Franz Kafka: The Poet of Shame and Guilt

From the prizewinning Jewish Lives series, a highly original and engaging appraisal of Franz Kafkas life, work, legacy, and thought

The work of a great historian paying careful attention to a great and disquieting writer.Robert Eaglestone, Times Higher Education Supplement

Franz Kafka was the poet of his own disorder. Throughout his life he struggled with a pervasive sense of shame and guilt that left traces in his daily existencein his many letters, in his extensive diaries, and especially in his fiction. This stimulating book investigates some of the sources of Kafkas personal anguish and its complex reflections in his imaginary world.

In his query, Saul Friedländer probes major aspects of Kafkas life (family, Judaism, love and sex, writing, illness, and despair) that until now have been skewed by posthumous censorship. Contrary to Kafkas dying request that all his papers be burned, Max Brod, Kafkas closest friend and literary executor, edited and published the authors novels and other works soon after his death in 1924. Friedländer shows that, when reinserted in Kafkas letters and diaries, deleted segments lift the mask of sainthood frequently attached to the writer and thus restore previously hidden aspects of his individuality.

About Jewish Lives: 

Jewish Lives is a prizewinning series of interpretative biography designed to explore the many facets of Jewish identity. Individual volumes illuminate the imprint of Jewish figures upon literature, religion, philosophy, politics, cultural and economic life, and the arts and sciences. Subjects are paired with authors to elicit lively, deeply informed books that explore the range and depth of the Jewish experience from antiquity to the present.

In 2014, the Jewish Book Council named Jewish Lives the winner of its Jewish Book of the Year Award, the first series ever to receive this award.

More praise for Jewish Lives:

Excellent New York Times

Exemplary Wall Street Journal

Distinguished New Yorker

Superb The Guardian