Essential . . . The new volume, in
a sensitive and briskly idiomatic translation by Ross Benjamin, offers revelation upon revelation. It’s
an invaluable addition to Kafka’s oeuvreEssential . . . The new volume, in
a sensitive and briskly idiomatic translation by Ross Benjamin, offers revelation upon revelation. It’s
an invaluable addition to Kafka’s oeuvreMomentous . . . Life also bursts into literature at the level of form, and in Kafka’s diaries even the words are acrobatic. As Ross Benjamin notes in the thoughtful introduction to his new translation, his aim is to capture the extent to which the diaries were a 'laboratory for Kafka’s literary production' and thereby catch the author 'in the act of writing.' He has succeeded. Everything in the diaries thrashes . . . [
They] are
the intimate incisions of an author who could write only by etching words into the fleshBenjamin, whose translation is
the first complete and uncensored edition of the Diaries to be made available to an English readership . . . begins from scratch the whole business of restoring to the notebooks their 'provisionality, materiality, and mutability . . [His] aim is to give us the writer in his 'workshop,' blotting the page, changing his mind, running at a sentence a dozen times and still not getting it right
Readers will welcome this new edition of the
Diaries, complete, uncensored, in
a fluent translation by Ross Benjamin, and supplemented with 78 pages of invaluable notes,
the fruit of half a century of Kafka scholarshipThis new and scrupulously faithful translation of the Diaries brings us, unembellished by theory,
the true inner life of the twentieth century’s most complex and enigmatic literary prophet, whose very name has come to us as symbol and vision of innocent vulnerability in the face of irrational force
Franz Kafka’s inner life has always been a bit of a mystery. The expurgated diaries in their original German and English versions hinted at his complicated, often confused relationship to sex, politics, illness, and being Jewish. This readable new translation of the complete German version of the diary
transforms the silent Kafka of a century ago into a Kafka not only of his times but of oursThirty two years after their original publication in German, Franz Kafka's complete
Diaries are here in Ross Benjamin's
outstanding translation ... Now we have in English
some of the most intimate reflections and literary experiments of one of the towering geniuses of modern literatureA fresh, unadulterated translation of Kafka’s notebooks, dense with introspection and writerly despair . . . The attraction of Kafka’s diaries has always been his coruscating descriptions of his existential struggles as a writer and human being.
He captures his frustration in ways that are wrenching, vivid, and highly quotableFinally! Three decades after the publication of the critical edition of Franz Kafka's diaries in Germany,
English readers can now 'catch Kafka in the act of writing,' thanks to this monumental endeavor by translator Ross Benjamin. This new volume offers us Kafka's singular perspective and delivers
an expanded window into Kafka's unique personality. The
intricately researched and detailed Notes (75 pages of them!) provide us with a wealth of knowledge and context. For those of us in thrall to Kafka the Man as well as the Writer, the Notes add layers of life to Kafka's world and milieu and
reveal a new depth and richness to Kafka's humanity. This new volume is
an essential addition to the library of every serious student and reader of KafkaMr. Benjamin’s translation doesn’t just supplant the previous edition — it
inaugurates a new phase of Kafka’s afterlife in English . . .
The writing glimmers with sensitivity, and openness to the worldRoss Benjamin has given the literary world an incredible treasure in this thoughtful edition.
Kafka has never been so fully present, both as a man and a writerFranz Kafka (Author)
Franz Kafka (1883-1924) was born of Jewish parents in Prague. Several of his story collections were published in his lifetime and his novels, The Trial, The Castle, and Amerika, were published posthumously by his editor Max Brod.
Ross Benjamin (Translator)
Ross Benjamin's translations include Friedrich Hölderlin’s Hyperion, Joseph Roth’s Job, and Daniel Kehlmann’s You Should Have Left and Tyll. He was awarded the Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize for his rendering of Michael Maar’s Speak, Nabokov, and he received a Guggenheim Fellowship for his work on Franz Kafka’s diaries.