The Castle

The story of K, the unwanted Land Surveyor who is never to be admitted to the Castle nor accepted in the village, and yet cannot go home, seems to reveal an inexplicable truth about the nature of existence. In his Introduction, Idris Parry shows that duality - to Kafka a perpetual human condition - lies at the heart of this magnum opus: dualities of certainty and doubt, hope and fear, reason and nonsense, harmony and disintegration. The Castle then, is an unfinished novel that feels strangely complete, in which a labyrinthine world is described in simple language and absurd fantasy reveals profound truth.

The Penguin Classics + Reference Publisher talks about the rejacketing of Franz Kafka's backlist.

In January we publish stunning new translations of all the stories Franz Kafka published in his lifetime, in renditions by award-winning translator Michael Hofmann. To emphasize the new light Hofmann’s translations shed on Kafka’s writings, we wanted to commission cover artwork that immediately suggests that whether you’ve read Kafka before or never read a line it was worth (another) look. Our art director invited advertising agency Mother, who were working with us on our brilliant summer anniversary campaign for Classics, to design not only a cover for Metamorphosis and Other Stories but also our entire Kafka backlist. We wanted a distinct new look for Kafka, but even so were bowled over by the originality of both the photography and the complementary typography Mother came up with. Given how notoriously difficult Kafka’s writings are to visualize - many previous designers have given up and resorted either to type only or very obvious images like a beetle for Metamorphosis - I’m delighted with the originality and unmissable designs Mother has created for one of the last century’s greatest writers. - Adam Freudenheim, Penguin Classics + Reference Publisher