A Hunger Artist and Other Stories

by Kafka, Franz; Crick, Joyce; Robertson, Ritchie

• ISBN13: 9780199600922
• ISBN10: 0199600929
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-06-01
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Kafka published two collections of short stories in his lifetime, A Country Doctor: Little Tales(1919) and A Hunger Artist: Four Stories(1924). Both collections are included in their entirety in this edition, which also contains other uncollected stories and a selection of posthumously published works that have become part of the Kafka canon. Enigmatic, satirical, often bleakly humorous, these stories approach human experience at a tangent: a singing mouse, an ape, an inquisitive dog, and a paranoid burrowing creature are among the protagonists, as well as the professional hunger artist. The tales are among Kafka's best-known, haunting and compelling satires on the human condition, on art and artists, and on life itself, which complement his major fictions. Translated by the award-winning Joyce Crick, the book includes an invaluable introduction, notes, and other editorial material by renowned Kafka scholar Ritchie Robertson. There is also a Biographical Preface, an up-to-date bibliography, and a chronology of Kafka's life. This volume completes an Oxford World's Classics set of five Kafka works, in distinctive complementary cover designs.

Author Biography

Joyce Crick taught German at University College London until her retirement. Her translation of Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams won the Shlegel-Tieck Prize in 2000. Ritchie Robertson is Taylor Professor of German at Oxford University and co-director of the Oxford Kafka Research Center.

Table of Contents

THE AEROPLANES AT BRESCIA
A COUNTRY DOCTOR: LITTLE TALES
The New Advocate
A Country Doctor
In the Gallery
An Ancient Manuscript
Before the Law
Jackals and Arabs
A Visit to the Mine
The Next Village
A Message from the Emperor
Odradek, or Cares of a Householder
Eleven Sons
A Brother's Murder
A Dream
A Report to an Academy
THE RIDER ON THE COAL-SCUTTLE
A HUNGER ARTIST: FOUR STORIES
First Sorrow
A Little Woman
A Hunger Artist
Josefine, the Singer or the Mouse-People
BLUMFELD, AN ELDERLY BACHELOR
AT THE BUILDING OF THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA
THE HUNTSMAN GRACCHUS
INVESTIGATIONS OF A DOG
THE BURROW
SELECTED SHORTER PIECES
The Bridge
The Knock on the Courtyard Gate
TheTruth about Sancho Panza
The Spinning-Top
Cat and Mouse
On Parables
Give it up!
APHORISMS