The Metamorphosis   (Die Verwandlung, 1912)   Probably his most famous work.

A Country Doctor   (Ein Landarzt, 1916-1917)   This is easily one of the most bizarre stories he ever wrote. Perhaps it has to do with a sense of repression and guilt made manifest in flesh, maybe it's about psychoanalysis, maybe — aw hell, just read the thing.

Jackals and Arabs   (Schakale und Araber, 1917)   A strange little story, lending itself to any number of possible meanings...

A Report to an Academy   (Ein Bericht für eine Akademie, 1917)    The story of an ape who is captured and assimilates into human society—a very interesting concept.

Letter to his Father   (Brief an den Vater, 1919)   Required reading for anyone who wants to understand Kafka's personality and family. His father never read it, but you can.

First Sorrow   (Erstes Leid, 1921-1922)   This is one of the three "artist stories": A Hunger Artist and Josephine the Singer are the other two.

Josephine the Singer, or The Mouse Folk   (Josephine, die Sängerin, oder Das Volk der Mäuse, 1924)   Sniff...The first time I read this story I couldn't help sobbing uncontrollably.  I still cry every time I read the damn thing.  Kafka's last story.

Diaries 1910   (Tagebücher, 1910)   Sometimes rambling, occasionally incomprehensible, but always compelling. I'll put up a year at a time.

Diaries 1911, part 1   The latter part of this could almost go under the heading Fun with the Yiddish Theater since there's so much about it.

Diaries 1911, part 2   More about the Yiddish theater, Judaism in general, and Kafka's musings on the literature of small peoples, as well as a riveting account of his nephew's circumcision.

Diaries 1912   The year Kafka met Felice Bauer and wrote "The Judgment," "The Metamorphosis," and much of Amerika (Der Verschollene).

Diaries 1913   Includes Kafka's own discussion of "The Judgment" as well as increasing problems with Felice, and the very brief friendship with Gerti Wasner.

Diaries 1914   Kafka's musings on the beginning of World War I, plenty of troubles with Felice, and his comment "What have I in common with Jews? I have hardly anything in common with myself and should stand very quietly in a corner, content that I can breathe."

Manuscripts    You can see the first pages of The Judgment, The Metamorphosis, and the Letter to his Father.

                More coming soon!