The Complete Stories (forword by John Updike)

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 jüdische 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 Erzähler, 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. Erzählungen (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 Landarzt and 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"). Erzählungen (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."

CHRONOLOGY

1883 Born in Prague, July 3, son of Hermann (1852-1931) and Julie (née Löwy) (1856-1934).

1889-93 Elementary school at Fleischmarkt.

1889,1890,1892 Birth of sisters Elli, Valli, Ottla. Two younger brothers died in infancy.

1893-1901 German gymnasium, Prague; friendship with Oskar Pollak. Family resides in Zeltnergasse.

ca. 1899-1900 Reads Spinoza, Darwin, Nietzsche. Friendship with Hugo Bergman.

1899-1903 Early writings (destroyed).

1901-6 Study of German literature, then law at German University, Prague; partly in Munich. Influenced by Alfred Weber's critical analysis of industrial society.