From the Bookshelf of The Roundtable…

The Castle

Franz Kafka

Start date: December 2, 2015

Finish date: December 31, 2015

Discussion: Novel: A Biography 2015/2018

Why we're reading this: To celebrate the official conclusion of The Novel project, a few of us will be reading The Castle. Franz …more
[close] To celebrate the official conclusion of The Novel project, a few of us will be reading The Castle. Franz Kafka is covered in the final chapter of the book.

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Novel: A Biography 2015/2018

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* The Novel Revisited 2018 Discussion Links
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What Members Thought

Sep 21, 2010 Zadignose added it · review of another edition

Shelves: stuff-to-share, 20th-century

Upon rereading this after maybe one or two decades:

K. is a hero, and we must love him. Sure, at times he is a base, contemptible blunderer, but his audacity and lack of prospects make him infinitely admirable.

It only causes me a little despair and anguish to realize that not all people agree with my assessment of this brilliant book.

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The remainder of this review will be an oddly compiled salad of excerpts from my comments on this book in a recent discussion. They have been cut, pas ...more

22 likes · Like · see review

Oct 06, 2025 Heather(Gibby) rated it liked it

I had a love-hate relationship with this novel. It started out well enough, a young land surveyor has been summoned to the Castle for employment-but finds it is impossible to actually get their. All his attempts at asking, following, begging etc go unheeded. The towns people seem quite disturbed by the strangers presence, it is amusing to read about in the beginning. However as the novel progresses, it just became tedious for me, and the side stories, and love interests, just became things I nee ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Dec 16, 2015 Wendy rated it liked it

Shelves: in-translation, 1001-books, classics, blooms-western-canon

Reading The Castle is an interesting glimpse into Kafka's writing process. He abandoned it, and I admit that in the second half (where things take a turn for the stream-of-consciousness) it became apparent where he was forcing himself onward on nothing but steam and sheer force of will. (If you've ever taken part in November Novel Writing Month, you may have experienced something similar. I have, and I, too, upon reading my 50K lines on December 1st, promptly trunked it for good. Not all ideas c ...more

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Nov 24, 2015 Gill marked it as unfinished

I really wanted to like this book. I enjoyed and was fascinated by the first chapter, and was interested in the second. By the time I finished chapter 7, I'd had enough. It was not as atmospheric as The Trial, which I read recently. The absurdities reminded me of Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass. I'm feeling that I missed the point of what is a famous book, but it just didn't do it for me. ...more

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Dec 16, 2016 Pamela rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: guardian-1000-read, boxall-1001-read

If Kafka had lived to finish and to edit this book, I may well have given it five stars. The frustrations of K and the absurd situation of his unending quest to get away from the village and have contact with the occupants of the Castle, are engrossing. I enjoyed the bizarre and contradictory behaviour of character such as the assistants, Frieda, the schoolmaster and the landlords. The Castle is always that elusive goal, never clearly defined, and progress towards it is obstructed by villagers a ...more

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