Kafka

A Jewish writer from Prague who wrote in German, author of The Metamorphosis, The Trial and The Castle.

Life

Prague Jew

Kafka came from a German-speaking Jewish merchant family in Prague. After earning a doctorate in law he worked for an insurance company and wrote in his spare time; all his life he had a strained relationship with his domineering father.

Insurance clerk

In 1915 he published The Metamorphosis, about a traveling salesman who wakes up one morning transformed into a beetle; his novels The Trial and The Castle depict the helplessness of people caught in absurd, indifferent bureaucracies. He published only a small amount of his work in his lifetime.

The Metamorphosis

He died of tuberculosis in 1924. On his deathbed he asked his close friend Brod to burn all his manuscripts; Brod did not comply, and instead edited and published them.

Legacy

Kafka is regarded as one of the most important writers of the 20th century, and "Kafkaesque" has become a word for absurd, oppressive situations.

Major works & achievements

• The Metamorphosis
• The Trial
• The Castle

Did you know? All three of his younger sisters died in Nazi concentration camps.

Key dates

• 1906Earned a doctorate in law
• 1908Went to work for an insurance company
• 1915Published The Metamorphosis
• 1924Died
• 1925The Trial published