Description: The Diaries of Franz Kafka by Franz Kafka, Ross Benjamin An essential new translation of the authors complete, uncensored diaries-a revelation of the idiosyncrasies and rough edges of one of the twentieth centurys most influential writers."An invaluable addition to Kafkas oeuvre."-The New York TimesDating from 1909 to 1923, the handwritten diaries contain various kinds of writing- accounts of daily events, reflections, observations, literary sketches, drafts of letters, accounts of dreams, as well as finished stories. This volume makes available for the first time in English a comprehensive reconstruction of the diary entries and provides substantial new content, including details, names, literary works, and passages of a sexual nature that were omitted from previous publications. By faithfully reproducing the diaries distinctive-and often surprisingly unpolished-writing in Kafkas notebooks, translator Ross Benjamin brings to light not only the authors use of the diaries for literary experimentation and private self-expression, but also their value as a work of art in themselves. FORMAT Hardcover LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Author Biography FRANZ KAFKA was born in 1883 in Prague, where he lived most of his life. During his lifetime, he published only a few short stories, including "The Metamorphosis," "The Judgment," and "The Stoker." He died in 1924, before completing any of his full-length novels. At the end of his life, Kafka asked his lifelong friend and literary executor Max Brod to burn all his unpublished work. Brod overrode those wishes.ROSS BENJAMINs translations include Friedrich H lderlins Hyperion, Joseph Roths Job,and Daniel Kehlmanns You Should Have Left and Tyll. He was awarded the 2010 Helen and Kurt Wolff Translators Prize for his rendering of Michael Maars Speak, Nabokov, and he received a Guggenheim fellowship for his work on Franz Kafkas diaries. Table of Contents Translators Preface: Glimpses into Kafkas Workshop vii DIARIES First Notebook 3 Second Notebook 53 Third Notebook 99 Fourth Notebook 139 Fifth Notebook 179 Sixth Notebook 219 Seventh Notebook 257 Eighth Notebook 291 Ninth Notebook 337 Bundles of Paper 355 Tenth Notebook 367 Eleventh Notebook 397 Twelfth Notebook 441 January- February 1911 Trips 497 August- September 1911 Trip 503 June- July 1912 Trip 545 September 1913 Trip 565 Notes 567 Chronology 645 Index 649 Review "Essential . . . The new volume, in a sensitive and briskly idiomatic translation by Ross Benjamin, offers revelation upon revelation. Its an invaluable addition to Kafkas oeuvre."—The New York Times"Momentous . . . Life also bursts into literature at the level of form, and in Kafkas diaries even the words are acrobatic. As Ross Benjamin notes in the thoughtful introduction to his new translation, his aim is to capture the extent to which the diaries were a laboratory for Kafkas literary production and thereby catch the author in the act of writing. He has succeeded. Everything in the diaries thrashes . . . [They] are the intimate incisions of an author who could write only by etching words into the flesh."—The New Yorker"One of the finest translating achievements in recent history."—Literary Review"Benjamin, whose translation is the first complete and uncensored edition of the Diaries to be made available to an English readership . . . begins from scratch the whole business of restoring to the notebooks their provisionality, materiality, and mutability . . [His] aim is to give us the writer in his workshop, blotting the page, changing his mind, running at a sentence a dozen times and still not getting it right."—The New York Review of Books"Mr. Benjamins translation doesnt just supplant the previous edition—it inaugurates a new phase of Kafkas afterlife in English . . . The writing glimmers with sensitivity, and openness to the world."—The Wall Street Journal"Readers will welcome this new edition of the Diaries, complete, uncensored, in a fluent translation by Ross Benjamin, and supplemented with 78 pages of invaluable notes, the fruit of half a century of Kafka scholarship." —J. M. Coetzee, author of Disgrace "Max Brod, Franz Kafkas intimate friend and fellow writer, was, it is now understood, both his savior and his betrayer. Without his rescue of Kafkas at-risk papers, there would be almost no Kafka at all; but in the presence of Brods mediating intrusions as editor, have we ever really known Kafkas authentic voice? This new and scrupulously faithful translation of the Diaries brings us, unembellished by theory, the true inner life of the twentieth centurys most complex and enigmatic literary prophet, whose very name has come to us as symbol and vision of innocent vulnerability in the face of irrational force. Yet warns: beware interpretation!"—Cynthia Ozick, author of Antiquities "Franz Kafkas inner life has always been a bit of a mystery. The expurgated diaries in their original German and English versions hinted at his complicated, often confused relationship to sex, politics, illness, and being Jewish. This readable new translation of the complete German version of the diary transforms the silent Kafka of a century ago into a Kafka not only of his times but of ours." —Sander Gilman, author of Franz Kafka, The Jewish Patient "Thirty two years after their original publication in German, Franz Kafkas complete Diaries are here in Ross Benjamins outstanding translation. A boon for the American reader! The previous edition of the Diaries was egregiously censored by Max Brod who eliminated whatever, in his misdirected view, could detract from the saintly image of his friend which he chiseled for posterity. Now we have in English some of the most intimate reflections and literary experiments of one of the towering geniuses of modern literature." —Saul Friedländer, author of Franz Kafka: The Poet of Shame and Guilt"A fresh, unadulterated translation of Kafkas notebooks, dense with introspection and writerly despair . . . The attraction of Kafkas diaries has always been his coruscating descriptions of his existential struggles as a writer and human being. He captures his frustration in ways that are wrenching, vivid, and highly quotable . . . Essential reading." —Kirkus Reviews "Finally! Three decades after the publication of the critical edition of Franz Kafkas diaries in Germany, English readers can now catch Kafka in the act of writing, thanks to this monumental endeavor by translator Ross Benjamin. This new volume offers us Kafkas singular perspective and delivers an expanded window into Kafkas unique personality. The intricately researched and detailed Notes (75 pages of them!) provide us with a wealth of knowledge and context. For those of us in thrall to Kafka the Man as well as the Writer, the Notes add layers of life to Kafkas world and milieu and reveal a new depth and richness to Kafkas humanity. This new volume is an essential addition to the library of every serious student and reader of Kafka."—Kathi Diamant, author of Kafkas Last Love and director of the Kafka Project"A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us," Kafka famously wrote. In his Diaries, we see him turning that axe on his own psyche, recording his dreams, jotting snatches of overheard dialogue, even drafting stories. For the first time, Ross Benjamins new translation gives English readers access to the entirety of the Diaries, with Kafkas fragmentary structure and idiosyncratic grammar preserved. The result is the most intimate glimpse possible into the process of this singular writer."—Ruth Franklin"With this new rendition of Kafkas diaries, Benjamin escorts us inside the burrow, showing us the artist at work. At once disturbing and humanizing, these unexpurgated notebooks remind us that the achievements of this singular writer were unlikely, precarious, and paid for with great pain." —Bookforum "The Diaries are a wild ride, and a recent translation by Ross Benjamin is superb. The book is handsome, the notes extensive, and Benjamins crisp preface is thoughtful and sincere . . . Benjamins research has brought the play and peculiarity of Kafkas "method"—obsessive, cyclic, demanding, open-ended and abruptly terminative at once—into fresh light."—Harpers Magazine "This new edition restores the variegated richness – and, at times, the tedium – of the diaries . . . Here Kafka seems both genius and ingenue, and the contradiction brings him closer to us . . . The diaries, in which fiction, confession, dreams, wry humor, and despair combine in a messy, hypnotic network, feel like the closest thing to a path, so like a tripwire, that leads to the threshold of Kafkas abiding mystery."—The Guardian "The new translation restores the diaries to how Kafka wrote them: fragmentary, sometimes incoherent and disordered. Its not unusual to find a sketch continued 100 pages later—or even 100 pages earlier, so chaotic was the way he filled the pages . . . Its thrilling to turn the page after acres of Olympic-standard bellyaching and find the entire text of Kafkas extraordinary short story "The Judgement" presented just as he wrote it, in one long overnight blizzard of creativity . . . The Diaries will open your eyes—but the stories will blow your mind."—The Times (UK)"This edition of The Diaries seems a model of both scrupulousness and generosity. Here we find the unpolished inner life of one of the most significant writers that ever lived."—The Spectator "An unprecedented, almost 600-page peephole into the mind of a writer whose published prose is otherwise classically abstract and inscrutable. Its some secret to be let into." —Financial Times "Ross Benjamins new translation, the first in 75 years, has relevance extending beyond the rarefied air of Kafka scholarship. Benjamin has restored Kafkas diaries to their messy original format, undoing virtually every editorial decision of Kafkas longtime friend, executor, and biographer, Max Brod . . . Where Brod tried to clean up Kafkas diaries for academics, Benjamin has recreated the thrill of discovering Kafkas diaries for anyone interested in snooping."—The Village Voice"Ross Benjamin has given the literary world an incredible treasure in this thoughtful edition. Kafka has never been so fully present, both as a man and a writer."—New York Journal of Books Long Description An essential new translation of the authors complete, uncensored diaries--a revelation of the idiosyncrasies and rough edges of one of the twentieth centurys most influential writers. Dating from 1909 to 1923, the handwritten diaries contain various kinds of writing: accounts of daily events, reflections, observations, literary sketches, drafts of letters, accounts of dreams, as well as finished stories. This volume makes available for the first time in English a comprehensive reconstruction of the diary entries and provides substantial new content, including details, names, literary works, and passages of a sexual nature that were omitted from previous publications. By faithfully reproducing the diaries distinctive--and often surprisingly unpolished--writing in Kafkas notebooks, translator Ross Benjamin brings to light not only the authors use of the diaries for literary experimentation and private self-expression, but also their value as a work of art in themselves. Review Quote "Readers will welcome this new edition of the Diaries, complete, uncensored, in a fluent translation by Ross Benjamin, and supplemented with 78 pages of invaluable notes, the fruit of half a century of Kafka scholarship." --J. M. Coetzee "Max Brod, Franz Kafkas intimate friend and fellow writer, was, it is now understood, both his savior and his betrayer. Without his rescue of Kafkas at-risk papers, there would be almost no Kafka at all; but in the presence of Brods mediating intrusions as editor, have we ever really known Kafkas authentic voice? This new and scrupulously faithful translation of the Diaries brings us, unembellished by theory, the true inner life of the twentieth centurys most complex and enigmatic literary prophet, whose very name has come to us as symbol and vision of innocent vulnerability in the face of irrational force. Yet warns: beware interpretation!" --Cynthia Ozick "Franz Kafkas inner life has always been a bit of a mystery. The expurgated diaries in their original German and English versions hinted at his complicated, often confused relationship to sex, politics, illness, and being Jewish. This readable new translation of the complete German version of the diary transforms the silent Kafka of a century ago into a Kafka not only of his times but of ours." --Sander Gilman, author of Franz Kafka, The Jewish Patient "Thirty two years after their original publication in German, Franz Kafkas complete Diaries are here in Ross Benjamins outstanding translation. A boon for the American reader! The previous edition of the Diaries was egregiously censored by Max Brod who eliminated whatever, in his misdirected view, could detract from the saintly image of his friend which he chiseled for posterity. Now we have in English some of the most intimate reflections and literary experiments of one of the towering geniuses of modern literature." --Saul Friedl Details ISBN0805243550 Author Ross Benjamin Language English ISBN-10 0805243550 ISBN-13 9780805243550 Format Hardcover Country of Publication United States Translated from German Publisher Schocken Books Imprint Schocken Books Year 2023 Publication Date 2023-01-10 AU Release Date 2023-01-10 NZ Release Date 2023-01-10 US Release Date 2023-01-10 UK Release Date 2023-01-10 Pages 704 Translator Ross Benjamin Series The Schocken Kafka Library DEWEY 833.912 Audience General We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:139423288;
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