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Diaries,January 19, 1914: "Great antipathy to 'Metamorphosis.' Unreadable ending. Imperfect almost to its very marrow." Gustav Janouch suggested that Samsa, the hero of the story, sounds like a cryptogram for Kafka. "Kafka interrupted me. 'It is not a cryptogram. Samsa is not merely Kafka and nothing else [Samsa ist nicht restlos Kafka]. The Metamorphosisis not a confession, although it is — in a certain sense — an indiscretion'." (Conversations with Kafka,p. 35).
In the Penal Colony
"In der Strafkolonie," written October 1914, was first published by Kurt Wolff Verlag as a Drugulin Press edition, Leipzig, 1919. Erz ä hlungen(Schocken B1 and C5), pp. 179-213. Penal Colony(Schocken D3), pp. 191-227.
Kafka to Janouch on this story: "Personal proofs of my human weakness are printed. . . because my friends, with Max Brod at their head, have conceived the idea of making literature out of them, and because I have not the strength to destroy this evidence of solitude." (Conversations with Kafka,p. 32).
The Village Schoolmaster [The Giant Mole]
The unfinished "Der Dorfschullehrer" or "Der Riesenmaulwurf" (Kafka used both titles), written in December 1914 and the begi
Diaries,December 19, 1914: "Yesterday wrote 'The Village Schoolmaster' almost without knowing it, but was afraid to go on writing later than a quarter to two; the fear was well founded, I slept hardly at all, merely suffered through perhaps three short dreams. . . Then went home and calmly wrote for three hours." "The one gravely incomplete story in the book [Great Wall of China](E. Muir, Introductory Note to the first English edition, p. xvii).
Blumfeld, an Elderly Bachelor
The incomplete "Blumfeld, ein alterer Junggeselle," written probably in the begi
Diaries,February 9, 1915: "Just now read the begi
The Warden of the Tomb
"Der Gruftwächter," a piece in drama form, written in the winter of 1916-17, was first published in Beschreibung eines Kampfes(Schocken Bv), pp. 288-305. Description of a Struggle(Schocken D8), pp. 147-78.
"Talking about a play he had written — probably 'The Warden of the Tomb' — when we very much wanted to hear it, he said: 'The only thing about the play that is not dilletantish, is that I shall notread it to you" (Max Brod, Franz Kafka,p. 74, quoting Oskar Baum's "Memories of Franz Kafka," 1929).
A Country Doctor
"Ein Landarzt," written not before the winter of 1916-17, was first published in the almanac Die neue Dichtung(Leipzig: Kurt Wolff Verlag, 1918). Included in the collection of stories Ein Landarzt. Kleine Erz ä hlungen(Munich and Leipzig: Kurt Wolff Verlag, 1919). Erz ä hlungen(Schocken B1 and C5), pp. 146-53. Penal Colony(Schocken D3), pp. 136-43.
Kafka dedicated the collection to his father. "Not as if I could appease the father; the roots of this hostility are irradicable. . ." (to Max Brod, end of March 1918; Briefe,p. 237). Max Brod, Franz Kafka,p. 31: "Franz often recounted the reply with which his father received the book — he certainly meant no harm by it — his father said nothing but, 'Put it on my bedside table.' "
The Hunter Gracchus
"Der Jäger Gracchus," written in the first half of 1917, was first published in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer(pp. 43-50), and reprinted in Beschreibung eines Kampfes(Schocken Bv), pp. 102-7, which contains also a "Fragment zum 'Jäger Gracchus' " (pp. 331-35). Great Wall of China(Schocken D1), pp. 115-20. The "Fragment": in Description of a Struggle(Schocken D8), pp. 234-41. See also the reference to the Hunter Gracchus motif in Diaries,April 6, 1917.
The Great Wall of China
"Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer," written in the spring of 1917, was first published in the volume bearing that title (pp. 9-28) and reprinted in Beschreibung eines Kampfes(Schocken Bv), pp. 67-82. Great Wall of China(Schocken D1), pp. 83-97. The story "though apparently a fragment, is so perfect in itself that it may be read as a finished work" (E. Muir, Introductory Note to the first English edition, p. xvii). The "Fragment" ("The News of the Building of the Wall"): in Description of a Struggle(Schocken D8), pp. 226 ff.
A Report to an Academy
"Ein Bericht für eine Akademie," written in mid-1917, was first published in the monthly Der Jude,edited by Martin Buber, vol. II (November 1917), pp. 559-65. Included in Ein Landarzt,1919. Erz ä hlungen(Schocken B1 and C5), pp. 184-96. Penal Colony(Schocken D3), pp. 173-84. The "Fragment": in Description of a Struggle(Schocken D8), pp. 219-25.
The Refusal
"Die Abweisung," written in the fall of 1920, was first published in Beschreibung eines Kampfes(Schocken Bv), pp. 83-89. Description of a Struggle(Schocken D8), pp. 179-91.
A Hunger Artist
"Ein Hungerkunstler," written in the spring of 1922, was first issued in Die Neue Rundschau,edited by Rudolf Kayser, published by S. Fischer Verlag, October 1922. Included in the collection Ein Hungerk ü nstler. Vier Geschichten,published by Verlag Die Schmiede, Berlin, 1924 (Die Romane des XX. Jahrhunderts). The volume comprises, besides the title story, "First Sorrow," "A Little Woman," and "Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk." Kafka read the proofs of the first signature; the book appeared after his death (Briefe,p. 519, note 9). Erz ä hlungen(Schocken B1 and C5), pp. 255-68. Penal Colony(Schocken D3), pp. 243-56.
Investigations of a Dog
"Forschungen eines Hundes," written probably in the spring of 1922, was first published in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer,pp. 154-211, and reprinted in Beschreibung eines Kampfes(Schocken Bv), pp. 233-78. Great Wall of China(Schocken D1), pp. 1-43. The story "is virtually complete" (E. Muir, Introductory Note to the first English edition, p. xvii).
A Little Woman
"Eine kleine Frau," written toward the end of 1923, was included in Bin Hungerkünstler (q.v.), Erz ä hlungen(Schocken B1 and C5), pp.244-54. Penal Colony(Schocken D3), pp. 234-43.
At the end of September 1923, Kafka, with his companion Dora Dymant, moved to Berlin-Steglitz. "There was written the comparatively happy story, 'A Little Woman.' The 'little woman-judge' who lives her life in constant anger with her own 'ego,' which is really a stranger to her, is none other than their landlady." (Max Brod, Franz Kafka,p. 197).