The Great Wall of China

Malcolm Pasley's translations, together with those in a forthcoming companion volume, The Transformation ('Metamorphosis') and Other Stories, are distinctive in that they illuminate Kafka's life as well as his art by presenting the works in the sequence in which they were written. Unlike other editions popularly available, this one has been prepared directly from the author's manuscripts. In its fidelity to the text it vastly alters our received versions of many of Kafka's greatest works, besides correcting numerous errors of detail. This volume contains the major short works left by Kafka, including Blumfeld, an Elderly Bachelor, The Great Wall of China and Investigations of a Dog, together with The Collected Aphorisms and He: Aphorisms from the 1920 Diary.

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