German-born author Franz Kafka wrote in stories like “The Metamorphosis” (1916) and novels that were released after his death, such as “The Trial” (1925), about disturbed people living in a terrifyingly impersonal environment.
Although English was not his first language, Franz Kafka spoke fluent Czech; later, he learned some French language and culture from Flaubert, one of his favorite writers. The Jewish middle-class family of this significant 20th-century fiction writer spoke German. Many regard his unique body of much incomplete writing, mostly published posthumously, among the most influential in European literature. His stories include “The Metamorphosis” (1912) and “In the Penal Colony” (1914), whereas his posthumous novels include The Trial (1925), The Castle (1926), and Amerika (1927).
At the Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague, Kafka began studying chemistry but, after two weeks, changed his major to law. This study required a lengthier period of study, which provided Kafka time to take classes in German studies and art history, and it offered a variety of job choices, which satisfied his father. He became a member of the Lese- und Redehalle der Deutschen Studenten organization at the university, which planned readings, literary events, and other activities. He met the journalist Felix Weltsch, who was also a law student, at the end of his first year of studies. Max Brod became a lifelong friend. On June 18, 1906, Kafka received his doctorate in law. He also completed the required year of unpaid work as a legal clerk for the criminal and civil courts.
Before his death, Kafka’s writing received very little attention. He published very few short stories during his lifetime, and he never finished any of his novels except the short “The Metamorphosis.” In a letter to his friend and literary executor, Max Brod, he wrote, “Dearest Max, my last request: Everything I leave behind me… in the way of diaries, manuscripts, letters (my own and others’), sketches, and so on, [is] to be burned unread).” After telling Kafka that he did not intend to comply with his wishes, Brod specifically gave these instructions to Brod, who rationally disregarded Kafka’s wishes. Brod actually oversaw the publication of the majority of Kafka’s works that he owned, which at once gained widespread recognition and high critical esteem.
As Kafka began writing in the middle of notebooks, from the last towards the first, etc., Max Brod found it extremely impossible to arrange his notebooks in any kind of chronological order.
All of Kafka’s published writings are in German, with the exception of a few Czech letters he wrote to Milena Jesenská.
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