Investigations of a Dog: And Other Creatures
Franz Kafka
(Author)
Michael Hofmann
(Translator)
Description
Animals, strange beasts, bureaucrats, businessmen, and nightmares populate this collection of stories by Franz Kafka. These matchless short works, all unpublished during Kafka's lifetime, range from the gleeful dialogue between a cat and a mouse in "Little Fable" to the absurd humor of "Investigations of a Dog," from the elaborate waking nightmare of "Building the Great Wall of China" to the creeping unease of "The Burrow," where a nameless creature's labyrinthine hiding place turns into a trap of fear and paranoia.Product Details
Price
$16.95
$15.59
Publisher
New Directions Publishing Corporation
Publish Date
May 23, 2017
Pages
244
Dimensions
5.1 X 0.7 X 7.9 inches | 0.65 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9780811226899
BISAC Categories:
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About the Author
Franz Kafka (1883-1924) was one of the major fiction writers of the twentieth century. Among his most well known stories are "The Metamorphosis" and "In the Penal Colony," and his novels include The Trial and The Castle.
Michael Hofmann is a poet and frequent contributor to The New York Times Book Review, and is widely regarded as one of the world's foremost translators of works from German to English. His original poetry collections include One Lark, One Horse and Where Have You Been? He has translated Willy Peter Reese's A Stranger to Myself, Joseph Roth's The Tale of the 1002nd Night, Herta Muller's The Land of the Green Plums, and Gottfried Benn's Impromptus. Hofman lives in London.
Reviews
Of course I owe much to Kafka. I admire him, as I suppose all reasonable people do.--Jorge Luis Borges
Anything by Kafka is worth reading again, especially in the hands of such a gifted translator as Hofmann.
Hofmann's translation is invaluable--it achieves what translations are supposedly unable to do: it is at once 'loyal' and 'beautiful.'
Kafka spoke for millions in their new unease; a century after his birth, he seems the last holy writer and the supreme fabulist of modern man's cosmic predicament.--John Updike
This New Directions release of Investigations of a Dog provides an opportunity to reconsider many of Kafka's greatest stories in a new book, with beautiful cover design, and to reexamine how a brilliant mind performed under spiritually backbreaking circumstances.
Compare this to any previous translation, and you'll see, for a start, that there is no dilly-dallying with style; the prose is swift, direct and without obfuscation, as, one presumes, Kafka intended. He has cut through literary pretension to seek out the heart of Kafka's work--the very 'particles' of his writing, as they have been called. His translation shows Kafka as a modern writer whose work was beyond that of anything written at that time. Mr. Hofmann, in his many excellent translations from the German, always makes brave choices.--Lee Rourke"What Goes Into a Great Translation?" (06/07/2007)
Hofmann and Kafka...provide one with rich intellectual companionship.-- (06/21/2017)
Anything by Kafka is worth reading again, especially in the hands of such a gifted translator as Hofmann.
Hofmann's translation is invaluable--it achieves what translations are supposedly unable to do: it is at once 'loyal' and 'beautiful.'
Kafka spoke for millions in their new unease; a century after his birth, he seems the last holy writer and the supreme fabulist of modern man's cosmic predicament.--John Updike
This New Directions release of Investigations of a Dog provides an opportunity to reconsider many of Kafka's greatest stories in a new book, with beautiful cover design, and to reexamine how a brilliant mind performed under spiritually backbreaking circumstances.
Compare this to any previous translation, and you'll see, for a start, that there is no dilly-dallying with style; the prose is swift, direct and without obfuscation, as, one presumes, Kafka intended. He has cut through literary pretension to seek out the heart of Kafka's work--the very 'particles' of his writing, as they have been called. His translation shows Kafka as a modern writer whose work was beyond that of anything written at that time. Mr. Hofmann, in his many excellent translations from the German, always makes brave choices.--Lee Rourke"What Goes Into a Great Translation?" (06/07/2007)
Hofmann and Kafka...provide one with rich intellectual companionship.-- (06/21/2017)
