80,000+ Books in-stock in NZ 📚

Winter Reads Sale! Enjoy up to 20% off 1,700 books! 🚀

The Castle

By Franz Kafka and Anthea Bell
Series: Oxford World's Classics
0.0 (0 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
The Castle follows K., a man who arrives in a remote, snow-covered village ruled by a castle and its forbidding bureaucrats. He struggles to gain acceptance among the villagers and to reach the elusive castle authorities. Kafka explores themes of alienation, authority, and the individual's relationship to power, set against a backdrop of a tense, insular community and a poignant, sometimes farcical, love affair.
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$4200

International Supplier

This title is in-stock with overseas suppliers. While it is not available locally, we fly books in weekly from the US and UK to our Auckland warehouse for immediate dispatch.

AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 2-3 weeks

Found a better price? Request a price match

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This modernist classic will appeal to readers interested in existential literature, complex social dynamics, and Kafka's unique narrative style. It suits those who appreciate challenging, enigmatic novels that probe questions of identity and power.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

Kafka's story about a man seeking acceptance and access to the mysterious castle is among the central works of modern literature. This translation follows the German critical text and includes a detailed introduction and notes to this famously enigmatic novel.

Kafka's last novel, The Castle is among the central works of modern literature

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

K. kept feeling that he had lost himself, or was further away in a strange land than anyone had ever been before.

A remote village covered almost permanently in snow and dominated by a castle and its staff of dictatorial, sexually predatory bureaucrats - this is the setting for Kafka's story about a man seeking both acceptance in the village and access to the castle. Kafka breaks new ground in evoking a dense village community fraught with tensions, and recounting an often poignant, occasionally farcical love-affair. He also explores the relation between the individual and power, and asks why the villagers so readily submit to an authority which may exist only in their collective imagination.

Published only after Kafka's death, The Castle appeared in the same decade as modernist masterpieces by Eliot, Joyce, Woolf, Mann and Proust, and is among the central works of modern literature. This translation follows the text established by critical scholarship, and manuscript variants are mentioned in the notes. The introduction provides guidance to the text without reducing the reader's own freedom to make sense of this fascinatingly enigmatic novel.

About the Series: For over 100 years, Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range 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, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780199238286

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 09 July 2009

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Oxford University Press

Contributors:

  • Edited by Ritchie Robertson

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 10.0mm

Width: 130.0mm

Height: 196.0mm

Weight: 237g

Pages: 320

Collections

Anthea Bell Classic Fiction Fiction Franz Kafka General Fiction Literary Fiction Series: Oxford World's Classics

About the Author

Anthea Bell is a freelance translator from French and German and the winner of various translation awards: the Schlegel-Tieck Award, UK, three times; the Wolff Award, US; the Austrian State Prize for Literary Translation. She is the translator of W. G. Sebald and Stefan Zweig, and is best-known as the translator of Asterix. Ritchie Robertson is the author of the Very Short Introduction to Kafka. For Oxford World's Classics he has translated Hoffmann's The Golden Pot and Other Stories and introduced editions of Freud and Schnitzler. He is the editor of The Cambridge Companion to Thomas Mann.

Also by Franz Kafka

View all

More from General Fiction

View all

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 80,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.

The Latest at Book Hero

View all