Meditations by Franz Kafka Publisher: Beijing Yanshan Publishing House

Introduction · · · · · ·
This book is one of the six volumes of the Designers’ Joint Book Series: K Classics. Betrachtung is Kafka’s first published collection of works. It was published by Ernst Rowohlt Verlag in Leipzig, Germany in 1912 and includes eighteen early works by the writer.

Commenting on Meditations, the Berliner Daily said: "What Kafka said was like the whispers of those unloved, quiet and silent people." These 18 works are of different styles and lengths. From them we can see that Kafka already had his own unique writing style in his early years, and we can also feel his keen insight and extremely delicate inner world.

Editor's Recommendation:

★The "K Classics" series covers all of Kafka's short and medium-length works published during his lifetime. It also includes 6 of Kafka's unpublished posthumous works, Kafka's will, and Kafka's chronology.

★8 works are unique to Tong Yali's translation, among which 3 short essays are published in simplified Chinese for the first time.

★ Peter Mendelsund, the world's top book cover designer, is in charge of the cover design, creating "a work of art in the book". His design was described by the Wall Street Journal as "the most recognizable and representative design of contemporary novel covers". "K Classics" breaks the heavy and simple style of Kafka's previous books and is full of avant-garde; abstract graphics and bright colors give Kafka's works new vitality.

★Direct translation from German, single translator. Compared with the popular compilations on the market, the language style of the "K Classics" series is more unified; direct translation from German, purely restores the essence of Kafka's works.

About the Author
Franz Kafka (1883-1924)

A famous Austrian novelist, he is regarded as a pioneer and master of Western modernist literature along with French writer Marcel Proust and Irish writer James Joyce.

Born into a Jewish merchant family, he lived in Czechoslovakia under the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He loved writing all his life, but most of his works were not published during his lifetime. After he died of tuberculosis, his manuscripts were compiled and published by his good friend Max Brod, which shocked the world.