List of works by Franz Kafka

**Franz Kafka bibliography**
Releases
First page of Kafka's letter to his father
↙Novels	3
↙Stories	16
↙Collections	4
↙Plays	1

Selected works by Franz Kafka are shown in a sortable table, their publications in English in a second one, with notes about the difficulties to translate his prose to English.

Works and first publications in German

Kafka, a German-language writer of novels and short stories, regarded by critics as one of the most influential authors of the 20th century, was trained as a lawyer and was employed by an insurance company, writing only in his spare time. He wrote hundreds of letters to family and close female friends, including his father, his fiancée Felice Bauer, and his youngest sister Ottla.

Only a few of Kafka's works were published during his lifetime: the story collections Betrachtung (Contemplation) and Ein Landarzt (A Country Doctor), and individual stories (such as "Die Verwandlung" ("The Metamorphosis")) in literary magazines. He prepared the story collection Ein Hungerkünstler (A Hunger Artist) for print, but it was not published until after his death. Kafka's unfinished works, including his novels Der Process, Das Schloss and Amerika (also known as Der Verschollene, The Man Who Disappeared), were published posthumously, mostly by his friend Max Brod, who ignored Kafka's wish to have the manuscripts destroyed. Brod also published letters, diaries and aphorisms.

Many of Kafka's works have uncertain dates of writing and/or were written over long periods of time. In such cases the year the writing of the work began is used. Year and place of the first publication is shown. For many works the German text is available, for several works also an English translation. It is linked in columns "de" (short for "deutsch", German) and "en" (short for English).

Selected works published in German

Standard English title	German title	Literal English title	de	en	Genre	Date of writing	Date of first publication	Place of publication	Remarks
Amerika or The Man Who Disappeared	Amerika or Der Verschollene	America	de		novel	1912	1927	Leipzig	title Amerika by Brod, contains "Der Heizer" ("The Stoker")
Trial, The !The Trial	Process, Der !Der Process		de		novel	1914	1925	Berlin	also spelled in German as Der Prozess and Der Prozeß
Castle, The !The Castle	Schloss, Das !Das Schloss	The Castle	de		novel	1922	1926	Leipzig	also spelled in German as Das Schloß
Contemplation also known as Meditation	Betrachtung		de		story collection	1904–1912	1912	Leipzig	some stories from 1908 in Hyperion
Country Doctor, A !A Country Doctor	Landarzt, Ein !Ein Landarzt		de		story collection	1919	1919	Leipzig
Hunger Artist, A !A Hunger Artist	Hungerkünstler, Ein !Ein Hungerkünstler		de		story collection	1922	1924	Prague
Great Wall of China, The !The Great Wall of China	Beim Bau Der Chinesischen Mauer !Beim Bau der chinesischen Mauer		de		story collection	1918	1931	Berlin
Warden of the Tomb, The !The Warden of the Tomb	Der Gruftwächter, Der !Der Gruftwächter				play	1916–1917	1958	New York	in Description of a Struggle
"Description of a Struggle" including "Conversation with the Supplicant", "Conversation with the Drunk"	"Beschreibung eines Kampfes" including "Gespräch mit dem Beter", "Gespräch mit dem Betrunkenen"		Urteil, Beter, Betrunkener		story	1904	1909	Munich	dialogues first in Hyperion
"Wedding Preparations in the Country"	"Hochzeitsvorbereitungen auf dem Lande"		de		story	1907–1908	1954	London	an incomplete work intended to be a novel
Aeroplanes At Brescia, The !"The Aeroplanes At Brescia"	Aeroplane in Brescia, Die !"Die Aeroplane in Brescia"		de		story	1909	1909 September	Prague	first in Bohemia
The First Long Journey by Rail (Prague-Zurich)					story	1912	May 1912	in Herderblätter	first chapter of unfinished novel Richard und Samuel: Eine kleine Reise durch mitteleuropäische Gegenden
Judgment, The !"The Judgment"	Urteil, Das !"Das Urteil"	The Verdict	de		story	1912 22–23 September	1913	Leipzig	in the literary yearbook Arkadia
Metamorphosis, The !"The Metamorphosis"	Verwandlung, Die !"Die Verwandlung"	The Transformation	de	en	story	1912	1915	Leipzig	in Die Weißen Blätter
Stoker, The !"The Stoker"	Heizer, Der !"Der Heizer"		de		story	1913	1927	Leipzig	in Amerika
"Before the Law"	"Vor dem Gesetz"		de	en	story	1914	1915	Prague	in the independent Jewish weekly Selbstwehr, in Ein Landarzt, in Der Process
"In the Penal Colony"	In der Strafkolonie !"In der Strafkolonie"		de	en	story	1914	1919	Leipzig
Village Schoolmaster, The !"The Village Schoolmaster" ("The Giant Mole")	Dorfschullehrer, Der !"Der Dorfschullehrer" or "Der Riesenmaulwurf"		de		story	1914–1915	1931	Berlin	in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer
Blumfeld An Elderly Bachelor !"Blumfeld, an Elderly Bachelor"	Blumfeld, ein älterer Junggeselle !"Blumfeld, ein älterer Junggeselle"		de		story	1915	1958	New York	in Description of a Struggle
Hunter Gracchus, The !"The Hunter Gracchus"	Jäger Gracchus, Der !"Der Jäger Gracchus"		de		story	1917	1931	Berlin	in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer
Common Confusion, A !"A Common Confusion"	Alltägliche Verwirrung, Eine !"Eine alltägliche Verwirrung"		de		story	1917	1931	Berlin	in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer
Bridge, The !"The Bridge"	Brücke, Die !"Die Brücke"		de		story	1917	1931	Berlin	in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer
Report to an Academy, A !"A Report to an Academy"	Bericht für eine Akademie, Ein !"Ein Bericht für eine Akademie"		de	en	story	1917	1917	Prague	in Der Jude
Jackals And Arabs !"Jackals and Arabs"	Schakale und Araber !"Schakale und Araber"		de	en	story	1917	1917	Prague	in Der Jude
Crossbreed, A !"A Crossbreed"	Kreuzung, Eine !"Eine Kreuzung"		de		story	1917	1931	Berlin	in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer
Knock at the Manor Gate, The !"The Knock at the Manor Gate"	Schlag ans Hoftor, Der !"Der Schlag ans Hoftor"		de		story	1917	1931	Berlin	in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer
Silence of the Sirens, The !"The Silence of the Sirens"	Schweigen der Sirenen, Das !"Das Schweigen der Sirenen"		de		story	1917	1931	Berlin	in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer
Truth about Sancho Panza, The !"The Truth about Sancho Panza"	Die Wahrheit über Sancho Pansa, Die !"Die Wahrheit über Sancho Pansa"		de		story	1917	1931	Berlin	in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer
Great Wall of China, The !"The Great Wall of China"	Beim Bau Der Chinesischen Mauer !"Beim Bau der chinesischen Mauer"	At the building of the Chinese Wall	de	en	story	1918	1931	Berlin	in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer
Prometheus !"Prometheus"	Prometheus !"Prometheus"		de		story	1918	1931	Berlin	in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer
Country Doctor, A !"A Country Doctor"	Landarzt, Ein !"Ein Landarzt"		de	en	story	1919	1919	Leipzig	in Ein Landarzt
Old Manuscript, An !"An Old Manuscript"	Altes Blatt, Ein !"Ein altes Blatt"	"An old page" or "An old leaf"	de		story	1919	1920	Leipzig	in Ein Landarzt
City Coat of Arms, The !"The City Coat of Arms"	Stadtwappen, Das !"Das Stadtwappen"		de		story	1920	1931	Berlin	in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer
Problem of Our Laws, The !"The Problem of Our Laws"	Frage der Gesetze, Zur !"Zur Frage der Gesetze"		de		story	1920	1931	Berlin	in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer
On Parables !"On Parables"	Von den Gleichnissen !"Von den Gleichnissen"		de		story		1931	Berlin	in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer
Little Fable, A !"A Little Fable"	Kleine Fabel !"Kleine Fabel"		de		story	1920	1931	Berlin	in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer
Poseidon !"Poseidon"	Poseidon !"Poseidon"		de		story	1920	1936		in collection Beschreibung eines Kampfes
Refusal, The !"The Refusal"	Abweisung, Die !"Die Abweisung"	The Rejection			story	1920	1970	Frankfurt	title by Brod, same as a different earlier story by Kafka
Bucket Rider, The !"The Bucket Rider"	Kübelreiter, Der !"Der Kübelreiter"		de (1921), de (1931)		story	1921	1921	Prag	in Prager Presse
Hunger Artist, A !"A Hunger Artist" ("A Fasting Artist", "A Starvation Artist")	Hungerkünstler, Ein !"Ein Hungerkünstler"		de	en	story	1922	1922	Prague	in Die neue Rundschau, then in Ein Hungerkünstler
First Sorrow !"First Sorrow"	Erstes Leid !"Erstes Leid"		de		story	1921–1922	1922	Leipzig	in periodical Genius
Investigations of a Dog !"Investigations of a Dog"	Forschungen eines Hundes !"Forschungen eines Hundes"		de		story	1923	1931	Berlin	in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer
Little Woman, A !"A Little Woman"	kleine Frau, Eine !"Eine kleine Frau"		de		story	1923–1924	1924	Prague	in Prager Tagblatt, then in Ein Hungerkünstler
Burrow, The !"The Burrow"	Bau, Der !"Der Bau"		de		story	1923–1924	1924		in Ein Hungerkünstler
"Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk"	"Josefine, die Sängerin, oder Das Volk der Mäuse"		de		story	1923	1924	Prague	in Prager Presse, then in Ein Hungerkünstler
Franz Kafka's Diaries	Tagebücher				diary	1910–1923	1948	New York
Blue Octavo Notebooks, The !The Blue Octavo Notebooks	Oxforder Oktavhefte !Oxforder Oktavhefte	Oxford Octavo Notebooks			notebook	1917–1919	1954	New York	also known as The Eight Octavo Notebooks
Letter to His Father	Brief an den Vater		de		letter	1919 November	1966	New York
Letters to Felice	Briefe an Felice				letter collection	1912–1917	1967	Frankfurt am Main
Letters to Ottla	Briefe an Ottla und die Familie	Letters to Ottla and to the family			letter collection	1909–1924	1974	Frankfurt am Main	includes some letters to his parents and other family members
Letters to Milena	Briefe an Milena				letter collection	1920–23	1952	Frankfurt am Main
Letters to Family, Friends, and Editors	Briefe 1902–1924				letter collection	1900–24	1959	New York	most of the letters are to Brod
Zürau Aphorisms, The	Die Zürauer Aphorismen or Betrachtungen über Sünde, Hoffnung, Leid und den wahren Weg	Reflections on Sin, Hope, Suffering, and the True Way	de		aphorisms	1917–18	1931	Cologne	Title by Brod

Translation problems to English

Kafka often made extensive use of a characteristic particular to the German language allowing for long sentences that sometimes can span an entire page. Kafka's sentences then deliver an unexpected impact just before the full stop—that being the finalizing meaning and focus. This is achieved due to the construction of certain sentences in German which require that the verb be positioned at the end of the sentence. Such constructions are difficult to duplicate in other languages, so it is up to the resourceful translator to provide the reader with the same (or at least equivalent) effect found in the original text.^[1] German's more flexible word order is not the only problem translating German into other languages. German also lacks an informal language register, uses modal connectives, and syntactic structures which can be translated in more than one way.^[2] Kafka did not write in standard High German, but rather in a Praguean German heavily influenced by the Yiddish and Czech languages.^[3] This has led philosophers Deleuze and Guattari to describe Kafka's linguistic style as "deterritorialized", characterized by a "withered vocabulary" and an "incorrect syntax".^[3]

German sentences also have a different syntactic structure. Unlike English, German is a verb-final language, which places the main verb of a verb string (e.g., "transformed" in "had been transformed") at the end of a phrase. The difference can be seen in the contrast between the original German version of the first sentence in Kafka's "The Metamorphosis":

Dependency tree illustrating the difference in syntax between the first sentence of Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" in translation by Ian Johnston and in the original German

Als Gregor Samsa eines Morgens aus unruhigen Traumen erwachte fand er sich in seinem Bett zu einem ungeheuren Ungeziefer verwandelt. (Original)

As Gregor Samsa one morning from restless dreams awoke, found he himself in his bed into an enormous vermin transformed. (literal word for word translation)^[4]^[5]

Another virtually insurmountable problem facing translators is how to deal with the author's intentional use of ambiguous idioms and words that have several meanings which result in writings difficult to precisely translate.^[6]^[7] One such instance is found in the first sentence of "The Metamorphosis".^[8] English translators have often sought to render the word Ungeziefer as "insect"; in today's German it means vermin. It is sometimes used colloquially to mean "bug" – a very general term, unlike the scientific sounding "insect". Kafka had no intention of labeling Gregor, the protagonist of the story, as any specific thing, but instead wanted to convey Gregor's disgust at his transformation. Translators have chosen numerous inexact and unsatisfactory ways to represent "[zu einem] ungeheuren Ungeziefer", unable to convey the repetition of the first two syllables and the equal four syllables of the two words in German:

"gigantic insect" (Muir, 1948)
"monstrous vermin" (Corngold, 1972, Neugroschel, 1993/1995, Freed, 1996)
"giant bug" (Underwood, 1981)
"monstrous insect" (Pasley, 1992)
"enormous bug" (Appelbaum, 1996)
"monstrous cockroach" (Hofmann, 2007)

Another example is Kafka's use of the German noun Verkehr in the final sentence of The Judgment. Literally, Verkehr means intercourse and, as in English, can have either a sexual or non-sexual meaning; in addition, it is used to mean transport or traffic. The sentence can be translated as: "At that moment an unending stream of traffic crossed over the bridge".^[9] What gives added weight to the obvious double meaning of 'Verkehr' is Kafka's confession to Brod that when he wrote that final line, he was thinking of "a violent ejaculation".^[10]^[11]

Selected publications in English

Title	Genre	Translator	Publisher	Date of publication	Place of publication
The Castle	novel	Willa and Edwin Muir	Secker & Warburg	1930	London
The Great Wall of China	story collection	Willa and Edwin Muir	Martin Secker	1933	London
The Trial	novel	Willa and Edwin Muir	Victor Gollancz	1937	London
America	novel	Willa and Edwin Muir	Schocken Books	1938	United States
The Diaries Of Franz Kafka	diaries	Joseph Kresh, Martin Greenberg and Hannah Arendt	Peregrine Books	1963
Amerika	novel	Mark Harman	Schocken Books	2008	United States
The Penal Colony: Stories and Short Pieces	story collection	Willa and Edwin Muir	Schocken Books	1948	United States
Dearest Father. Stories and Other Writings	letters	Ernst Kaiser and Eithne Wilkins	Schocken Books	1954	United States
Description of a Struggle	story collection	Tania and James Stern	Schocken Books	1958	United States
Parables and Paradoxes	story collection	Clement Greenberg, Ernst Kaiser & Eithne Wilkins, Willa & Edwin Muir, Tania & James Stern	Schocken Books	1961	United States
The Complete Stories	story collection	Willa & Edwin Muir, Tania & James Stern	Schocken Books	1971	United States
Letters to Family, Friends, and Editors	letters	Richard and Clara Winston	Schocken Books	1977	United States
The Sons	story collection		Schocken Books	1989	United States
The Zürau Aphorisms	aphorisms	Michael Hofmann	Schocken Books	2006	United States

References

↑ Kafka 1996, p. xi.
↑ Newmark 1991, pp. 63-64.
1 2 Deleuze & Guattari 1986, pp. 22-25.
↑ Prinsky 2002.
↑ Poulakis 2005.
↑ Lawson 1960, pp. 216-219.
↑ Rhine 1989, pp. 447-458.
↑ Lawson 1960, pp. 216–219.
↑ Kafka 1996, p. 75.
↑ Brod 1960, p. 129.
↑ Hawes 2008, p. 50.

Bibliography

Brod, Max (1960). Franz Kafka: A Biography. New York: Schocken Books. ISBN 0-805-20047-9.
Deleuze, Gilles; Guattari, Félix (1986). Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature (Theory and History of Literature, Vol 30). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 978-0-81661-515-5.
Hawes, James (2008). Why You Should Read Kafka Before You Waste Your Life. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-31237-651-2.
Kafka, Franz (1996). The Metamorphosis and Other Stories. New York: Barnes & Noble. ISBN 978-1-56619-969-8.
Lawson, Richard H. (1960). "Ungeheueres Ungeziefer in Kafka's "Die Verwandlung"" 33 (3). The German Quarterly.
Newmark, Peter (1991). About Translation. Wiltshire, England: Cromwell Press Ltd. ISBN 1-85359-117-3.
Poulakis, Victoria (November 11, 2005). "Translation: What Difference Does It Make. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka". Northern Virginia Community College. Retrieved September 2, 2012.
Rhine, Marjorie E. (Winter 1989). "Untangling Kafka's Knotty Texts: The Translator's Prerogative?". Monatshefte (Madison, Wisconsin) 81 (4). JSTOR 30166262.
Prinsky, Norman (2002). "Humn. 2002: World Humanities II. Notes and Questions on Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" / "The Transformation"". Augusta State University. Retrieved September 2, 2012.

Works by Franz Kafka

Bibliography

Novels

Short stories

1902–12	"Shamefaced Lanky and Impure in Heart" "Description of a Struggle" "Wedding Preparations in the Country" "The Judgment" "The Stoker" The Metamorphosis "The Aeroplanes at Brescia"

1914–17	"In the Penal Colony" "The Village Schoolmaster" "Before the Law" "Blumfeld, an Elderly Bachelor" "A Country Doctor" "The Hunter Gracchus" "The Great Wall of China" "A Message from the Emperor" "A Report to an Academy" "A Dream" "Up in the Gallery" "A Fratricide" "The Next Village" "A Visit to a Mine" "Jackals and Arabs" "The Bridge" "The Bucket Rider" "The New Advocate" "An Old Manuscript" "The Knock at the Manor Gate" "Eleven Sons" "My Neighbor" "A Crossbreed" "The Cares of a Family Man"

1917–23	"The Refusal" "A Hunger Artist" "Investigations of a Dog" "A Little Woman" "The Burrow" "Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk" "A Common Confusion" "The Truth about Sancho Panza" "The Silence of the Sirens" "Prometheus" "The City Coat of Arms" "Poseidon" "Fellowship" "At Night" "The Problem of Our Laws" "The Conscription of Troops" "The Test" "The Vulture" "The Helmsman" "The Top" "A Little Fable" "Home-Coming" "First Sorrow" "The Departure" "Advocates" "The Married Couple" "Give It Up!" "On Parables"

Short story
collections

Diaries and
notebooks

Letters
and essays

Plays

The Warden of the Tomb

Category

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