Franz Kafka is one of the greatest and most complex writers of the twentieth century. He is renowned for the enigmatic, dreamy and sometimes absurd stories about people finding it difficult to live. His major works include The Trial, The Castle, America and The Metamorphosis.
Kafka was born on July 3, 1883 in Prague, into a middle-class Jewish family to Hermann, a successful businessman, and Julie Kafka. He had two younger brothers, both of whom died in infancy and three younger sisters Gabriele, Valerie, and Ottilie, who all died in concentration camps.
He was educated in German schools, not Czech. From 1901 to 1906 he attended the Karl Ferdinand University of Prague and in 1906 obtained the degree of Doctor of Law.
At the University he met Max Brod, another student with literary ambitions, who became his lifelong friend and eventually the editor of his works.
After graduation, he worked for an insurance company for many years – a job he did not enjoy. But he didn’t show any indifference towards it. As a safety professional he actually invented the safety helmet and received a medal for his invention.
Most of Kafka works were never published in his lifetime. They were all prepared for publication posthumously by his close friend Max Brod. Prior to his death, Kafka actually instructed Brod to destroy his works after he dies.
The Metamorphosis, short novella published in 1915, is the most famous of Kafka’s stories. It’s about a man who wakes up one morning changed into a giant bug, and how his metamorphosis affects his life. Strangely bizarre and very thought-provoking.
Kafka’s writings were so unusual and unique that his name inspired a word – Kafkaesque. It means Kafka-like, something absurd, bizarre, illogical, abstract and anxious, just like his surreal stories.
Kafka died of tuberculosis at the age of 40 on June 3, 1924 in the Kierlin Sanatorium near Vienna. He is buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Prague.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.