Table Of ContentKAFKA
Kafka
The
Early
Years
Reiner
Stach
Translated by Shelley Frisch
princeton university press
Princeton and Oxford
Originally published in Germany as Kafk a— Die frühen Jahre
© S. Fischer Verlag GmbH, Frankfurt am Main 2013
Translation copyright © 2017 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton,
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Jacket photograph courtesy of Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach
Excerpt from “Going Under” reprinted by permission of Gerald Casale
Excerpt from “Pieces and Parts” reprinted by permission of Laurie
Anderson
“Th e Sound of the Crowd”
Words and Music by Phil Oakey and Ian Burden
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Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Stach, Reiner, author. | Frisch, Shelley Laura, translator.
Title: Kafk a, the early years / Reiner Stach ; translated by Shelley Frisch.
Other titles: Kafk a, die frühen Jahre. En glish
Description: Prince ton : Prince ton University Press, 2016. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifi ers: LCCN 2016021490 | ISBN 9780691151984 (hardback)
Subjects: LCSH: Kafk a, Franz, 1883-1924— Childhood and youth.
| Authors, Austrian—20th century— Biography. | BISAC:
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Literary. | LITERARY
CRITICISM / Eur o pean / Eastern (see also Rus sian & Former
Soviet Union). | LITERARY CRITICISM / General.
Classifi cation: LCC PT2621.A26 Z88413 2016 | DDC 833/.912— dc23
LC rec ord available at https:// lccn . loc . gov / 2016021490
British Library Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available
Th e translation of this work was funded by Geisteswissenschaft en
International— Translation Funding for Humanities and Social
Sciences from Germany, a joint initiative of the Fritz Th yssen
Foundation, the German Federal Foreign Offi ce, the collecting
society VG WORT and the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels
(German Publishers & Booksellers Association)
Th is book has been composed in Verdigris MVB Pro text with
Mensch display
Printed on acid- free paper. ∞
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CONTENTS
Translator’s Preface ix
chapter one
Nothing Happening in Prague 1
chapter two
Th e Curtain Rises 7
chapter three
Giants: Th e Kafk as from Wosek 26
chapter four
Julie Löwy 38
chapter five
Losing Propositions 46
chapter six
Th oughts about Freud 58
chapter seven
Kafk a, Franz: Model Student 77
chapter eight
A City Energized 90
chapter nine
Elli, Valli, Ottla 113
chapter ten
Latin, Bohemian, Mathematics,
and Other Matters of the Heart 122
chapter eleven
Jewish Lessons 150
chapter twelve
Innocence and Impudence 171
vi chapter thirteen
Th e Path to Freedom 184
chapter fourteen
To Hell with German Studies 204
chapter fifteen
Friend Max 222
chapter sixteen
Enticements 236
chapter seventeen
Informed Circles: Utitz, Weltsch, Fanta, Bergmann 248
chapter eighteen
Autonomy and Recovery 268
chapter nineteen
Th e Interior Landscape: “Description of a Struggle” 284
chapter twenty
Doctor of Law Seeking Employment 302
chapter twenty- one
Off to the Prostitutes 325
chapter twenty- two
Cafés, Geishas, Art, and Cinema 335
chapter twenty- three
Th e Formidable Assistant Offi cial 350
chapter twenty- four
Th e Secret Writing School 370
chapter twenty- five
Landing in Brescia 391
chapter twenty- six
In the Heart of the West 407
chapter twenty- seven
Ideas and Spirits: Buber, Steiner, Einstein 420
chapter twenty- eight vii
Literature and Tourism 437
Acknowledgments 463
Key to Abbreviations 465
Notes 467
Bibliography 531
Photo Credits 549
Index 551
TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE
It took reiner stach two decades of intense, wide- ranging
research and writing to produce this monumental three- volume biog-
raphy of Franz Kafk a. Readers in German- speaking countries were
rewarded for their patience when this, the fi nal volume, Kafk a: Die
frühen Jahre, was published by S. Fischer Verlag in 2014, as a capstone
to a trilogy that fi rst saw publication with Kafk a: Die Jahre der Entsche-
idungen (2002) and then Kafk a: Die Jahre der Erkenntnis (2008). Th e
2002 tome appeared in English as Kafk a: Th e Decisive Years in 2005
and was followed by the translation of the 2008 work as Kafk a: Th e
Years of Insight in 2013. And now, with the publication of Kafk a: Th e Early
Years, English- language readers have access to the full story of Kafk a’s
life, a project driven by the author’s intention to invite readers to
experience “what it was like to be Kafka.”
As the titles reveal, the last volume to be written covers Kafk a’s
early years, and the volume written fi rst covers Kafk a’s middle years.
Th is order of publication, which may appear counterintuitive— even
fi ttingly “Kafk aesque”— was dictated by years of high- profi le legal
wrangling for control of the Max Brod literary estate in Israel, during
which access to the materials it contained, many of which bore di-
rectly on Kafk a’s formative years, was barred to scholars. Th e justice
system there has now ruled against the family that had been claiming
the right to keep these materials in private ownership and away from
the public, a welcome ruling for researchers and the general reading
public. Reiner Stach has been able to examine three volumes of
Brod’s diaries in this collection, those from the years 1909 to 1911;
these are referenced in the text simply as “Max Brod, diary,” followed
by the date(s) in question. He has also been able to draw on a detailed
(170- page) inventory of the literary estate as a whole. Reiner Stach’s
Kafk a biography is the fi rst to mine and incorporate these hitherto
unknown materials as well as much other information that has never
found its way into a biography of Kafka, such as the unpublished
memoirs of Kafka’s classmate Hugo Hecht. Th ese materials shed
new and revelatory light on Kafk a’s early years and more than justify
