A Hunger Artist & Other Stories (Oxford World's Classics)
Franz Kafka
Language: English
Pages: 272
ISBN: 0199600929
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Kafka published two collections of short stories in his lifetime, A Country Doctor: Little Tales (1919) and A Hunger Artist: Four Stories (1924). Both collections are included in their entirety in this edition, which also contains other uncollected stories and a selection of posthumously published works that have become part of the Kafka canon. Enigmatic, satirical, often bleakly humorous, these stories approach human experience at a tangent: a singing mouse, an ape, an inquisitive dog, and a paranoid burrowing creature are among the protagonists, as well as the professional hunger artist. The tales are among Kafka's best-known, haunting and compelling satires on the human condition, on art and artists, and on life itself, which complement his major fictions. Translated by the award-winning Joyce Crick, the book includes an invaluable introduction, notes, and other editorial material by renowned Kafka scholar Ritchie Robertson. There is also a Biographical Preface, an up-to-date bibliography, and a chronology of Kafka's life. This volume completes an Oxford World's Classics set of five Kafka works, in distinctive complementary cover designs.
About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
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familiar with. That might be possible; true, I have observed the wildlife down here long and closely enough, but the world is various, and there is no shortage of unpleasant surprises. But it would not be one single animal; it would have to be a large herd that had suddenly tumbled through into my territory, a large herd of little animals who outdo the small creatures as they can actually be heard, though not by very much because the noise made by their work is essentially quite slight. So it
crowd of people could just as well, with no distinction, merge into one with the empty plain. At one point by the wooden fence there are several people standing together. ‘How small!’ cries a French group, as it were with a sigh. What’s going on? We push our way through. And there, standing on the airfield, quite near us, is a small aeroplane, painted in a real, yellowish colour, and being made ready for flight. Now we can also see Blériot’s hangar and next to it the hangar belonging to his
had it brought here.’ Four bearers came and threw the heavy cadaver down before us. It scarcely lay there before the jackals raised their voices. Each one drawn irresistibly as if by a rope, they came forward, hesitantly, bodies brushing the ground. They had forgotten the Arabs, forgotten their hatred; obliterating everything else, the presence of the steaming corpse cast a spell on them. One was already clinging to the neck, and with its first bite found the artery. Like a little pump
a message from the dead.—You, though, will sit at your window and conjure it up for yourself in your dreams, as evening falls. Odradek, or Cares of a Householder SOME say the word Odradek is Slavonic in origin, and they try on this basis to demonstrate the word’s construction. Others are of the opinion that its origin is German, and that it is only influenced by Slavonic. But the uncertainty of both interpretations probably allows us to conclude that neither applies, especially as neither
short of what has been asked of me, and of what I am with the best will in the world unable to say—nevertheless they should point the general direction along which a quondam ape entered the human world and settled there. But certainly I would not say even the trivialities that follow if I were not completely sure of myself, and if my position on all the great music-hall stages of the civilized world were not firmly established, indeed unshakeable: I come from the Gold Coast. For the story of how
