Franz Kafka: The Office Writings brings together, for the first time in English, Kafka's most interesting professional writings, composed during his years as a high-ranking lawyer with the largest Workmen's Accident Insurance Institute in the Czech Lands of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Franz Kafka (1883-1924) is commonly recognized as the greatest German prose writer of the twentieth century. It is less well known that he had an established legal career. Kafka's briefs reveal him to be a canny bureaucrat, sharp litigator, and innovative thinker on the social, political, and legal issues of his time. His official preoccupations inspired many of the themes and strategies of the novels and stories he wrote at night.

These documents include articles on workmen's compensation and workplace safety; appeals for the founding of a psychiatric hospital for shell-shocked veterans; and letters arguing relentlessly for a salary adequate to his merit. In adjudicating disputes, promoting legislative programs, and investigating workplace sites, Kafka's writings teem with details about the bureaucracy and technology of his day, such as spa elevators in Marienbad, the challenge of the automobile, and the perils of excavating in quarries while drunk. Beautifully translated, with valuable commentary by two of the world's leading Kafka scholars and one of America's most eminent civil rights lawyers, the documents cast rich light on the man and the writer and offer new insights to lovers of Kafka's novels and stories.

• We started tracking this book on October 11, 2020.
• This book was $22.49 when we started tracking it.
• The price of this book has changed 30 times in the past 1,675 days.
• The current price of this book is $17.82 last checked 5 hours ago.
• This book is at its lowest price in the past six months.
• This lowest price this book has been offered at in the past year is $17.60.
• The lowest price to date was $16.17 last reached on February 24, 2023.
• This book has been $16.17 7 times since we started tracking it.
• The highest price to date was $29.92 last reached on March 28, 2025.
• This book has been $29.92 3 times since we started tracking it.

• Text-to-Speech: Disabled
• Lending: Disabled
• Print Length: 428 Pages
• File Size: 182 KB