BOOKS
327
stories. Five more volumes are promised for the near future, including
two volumes of diaries, two of letters, and one consisting of aphorisms
and fragments. The first collected edition of Kafka contained no more
than
six
volumes, of which only one volume was composed of diaries
and letters. Clearly, the additional material now being prepared for
publication will heighten our understanding of Kafka's personality, both
from a creative and biographical standpoint. One hopes, too, that Brod,
· the conscientious and devoted editor of Kafka's writings, will now avail
himself of the opportunity to :make public at long last the exceedingly
important.:_because of its length and
detail-Letter
to
My
Father,
so
far known only in the form of brief extracts.
That this new edition is indispensable to all students of Kafka
goes without saying. All the volumes contain informative editorial notes;
of particular value are the appendices to the three novels, which con–
tain unfinished chapters, variant readings, and passages discarded by
the author. None of
this
material is to
be
found in the English editions.
It is important to note that
The Castle,
in this latest version, continues
for sixty-six pages beyond the point where the narrative comes to a stop
in the English translation. In these additional pages K.'s hope and
baf–
flement are further portrayed in several significant episodes. In the
appendix to
The Trial
there is a good deal of material which enhances
our knowledge of Joseph K.'s circumstances and character; and the two
chapters printed in the appendix to
Amerika
carry forward the descrip–
tion of the hero's captivity in the fantastically cluttered-up establishment
of Brunelda, that great slob of a Circe, in whom erotic and comic fea–
tures are combined in a way that makes her one of the most engaging
and insinuating of Kafka's creations.
P.R.
BACK ISSUES OF PR
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NOVEMBER-DECEMBER
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Mills- The Competitive Personality; Williem Berrett- The Little Magazine.
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