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The Burrow
"Der Bau," written in the winter of 1923-24, was first published in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer,pp. 77-130, and reprinted in Beschreibung ernes Kampfes(Schocken Bv), pp. 172-214. The end of the story was lost. Great Wall of China(Schocken D1), pp. 44-82. The story "is virtually finished" (E. Muir, Introductory Note to the first English edition, p. xvii).
Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk
"Josephine, die Sängerin, oder Das Volk der Mäuse," written in the spring of 1924, is Kafka's last finished work. It was first published in the Prager Presse,April 20, 1924 (Easter edition), and included in Bin Hungerkünstler (q.v.). Erz ä hlungen(Schocken B1 and C5), pp. 268-91. Penal Colony(Schocken D3), pp. 256-77.
The Shorter Stories
The first eighteen stories (from "Children on a Country Road" to "Resolutions") were written between 1904 and 1912. In 1908, Kafka published eight pieces, selected from this group, entitled "Betrachtung," in the bimonthly Hyperion,vol. I, edited by Franz Blei and Carl Sternheim. It was Kafka's first publication. In 1910, he selected five more pieces for publication in the Prague daily Bohemia(March 27). "The Trees," "Clothes," and "Excursion into the Mountains" are taken from "Description of a Struggle" (Schocken D8), pp. 84, 89 f., and 36 f. "Children on a Country Road" is taken from the same story, chap. II of version B, a section not included in the version of "Description of a Struggle" reprinted in this volume. The first version of "Bachelor's Ill Luck" appeared in Diaries,November 14, 1911. "The Sudden Walk": see the entry in the Diaries,January 5, 1912. "Resolutions": see the text in Diaries,February 5, 1912. The entire group appeared, in a sequence established by Kafka, under the title Betrachtung(Leipzig: Rowohlt Verlag, 1913) — Erz ä hlungen(Schocken C5), pp. 23-50. Penal Colony(Schocken D3), pp. 21-45 ("Meditation").
Kafka's own sequence in the collection "Meditation" is as follows: "Children on a Country Road"; "Unmasking a Confidence Trickster"; "The Sudden Walk"; "Resolutions"; "Excursion into the Mountains"; "Bachelor's Ill Luck"; "The Tradesman"; "Absent-minded Window-gazing"; "The Way Home"; "Passers-by"; "On the Tram"; "Clothes"; "Rejection"; "Reflections for Gentlemen-Jockeys"; "The Street Window"; "The Wish to Be a Red Indian"; "The Trees"; "Unhappiness."
Diaries,August 15, 1912: "Again read old diaries instead of keeping away from them. I live as irrationally as is at all possible. And the publication of the thirty-one pages is to blame for everything. Even more to blame, of course, is my weakness, which permits a thing of this sort to influence me."
Diaries,August 11, 1912: "Now, after the publication of the book, I will have to stay away from magazines and reviews even more than before, if I do not wish to be content with just sticking the tips of my fingers into the truth."
The next fifteen stories (from "A Dream" to "The Cares of a Family Man") were written between 1914 and 1917. Some were originally published in Das j ü dische Prag,the periodicals Marsyas(Berlin) and Selbstwehr(Prague). In 1919, Kurt Wolff Verlag (Munich and Leipzig) published a collection of Kafka stories, Bin Landarzt. Kleine Erzahlungen,which contains this group of stories (except "The Bridge," "The Bucket Rider," "The Knock at the Manor Gate," "My Neighbor," and "A Crossbreed" ["A Sport"]). "Jackals and Arabs" ("Schakale und Araber"), written early in 1917, was first published in the monthly Der Jude,edited by Martin Buber, vol. II (October 1917), pp. 488 ff., and in Neue deutsche Erz ä hler,edited by J. Sandmeier, vol. I (Berlin: Furche Verlag, 1918). The longer stories "A Country Doctor" (the title story) and "A Report to an Academy" (included by Kafka in Bin Landarzt)are reprinted in the first section of the present volume. Erz ä hlungen(Schocken C5), pp. 133-77; Penal Colony(Schocken D3), pp. 135-84, with the addition of "The Bucket Rider" (pp. 184-87), which Kafka intended for Ein Landarztand later withdrew from it.
Kafka's own sequence for the collection "A Country Doctor" is as follows: "The New Advocate"; "A Country Doctor"; "Up in the Gallery"; "An Old Manuscript"; "Before the Law"; "Jackals and Arabs"; "A Visit to a Mine"; "The Next Village"; "An Imperial Message"; "The Cares of a Family Man"; "Eleven Sons"; "A Fratricide"; "A Dream"; "A Report to an Academy"; "The Bucket Rider."
Kafka to Brod on "Eleven Sons": "The eleven sons are quite simply eleven stories I am working on this very moment" (Max Brod, Franz Kafka, p.140).
"The Bridge," "The Knock at the Manor Gate," "My Neighbor," and "A Crossbreed ["A Sport"] were first published in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer,then in Beschreibung eines Kampfes(Schocken Bv and C8). Great Wall of China(Schocken D1).
Of the last group of twenty-two stories, written between 1917 and 1923, only one, "First Sorrow," was published by Kafka. "Erstes Leid," probably written between the fall of 1921 and the spring of 1922, appeared in Kurt Wolff Verlag's art periodical Genius,III, No. 2 (1921; actually, 1922). It is included in Bin Hungerkünstler. Vier Geschichten(see note on "A Hunger Artist"). Erz ä hlungen(Schocken C5), pp. 241-43. Penal Colony(Schocken D3), pp. 231-34.
The next five stories ("A Common Confusion" to "The City Coat of Arms") first appeared in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer;the following three ("Poseidon," "Fellowship," and "At Night") were first issued in Beschreibung eines Kampfes(Schocken Av, Bv). The first publication of "The Problem of Our Laws" was in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer(pp. 29-32). The following five stories (from "The Conscription of Troops" to "The Top") appeared first in Beschreibung eines Kampfes(Schocken Av, Bv). "A Little Fable" was first issued in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer(p. 59); "Home-Coming," "The Departure," and "Advocates" in Beschreibung eines Kampfes(Schocken Av, Bv); "The Married Couple" in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer(pp. 66-73); "Give it Up!" in Beschreibung eines Kampfes(Schocken Av, Bv); and "On Parables" in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer(pp. 36 f.). English translations appeared in Great Wall of China(Schocken D1), Penal Colony(Schocken D3), and Description of a Struggle(Schocken D8).
Diaries,June 21, 1913: "The tremendous world I have in my head. But how free myself and free it without being torn to pieces. And a thousand times rather be torn to pieces than retain it in me or bury it. That, indeed, is why I am here, that is clear to me." March 26, 1912: "Only not to overestimate what I have written, for in that way I make what is to be written unattainable."