Best Short Stories: A Dual-Language Book

by Franz Kafka and Lotte Lenya

Book Overview

Students of German language and literature will welcome this dual-language edition of five stories by Franz Kafka (1883-1924). Considered one of the greatest modern writers, Kafka wrote tales that brilliantly explore the anxiety, futility, and complexity of modern life.
The stories in this volume are "The Metamorphosis" (thought by many critics to be Kafka's most perfect work), "The Judgment," "In the Penal Colony," "A Country Doctor," and "A...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0486295613
• ISBN13: 9780486295619
• Release Date: April 1997
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 2.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.4" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A must for students of German literature

This edition offers a sample of Kafka's best short stories with the original German and English translation on facing pages. It is a wonderful sort of "training wheels" for those who are ready to tackle German literature in the original.The stories themselves are highly challenging. Kafka is regarded as a profit of modern alienation, but that doesn't capture the complexity of his thought. His masterpiece, The Metamorphosis, is here. In it Gregor Samsa awakes one morning to find he has turned into a giant bug. With that simple, but startling device, Kafka has a vehicle for exploring the inner dynamic of a family, and the mix of selfishness and altruism which informs our relationships with one another. On the surface, it would seem that Kafka is affirming the increasingly common notion that all altruism is really disguised selfishness - yet the story's bleakness suggests that Kafka himself knows that the vision is incomplete. This is the truth, he says. But is it the whole truth?In another great story, In the Penalty Colony, Kafka presents us with a society that was once ordered around a great torturing device. The society is in the process of moving away from the torture device, and that would seem to be a good thing. But Kafka is more challenging than that. Does a vision of the world which imagines no role for suffering really speak to our deepest selves? We are repulsed by the old order, but the new order seems to be missing something. So in one neat package, you can learn some German and struggle with a challenging vision of the world. That's a bargain, in my book!

Great for German Students

The most enjoyable aspect of language learning, for me, is the experience of reading literary masterpieces in the original. The side-by-side format is perfect for those intermediate students of German who would like something more substantial than the usual textbook fare. I would like to have seen more stories printed, or perhaps a second volume, but I do appreciate the variety available in this edition. The English translations tend to be more literal and wooden than the better all-English versions in print, but that is all the better. Once you've read Kafka in the original, you won't want to go back.

Useful for students of both German and English

I have used this book at our university in a German class (Introduction to German Literature) and in a Literature in Translation class. Students appreciated the duel langauge format. For my students of German, the facing translation aids in setting the context so that they can deal mor quickly with the German text. I would recommend this book for those with some German who are interested in Kafka's short fiction. I would have liked having the " Hunger Artist" in the collection as well as a German vocabulary section (as one finds in other Dover texts), but otherwise I found the book most helpful. The entire series offers excellent books at wonderful prices!

Great way to read Kafka's original writing

I am not a huge fan of Kafka's style of writing but I did enjoy reading this book due to the side by side english and german wording. I found myself hopping back and forth to see how the German was translated into English. And, since my German is not perfect and Kafka writes with a complex sentence structure, the dual set up was perfect for me. These are some of Kafka's best stories, particularly the Metamorphisis.