'K kept feeling that he had lost himself or was further away in a strange land than anyone had ever been before' A remote village covered almost permanently in snow & dominated by a castle & its staff of dictatorial sexually predatory bureaucrats
- this is the setting for Kafka's story about a man seeking both acceptance in the village & access to the castle Kafka breaks new ground in evoking a dense village community fraught with tensions & recounting an often poignant occasionally farcical love-affair He also explores the relation between the individual & power & asks why the villagers so readily submit to an authority which may exist only in their collective imagination Published only after Kafka's death The Castle appeared in the same decade as modernist masterpieces by Eliot Joyce Woolf Mann & Proust & is among the central works of modern literature This translation follows the text established by critical scholarship & manuscript variants are mentioned in the notes The introduction provides guidance to the text without reducing the reader's own freedom to make sense of this fascinatingly enigmatic novel ABOUT THE SERIES For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features including expert introductions by leading authorities helpful notes to clarify the text up-to-date bibliographies for further study & much more