Penguin Random House Higher Education
Elementary Secondary Higher Ed

Higher Education


Catalogs

News

Desk/Exam
(0)
Wish List
(0)
Wish List
  • Higher Education

    • Business & Economics
        • Business & Economics
        • Accounting
        • Business
        • Economics
        • Finance
        • Management
        • Management Information Services
        • Marketing

        • Browse All Disciplines & Courses in Business & Economics
    • Humanities & Social Sciences
        • Humanities & Social Sciences
        • Anthropology
        • Art
        • Communication
        • Education
        • English
        • Film Studies
        • History
        • Interdisciplinary Studies
        • Music
        •  
        • Performing Arts
        • Philosophy
        • Political Science
        • Psychology
        • Religion
        • Social Work
        • Sociology
        • Student Success and Career Development
        • World Languages

        • Browse All Disciplines & Courses in Humanities & Social Sciences
    • Professional Studies
        • Professional Studies
        • Architecture
        • Criminal Justice
        • Culinary, Hospitality, Travel , and Tourism
        • Healthcare Professions
        • Legal and Paralegal Studies
        • Military Science

        • Browse All Disciplines & Courses in Professional Studies
    • Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
        • Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
        • Biology
        • Chemistry
        • Computer Science
        • Computers & Information Systems
        • Engineering
        • Environmental Science
        •  
        • Geography
        • Geology
        • Health and Kinesiology
        • Mathematics
        • Nutrition
        • Physics and Astronomy

        • Browse All Disciplines & Courses in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
    • Catalogs
    • News
    • Desk/Exam
    • Other Penguin Random House Education Sites
    • Elementary Education
    • Secondary Education
Are you still there?
If not, we’ll close this session in:
Download high-resolution image Look inside

Letters to Felice

Part of The Schocken Kafka Library

Author Franz Kafka
Translated by James Stern, Elisabeth Duckworth
Look inside
Paperback
$19.95 US
Knopf | Schocken
On sale Dec 06, 2016 | 624 Pages | 978-0-8052-0851-1
Add to cart Add to list Exam Copies
See Additional Formats
  • Interdisciplinary Studies > Race and Ethnic Studies > Jewish Literature and Drama
  • World Languages > German > German Literature
  • About
  • Author
Franz Kafka met Felice Bauer in August 1912, at the home of his friend Max Brod. Energetic, down-to-earth, and life-affirming, the twenty-five-year-old secretary was everything Kafka was not, and he was instantly smitten. Because he was living in Prague and she in Berlin, his courtship was largely an epistolary one—passionate, self-deprecating, and anxious letters sent almost daily, sometimes even two or three times a day. But soon after their engagement was announced in 1914, Kafka began to worry that marriage would interfere with his writing and his need for solitude.

The more than five hundred letters Kafka wrote to Felice—through their breakup, a second engagement in 1917, and their final parting in the fall of that year, when Kafka began to feel the effects of the tuberculosis that would eventually claim his life—reveal the full measure of his inner turmoil as he tried, in vain, to balance his desire for human connection with what he felt were the solitary demands of his craft.

“Some of the most heartrending ‘love letters’ ever written.”
—Morris Dickstein, The New York Times Book Review

“Kafka’s correspondence with Felice has all the earmarks of his fiction—the same nervous attention to minute particulars, the same paranoid awareness of shifting balances of power, the same atmosphere of emotional suffocation—combined, surprisingly enough, with moments of boyish ardor and delight. Taken together, Elias Canetti observes, the letters provide an index of the emotional events that would inspire The Trial—a novel, Canetti argues, in which Kafka’s engagement to Felice is reimagined as the mysterious and menacing arrest of the hero.”
—Michiko Kakutani,The New York Times
© Courtesy of Schocken Books

FRANZ KAFKA was born in 1883 in Prague, where he lived most of his life. During his lifetime, he published only a few short stories, including “The Metamorphosis,” “The Judgment,” and “The Stoker.” He died in 1924, before completing any of his full-length novels. At the end of his life, Kafka asked his lifelong friend and literary executor Max Brod to burn all his unpublished work. Brod overrode those wishes.

View titles by Franz Kafka

About

Franz Kafka met Felice Bauer in August 1912, at the home of his friend Max Brod. Energetic, down-to-earth, and life-affirming, the twenty-five-year-old secretary was everything Kafka was not, and he was instantly smitten. Because he was living in Prague and she in Berlin, his courtship was largely an epistolary one—passionate, self-deprecating, and anxious letters sent almost daily, sometimes even two or three times a day. But soon after their engagement was announced in 1914, Kafka began to worry that marriage would interfere with his writing and his need for solitude.

The more than five hundred letters Kafka wrote to Felice—through their breakup, a second engagement in 1917, and their final parting in the fall of that year, when Kafka began to feel the effects of the tuberculosis that would eventually claim his life—reveal the full measure of his inner turmoil as he tried, in vain, to balance his desire for human connection with what he felt were the solitary demands of his craft.

“Some of the most heartrending ‘love letters’ ever written.”
—Morris Dickstein, The New York Times Book Review

“Kafka’s correspondence with Felice has all the earmarks of his fiction—the same nervous attention to minute particulars, the same paranoid awareness of shifting balances of power, the same atmosphere of emotional suffocation—combined, surprisingly enough, with moments of boyish ardor and delight. Taken together, Elias Canetti observes, the letters provide an index of the emotional events that would inspire The Trial—a novel, Canetti argues, in which Kafka’s engagement to Felice is reimagined as the mysterious and menacing arrest of the hero.”
—Michiko Kakutani,The New York Times

Author

© Courtesy of Schocken Books

FRANZ KAFKA was born in 1883 in Prague, where he lived most of his life. During his lifetime, he published only a few short stories, including “The Metamorphosis,” “The Judgment,” and “The Stoker.” He died in 1924, before completing any of his full-length novels. At the end of his life, Kafka asked his lifelong friend and literary executor Max Brod to burn all his unpublished work. Brod overrode those wishes.

View titles by Franz Kafka

Additional formats

  • Letters to Felice
    Letters to Felice
    Franz Kafka
    978-0-8041-5076-7
    $14.99 US
    Ebook
    Schocken
    Jun 26, 2013
  • Letters to Felice
    Letters to Felice
    Franz Kafka
    978-0-8041-5076-7
    $14.99 US
    Ebook
    Schocken
    Jun 26, 2013

Other books in this series

  • The Diaries of Franz Kafka
    The Diaries of Franz Kafka
    Franz Kafka
    978-0-8052-4355-0
    $45.00 US
    Hardcover
    Schocken
    Jan 10, 2023
  • Aphorisms
    Aphorisms
    Franz Kafka
    978-0-8052-1265-5
    $18.95 US
    Hardcover
    Schocken
    Nov 17, 2015
  • Letter to the Father/Brief an den Vater
    Letter to the Father/Brief an den Vater
    Bilingual Edition
    Franz Kafka
    978-0-8052-1266-2
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Schocken
    Nov 03, 2015
  • Letters to Milena
    Letters to Milena
    Franz Kafka
    978-0-8052-1267-9
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Schocken
    Nov 03, 2015
  • Letters to Ottla and the Family
    Letters to Ottla and the Family
    Franz Kafka
    978-0-8041-5074-3
    $12.99 US
    Ebook
    Schocken
    Jun 26, 2013
  • Amerika: The Missing Person
    Amerika: The Missing Person
    A New Translation, Based on the Restored Text
    Franz Kafka
    978-0-8052-1161-0
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Schocken
    Aug 16, 2011
  • The Trial
    The Trial
    A New Translation Based on the Restored Text
    Franz Kafka
    978-0-8052-0999-0
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Schocken
    May 25, 1999
  • The Castle
    The Castle
    A New Translation Based on the Restored Text
    Franz Kafka
    978-0-8052-1106-1
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Schocken
    Dec 15, 1998
  • The Complete Stories
    The Complete Stories
    Franz Kafka
    978-0-8052-1055-2
    $20.00 US
    Paperback
    Schocken
    Nov 14, 1995
  • The Metamorphosis
    The Metamorphosis
    And Other Stories
    Franz Kafka
    978-0-8052-1057-6
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Schocken
    Nov 14, 1995
  • Letters to Friends, Family, and Editors
    Letters to Friends, Family, and Editors
    Franz Kafka
    978-0-8052-0949-5
    $23.00 US
    Paperback
    Schocken
    Mar 10, 1990
  • The Sons
    The Sons
    The Judgment, The Stoker, The Metamorphosis, and Letter to His Father
    Franz Kafka
    978-0-8052-0886-3
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Schocken
    Aug 05, 1989
  • The Diaries of Franz Kafka, 1910-1923
    The Diaries of Franz Kafka, 1910-1923
    Franz Kafka
    978-0-8052-0906-8
    $20.00 US
    Paperback
    Schocken
    Oct 30, 1988
  • The Diaries of Franz Kafka
    The Diaries of Franz Kafka
    Franz Kafka
    978-0-8052-4355-0
    $45.00 US
    Hardcover
    Schocken
    Jan 10, 2023
  • Aphorisms
    Aphorisms
    Franz Kafka
    978-0-8052-1265-5
    $18.95 US
    Hardcover
    Schocken
    Nov 17, 2015
  • Letter to the Father/Brief an den Vater
    Letter to the Father/Brief an den Vater
    Bilingual Edition
    Franz Kafka
    978-0-8052-1266-2
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Schocken
    Nov 03, 2015
  • Letters to Milena
    Letters to Milena
    Franz Kafka
    978-0-8052-1267-9
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Schocken
    Nov 03, 2015
  • Letters to Ottla and the Family
    Letters to Ottla and the Family
    Franz Kafka
    978-0-8041-5074-3
    $12.99 US
    Ebook
    Schocken
    Jun 26, 2013
  • Amerika: The Missing Person
    Amerika: The Missing Person
    A New Translation, Based on the Restored Text
    Franz Kafka
    978-0-8052-1161-0
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Schocken
    Aug 16, 2011
  • The Trial
    The Trial
    A New Translation Based on the Restored Text
    Franz Kafka
    978-0-8052-0999-0
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Schocken
    May 25, 1999
  • The Castle
    The Castle
    A New Translation Based on the Restored Text
    Franz Kafka
    978-0-8052-1106-1
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Schocken
    Dec 15, 1998
  • The Complete Stories
    The Complete Stories
    Franz Kafka
    978-0-8052-1055-2
    $20.00 US
    Paperback
    Schocken
    Nov 14, 1995
  • The Metamorphosis
    The Metamorphosis
    And Other Stories
    Franz Kafka
    978-0-8052-1057-6
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Schocken
    Nov 14, 1995
  • Letters to Friends, Family, and Editors
    Letters to Friends, Family, and Editors
    Franz Kafka
    978-0-8052-0949-5
    $23.00 US
    Paperback
    Schocken
    Mar 10, 1990
  • The Sons
    The Sons
    The Judgment, The Stoker, The Metamorphosis, and Letter to His Father
    Franz Kafka
    978-0-8052-0886-3
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Schocken
    Aug 05, 1989
  • The Diaries of Franz Kafka, 1910-1923
    The Diaries of Franz Kafka, 1910-1923
    Franz Kafka
    978-0-8052-0906-8
    $20.00 US
    Paperback
    Schocken
    Oct 30, 1988

Other Books by this Author

  • The Metamorphosis
    The Metamorphosis
    Franz Kafka
    978-0-8129-8514-6
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Modern Library
    Nov 26, 2013
  • Metamorphosis and Other Stories
    Metamorphosis and Other Stories
    (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
    Franz Kafka
    978-0-14-310524-4
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Feb 26, 2008
  • The Metamorphosis: The Illustrated Edition
    The Metamorphosis: The Illustrated Edition
    Franz Kafka
    978-1-4000-5299-8
    $14.00 US
    Paperback
    Crown
    Jul 20, 2004
  • Collected Stories of Franz Kafka
    Collected Stories of Franz Kafka
    Introduction by Gabriel Josipovici
    Franz Kafka
    978-0-679-42303-4
    $28.00 US
    Hardcover
    Everyman's Library
    Oct 26, 1993
  • The Metamorphosis
    The Metamorphosis
    Franz Kafka
    978-0-553-21369-0
    $5.95 US
    Mass Market Paperback
    Bantam Classics
    Feb 01, 1972
  • The Metamorphosis
    The Metamorphosis
    Franz Kafka
    978-0-8129-8514-6
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Modern Library
    Nov 26, 2013
  • Metamorphosis and Other Stories
    Metamorphosis and Other Stories
    (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
    Franz Kafka
    978-0-14-310524-4
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Feb 26, 2008
  • The Metamorphosis: The Illustrated Edition
    The Metamorphosis: The Illustrated Edition
    Franz Kafka
    978-1-4000-5299-8
    $14.00 US
    Paperback
    Crown
    Jul 20, 2004
  • Collected Stories of Franz Kafka
    Collected Stories of Franz Kafka
    Introduction by Gabriel Josipovici
    Franz Kafka
    978-0-679-42303-4
    $28.00 US
    Hardcover
    Everyman's Library
    Oct 26, 1993
  • The Metamorphosis
    The Metamorphosis
    Franz Kafka
    978-0-553-21369-0
    $5.95 US
    Mass Market Paperback
    Bantam Classics
    Feb 01, 1972
 Keep in touch!
Sign up for news from Penguin Random House Higher Education.
Subscribe
Connect with Us!

Get the latest news on all things Higher Education. Learn about our books, authors, teacher events, and more!

Friend us on Facebook!

Follow us on Twitter!

Subscribe on YouTube!

Our mission is to foster a universal passion for reading by partnering with authors to help create stories and communicate ideas that inform, entertain, and inspire.

Privacy Policy   |   Terms of Use

© 2023 Penguin Random House

About Higher Education

  • About Us
  • Digital Solutions
  • FAQs
  • Conferences
  • Submit a desk/exam request
  • Contact your Higher Education Account Manager
  • Browse & subscribe to our newsletters

Penguin Random House Education

  • Elementary
  • Secondary
  • Higher Ed
  • Common Reads

Penguin Random House

  • penguinrandomhouse.com
  • global.penguinrandomhouse.com
  • Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau

About Higher Education

  • About Us
  • Digital Solutions
  • FAQs
  • Conferences

Penguin Random House Education

  • Elementary
  • Secondary
  • Higher Ed
  • Common Reads
  • Submit a desk/exam request
  • Contact your Higher Education Account Manager
  • Browse & subscribe to our newsletters

Penguin Random House

  • penguinrandomhouse.com
  • global.penguinrandomhouse.com
  • Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau

Privacy Policy   |   Terms of Use

© 2023 Penguin Random House
Back to Top

/