قصة الدودة الهائلة

by Franz Kafka

Unknown Binding

About the author

Franz Kafka was a German-speaking writer from Prague whose work became one of the foundations of modern literature, even though he published only a small part of his writing during his lifetime. Born into a middle-class Jewish family in Prague, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Kafka grew up amid German, Czech, and Jewish cultural influences that shaped his sense of displacement and linguistic precision. His difficult relationship with his authoritarian father left a lasting mark, fostering feelings of guilt, anxiety, and inadequacy that became central themes in his fiction and personal writings.
Kafka studied law at the German University in Prague, earning a doctorate in 1906. He chose law for practical reasons rather than personal inclination, a compromise that troubled him throughout his life. After university, he worked for several insurance institutions, most notably the Workers Accident Insurance Institute for the Kingdom of Bohemia. His duties included assessing industrial accidents and drafting legal reports, work he carried out competently and responsibly. Nevertheless, Kafka regarded his professional life as an obstacle to his true vocation, and most of his writing was done at night or during periods of illness and leave. Kafka began publishing short prose pieces in his early adulthood, later collected in volumes such as Contemplation and A Country Doctor. These works attracted little attention at the time but already displayed the hallmarks of his mature style, including precise language, emotional restraint, and the application of calm logic to deeply unsettling situations. His major novels The Trial, The Castle, and Amerika were left unfinished and unpublished during his lifetime. They depict protagonists trapped within opaque systems of authority, facing accusations, rules, or hierarchies that remain unexplained and unreachable. Themes of alienation, guilt, bureaucracy, law, and punishment run throughout Kafka’s work. His characters often respond to absurd or terrifying circumstances with obedience or resignation, reflecting his own conflicted relationship with authority and obligation. Kafka’s prose avoids overt symbolism, yet his narratives function as powerful metaphors through structure, repetition, and tone. Ordinary environments gradually become nightmarish without losing their internal coherence. Kafka’s personal life was marked by emotional conflict, chronic self-doubt, and recurring illness. He formed intense but troubled romantic relationships, including engagements that he repeatedly broke off, fearing that marriage would interfere with his writing. His extensive correspondence and diaries reveal a relentless self-critic, deeply concerned with morality, spirituality, and the demands of artistic integrity. In his later years, Kafka’s health deteriorated due to tuberculosis, forcing him to withdraw from work and spend long periods in sanatoriums. Despite his illness, he continued writing when possible. He died young, leaving behind a large body of unpublished manuscripts. Before his death, he instructed his close friend Max Brod to destroy all of his remaining work. Brod ignored this request and instead edited and published Kafka’s novels, stories, and diaries, ensuring his posthumous reputation.
The publication of Kafka’s work after his death established him as one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. The term Kafkaesque entered common usage to describe situations marked by oppressive bureaucracy, absurd logic, and existential anxiety. His writing has been interpreted through existential, religious, psychological, and political perspectives, though Kafka himself resisted definitive meanings. His enduring power lies in his ability to articulate modern anxiety with clarity and restraint.

Reviews

[Mahmoud Aghiorly · Rating 4 out of 5]

مقتطفات من قصة الدودة الهائلة للكاتب فرانز كافكا
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أسباب النجاح و الفشل هي دائما اسباب غامضة
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ثمة شيء خادع في العجائز , ثمة شيء من الخيانة في علاقتهم بمن يصغرونهم في السن , فانت تعيش معهم في سلام و تتخيل انك معهم على اتم وفاق , و انك تعرف الميول التي تحكمهم , و تتلقى التاكيدات المتواصلة بالـألفة , وتأخذ كل شيء على انه مسلم به معهم , و عندما يقع حادث حاسم و يقدر لكل تلك العلاقات المسالمة التي ازدهرت طويلا ان تصل الى موقف جذري , ينتصب هؤلاء العجائز امامك فجأة كالغرباء , و يتكشف لك ان ثمة احكاما اعمق و اقوى كانت لديهم عنك , وانهم يبسطون الان و لاول مرة راياتهم الى النهاية , و في رعب تقرا فيها بنفسك اللائحة الجديدة ويكمن سبب ذلك الرعب اساسا في حقيقة ان ما يقوله العجائز الان يختلف للغاية في الحقيقة معنى و شعورا , عما سبق ان صرحوا به من قبل , ويبدو الامر كما لو ان للتعبير عن الذات درجات متوافتة , وصحيحة كلها , و ان كلماتهم الان تعد اكثر تعبيرا عن الذات منها في اي وقت مضى , الا ان الخدعة النهائية التي تكمن في كلماتهم , انما تتجلى في انهم قد قالوا دائما في اعماقهم نفس ما يقولونه الان !
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عندما يؤمن بنا فلاح جاهل و يجهر بذلك , فانه لن يجدينا فتيلاً , ذلك ان ما قد يقوله الفلاح هو امر لا طائل من ورائه و لو قام عشرة الاف فلاح بدلا من واحد لنصرتنا , فان النتيجة سوف تظل فقط اكثر سوءا , الا ان واحد من رجال الاعمال في المدينة فان الاشياء التي تقولها حتى لو بلا قصد تسمع كما هي و تردد و من ثم يبدأ المحدثون في الاهتمام بالقضية !
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إن ما تعانيه من ظلم ليس اشد وطأة من اي من المظالم الاخرى !
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إن العلماء يتحملون مسؤولية ضخمة امام انفسهم و امام العلم وامام الاجيال القادمة و ليس في وسعهم ان يحتضنوا فورا كل اكتشاف جديد بلا اي تحفظ !
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ان كل اكتشاف جديد يتحول فورا الى اضافة لمجموع المعرفة العامة و على نحو ما - تبعا لهذا - ينتهي باعتباره اكتشافاً , انه يذوب في الكل و يختفي و ينبغي ان تكون للمرء نظرة علمية خبيرة حتى يتسنى له ان يتعرف عليه بعد ذلك , لانه قد يكون قد التحم بالبديهيات الاساسية التي لا نحس حتى بوجودها
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عندما يودع شخص ما شخصاً آخر وداعا اخيراً كما فعلت , فيجب ان يقبل ذلك الوداع بنية صادقة , ويجب - بالفعل - ان تنقضى الرسميات المفتعلة المتبادلة التي تتبقى بعد ذلك سريعة بقدر الامكان , ولا ينبغي ان يثقل المرء على مضيفه دون مبرر بوجوده الصامت !
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[Dr.Abdulwahab Alnaif · Rating 3 out of 5]

رواية تتضمن معاني عديدة تكاد تكون اقرب الى روايات الخيال العلمي منها الى رواية فلسفية وفي نفس الوقت فيها من الفلسفة الكثير

[Ahmad Alkhiary · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5