclusion,” said K. “It turns lying into a universal principle.”

I reread The Trial and will reread “The Metamorphosis” in order to better read Kafka’s Letters to Milena, which I had only begun. I have long said this is one of the great works of literature, and I still think so, but I could also see how the tedious nature of K’s proceedings could translate into the tedium of reading for some r “It is not necessary to accept everything as true, one must only accept it as necessary.”

“A melancholy conclusion,” said K. “It turns lying into a universal principle.”

I reread The Trial and will reread “The Metamorphosis” in order to better read Kafka’s Letters to Milena, which I had only begun. I have long said this is one of the great works of literature, and I still think so, but I could also see how the tedious nature of K’s proceedings could translate into the tedium of reading for some readers, but the growing effect for me is of a nightmare, one that many can relate to on many levels. The basic story is simple and especially given the time it was published, 1925, though still today, strange: On his thirtieth birthday, the chief cashier of a bank, Josef K., is unexpectedly arrested by two unidentified agents from an unspecified agency for an unspecified crime. We proceed without ever knowing what the crime is that K supposedly committed, and what unravels is a labyrinthine nightmare, often surrealistic, sometimes comic, ultimately terrifying.

“But I’m not guilty,” said K. “There’s been a mistake. How is it even possible for someone to be guilty? We’re all human beings here, one like the other.” “That is true,” said the priest, “but that is how the guilty speak.”

Interpretations of The Trial seem to occupy one (or more) of five basic camps; autobiographical (Kafka worked as an insurance lawyer and certainly understood the almost indecipherable bureaucracy of that industry in general and insurance documents in particular); political (re: Austria-Hungary social tensions of 1914 when Kafka wrote it, and prefiguring the seemingly insane logic of fascist Nazi Germany); religious (Kafka was Jewish; some of the debates seem to echo Jewish theological debates; also, is there really meaning in life, or is life just absurd? Are God’s purposes ever knowable?); psychoanalytic (is K paranoid, going insane? and sociological (are we the victims of bureaucracy? Do many people really possess civil rights, or is this a myth?).

“It is an essential part of the justice dispensed here that you should be condemned not only in innocence but also in ignorance.”

I have a tendency to say yes, all of the above, about what this book “means,” because everything fits. And why read it today? Is there a rise in authoritarianism? Are we seeing a rise in fascism globally? Is this a dystopian book such as 1984? Sounds heavy, yes? And another aspect of this book is the fact that it has this Freudian sexual charge to it, with women close to Kafka obsessed with him, and/or he with them. Adding that layer to this book makes it seem extra crazy. Sometimes funny.

In many places the book seems very funny, actually; I seem to recall that Kafka, reading sections of it aloud to friends, was convulsed with laughter. It feels on the one hand tragic, a political or legal nightmare, and yet in some places it seems like dark comedy, like a Marx Brothers movie. In one place, for instance, judges read porn magazines rather than legal texts.

“It’s only because of their stupidity that they’re able to be so sure of themselves.”

Maybe one sign of a great book is that it can mean so many different things to many people. If that’s the case, this is a great book. It certainly changed my view of the world when I first read it and it has always seemed to me to speak to modern/contemporary existential and social human conditions.

PS: I just attended the 2018 CAKE (Chicago Alternative Komix Exposition) and met Landis Blair, who published this Kafka Trial Choose Your Own Adventure book, which is not yet listed on Goodreads:

http://www.landisblair.com/store/the-...
...more

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Jan 13, 2012 Kaph rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: school-made-me, g1000-scifi-and-fantasy, 1000-books

Verdict: A tome of existentialist tripe so bleak and pointless there isn’t even a trial.

There comes a point in the evolution all art; visual, literary, musical, wherein those who create it eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and become too self aware. ‘Look at this medium,’ they proclaim. ‘We have been following rules, society imposed rules limiting what our work can be, limiting what *we* can be!’ It shines suddenly and clearly before them, conventions that were never questioned are Verdict: A tome of existentialist tripe so bleak and pointless there isn’t even a trial.

There comes a point in the evolution all art; visual, literary, musical, wherein those who create it eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and become too self aware. ‘Look at this medium,’ they proclaim. ‘We have been following rules, society imposed rules limiting what our work can be, limiting what *we* can be!’ It shines suddenly and clearly before them, conventions that were never questioned are suddenly dissolved, exploded. The artist is then free to write, to draw, to compose with a clear head and a fresh soul. It is this Übermensch moment that led Duchamp to graffiti an upturned urinal and display it in the Academy. It is what led to the design of the Barbican. It is what led Kafka to write The Trial. It is a horrible, horrible moment.

I won’t mince words; I loathe this book. It manages to be all the worst parts of self-indulgent, self-effacing, ponderous and pointless. It is a hateful book. This too was forced upon by the Texas Independent School District as part of their on-going campaign to Stop Kids Reading. Up until then I had read only decent books and it was a shock to realize any crap could be a classic as long the author was foreign and the subject was avant garde. The Trial isn’t so much a story as a needlessly complicated suicide note.

A man is informed he is on trial, but not for what. Throughout the chapters he is gradually (and by his own stupid volition) separated from his friends and family. Each chapter he meets a set of unsettling people and they talk mildly depressing gibberish before disappearing from the story forever. At the end, the main character ends up in some sort of newly surreal, inexplicable and unexplained hall of light where he dies in a similar fashion. I’d call that a spoiler but there was never really another way for this book to go. There is no trial. That, more than anything really pissed me off.

Nothing occurs in this book. It’s just a collage of conversations Franz has had with the nihilistic voices in his head. They should have been put down in a diary and read by a reputable psychoanalyst, not published in 37 languages and crammed down the maw of 16 year olds. God is dead. Choice is an illusion. Reason and logic are comforting lies we tell ourselves and death is the only certainty. This is nothing we hadn’t heard before from My Chemical Romance so why our teachers thought we needed additional reasons to cut ourselves and go overboard on eye-makeup I’ll never know. Existentialism is and forever will be a dirty word to me and The Trial gets a 1.

#26
Title The Trial by Franz Kafka
When Autumn 2002
Why Read for sophomore English
Rating 1 ...more

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Sep 23, 2011 Nandakishore Varma rated it really liked it

Shelves: classic, literature

I have been terminated from my job here in the Middle East and is currently in the process of relocating to India. It's a somewhat nightmarish scenario, uprooting oneself after ten years; that too, unexpectedly. So I am plagued by disturbing dreams in the night where I am caught in situations without escape (forgetting luggage at the airport, searching for house in a country whose language is unknown to you, etc.). This is pretty much common for me and these dreams will disappear once I am past ...more

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May 24, 2014 Czarny Pies rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: Lovers of Great Literature

Recommended to Czarny by: In the 1960s there was talk of nothing except Kafka.

Shelves: german-lit

Franz Kafka's Trial is one of the basic works of Twentieth Century literature that everyone should read. It stands the paradigm of the Whodunit on its head. We know from the first chapter that the hero K is the guilty person. We spend the rest of the novel trying to find out what on earth his crime was.

The Trial asks the big questions in a startling manner. Man has created a cruel and indifferent society ruled by an absurd bureaucracy. Has God also created an absurd world?

At the end of the book ...more

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Jan 16, 2018 Gabrielle rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mandatory-reading, reviewed, classics, read-in-2018, own-a-copy, penguin-modern-classics

I was sitting in my office’s kitchenette, reading this book while stuffing sushi in my mouth. A colleague of mine walked by and asked me what the book was about, so I told him “It’s about a guy who gets arrested for an unspecified crime he doesn’t know he committed, and tries to untangle the bureaucratic net he’s been caught in.” My colleague asked me if it was inspired by real events. I predictably replied: “Sure, it was inspired by what it’s like to work here.” As you may guess, I am my office I was sitting in my office’s kitchenette, reading this book while stuffing sushi in my mouth. A colleague of mine walked by and asked me what the book was about, so I told him “It’s about a guy who gets arrested for an unspecified crime he doesn’t know he committed, and tries to untangle the bureaucratic net he’s been caught in.” My colleague asked me if it was inspired by real events. I predictably replied: “Sure, it was inspired by what it’s like to work here.” As you may guess, I am my office’s joker.

Anyone who has ever worked in a large corporation is probably vaguely familiar with the headspace that the unfortunate protagonist of “The Trial”, Joseph K., finds himself in: everything is complicated, everyone is working on it, but at the same time, nothing seems to get done, the information is always insufficient or not filed according to procedure… At the end of that day, you feel like you have worked so hard and somehow, nothing is really resolved and you wonder why you spend so much physical, emotional and intellectual energy on this thing… Kafka wrote this novel almost a hundred years ago and yet this weird dysfunctional grind could not sound more contemporary.

As I was reading « The Trial », it was impossible for me not to visualize the events as if they were taking place in a Wes Anderson movie. Something about the general absurdity, the almost caricatural descriptions of the various characters, and that formal but un-hinged tone just brought that visual style to my mind. Certainly, the subject matter is not funny in and of itself: bureaucracy is a fascinating and horrifying machine that does its best to crush the human spirit in its cogs, but there is definitely a point at which the only sane reaction is to laugh.

My husband and I are currently waiting for his permanent residency application to be finalized by the Canadian government, and the convoluted, inexplicable and often arbitrary sounding procedures the poor K. must follow was an interesting reminder of the various hoops we have had to jump through in the past year. It was all a pain in the ass, but now we mostly just look back on it laughing, and congratulating ourselves we survived the process.

I’ve read many theories that address the metaphors to be found in “The Trial” and while I think they are fun to think about (the German word for trial is the same word they would use for “process”, so maybe the book is about an internal psychological process; the arrest is on the morning of K.’s thirtieth birthday, so maybe this is about the endless complications of adulthood; life is just a series of senseless trials and tribulations… I could go on, but you get the idea), I also didn’t enjoy the experience of reading this book enough to indulge in them too much. It was a fast and easy read, and while I am aware that it meandered and droned on completely deliberately, to put the reader in K.’s head, I was glad to get it over with. I still think it belongs on my “mandatory reads” shelf, if only because this book is so seminal, and referred to ad nauseum in both literature and pop culture: you need to read this so you can be obnoxiously accurate when you declare that something is Kafkaesque. ...more

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Jun 22, 2011 Jan-Maat added it · review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-century, czechs-bohemians-moravians-slovaks, kafka, novel, ex-hapsburg-lands

Let me pull up a chair, if you are offering, I'll have a beer, no, well water will be fine, from the tap, oh a bottle, perhaps you could spare me a slice of lemon then ?

I had an idea to re-read the trial both in translation and the original and then write a double review, contrasting the two and seeing if subtly or substantively Kafka's story became somebody else's in the course of crossing the linguistic border. The first time I read it in German it was a revelation, as turning to the original ...more

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May 30, 2008 Cecily rated it it was amazing

Shelves: classics, favourites, kafka-and-kafkaesque

Quintissential Kafka, apparently prompted by an unexpected interrogation in a Berlin hotel room re his intentions re Felice, conducted by her and a couple of friends. Officials of a vague and unspecified court arrest K for an unspecified crime - but he never queries the charge. An endless stream of futile investigations and obscure legal practices ensue. A metaphor for exploring the meaning (or otherwise) of life, the burden of duty, and struggling to find salvation aided by the intercessions of ...more

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What's the Name o...: SOLVED. Adult Dystopian. Man can't leave his house, wakes up & finds guards/ authority outside his door. He's confined for legal reasons but gets ambiguous information when he asks questions. [s]	4	26	Jan 09, 2021 08:39AM
Catching up on Cl...: The Trial - SPOILERS	36	148	Sep 29, 2019 01:07AM
Catching up on Cl...: The Trial - NO spoilers	35	122	Jun 08, 2019 09:00AM
Knights of Academia: Kafka - The Trial	4	13	Jan 19, 2019 08:13AM
Reading 1001: The Trial by Franz Kafka	1	11	Oct 08, 2018 10:17AM

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About Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka

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Franz Kafka 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 Metamorph Franz Kafka 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's first language was German, but he was also fluent in Czech. Later, Kafka acquired some knowledge of the 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. ...more