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  • Letter to my Father by Franz Kafka book cover
  • Letter to my Father by Franz Kafka book cover
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Letter to my Father

by Franz Kafka

A private letter that approaches autobiography

$14.01 USD
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Awards & Recognition

  • Critical praise

    Praise from the New York Sun for the translation

    Attributed praise for Howard Colyer’s translation, specifically its success in reproducing the letter’s emotiona...

AlbakiReads Editorial

A private letter that approaches autobiography

Written in response to his father’s opposition to his engagement to Julie Wohryzek, Kafka’s letter became an extended account of their relationship and of his own life. The engagement did not lead to marriage, and the letter was never delivered. This edition also includes Kafka’s final letter to his parents, written as he lay dying of tuberculosis near Vienna in 1924. Together, the two pieces frame a personal correspondence shaped by family conflict and leave the reader with both a long, unsent address and a brief final communication.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in Kafka’s life and family relationships.
  • Readers exploring personal letters and autobiographical writing.
  • Readers seeking a German literary classic in translation.

Themes

Father-son relationshipsFamily conflictEngagement and marriageAutobiographical writingPrivate correspondence

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

This letter is the closest that Kafka came to setting down his autobiography. He was driven to write it by his father's opposition to his engagement with Julie Wohryzek. The marriage did not take place; the letter was not delivered. 'In his preface he [the translator Howard Colyer] states that he was most concerned to reproduce the raw "venting of feelings" in the letter as well as the extraordinary "momentum of the prose." In both these aims he succeeds. Unlike earlier, and fussier, versions, his translation catches the naked energy of the original.' -- New York Sun, Eric Ormsby The new edition includes the last letter Kafka wrote to his parents as he lay dying of tuberculosis near Vienna in 1924.
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