The Trial

Description

A gripping work of psychological horror, in its depiction of bureaucracy

run amok Franz Kafka''s The Trial skirts the line between fantasy and

reality. This Penguin Classics edition is translated from the German with

an introduction by Idris Parry. ''Somebody must have laid false information

against Josef K., for he was arrested one morning without having done

anything wrong.'' From this first sentence onwards, Josef K. is on trial for

his right to exist. Once arrested, he is released, but must report to court

on a regular basis – an event that proves maddening, as nothing is ever

resolved. As he grows more uncertain of his fate, his personal life –

including work at a bank and his relations with his landlady and a young

woman who lives next door – becomes increasingly unpredictable. As K. tries

to gain control, he succeeds only in accelerating his own excruciating

downward spiral. Maintaining an atmosphere of unease throughout, this

chilling, thought-provoking novel, more than any other, is infinitely

perceptive about the nature of terror and the absurd meaninglessness and

futility of human life. Franz Kafka (1883-1924) was a Czech-born German-

speaking insurance clerk who despised his job, preferring to spend his time

writing. Nevertheless, Kafka published little during his lifetime, and

ordered his closest friend to burn the mass of unpublished manuscripts –

now familiar to us as some of the most influential novels and short stories

of the twentieth century – after his death. Kafka''s novels, all available

in Penguin Modern Classics, include The Trial, The Castle, and Amerika. If

you enjoyed The Trial, you might like Kafka''s The Castle, also available in

Penguin Modern Classics. ''This compelling, prophetic novel anticipates the

insanity of modern bureaucracy and the coming of totalitarianism''Daily

Telegraph ''It is the fate and perhaps the greatness of [The Trial] that it

offers everything and confirms nothing''Albert Camus