Kafka's Prague: A Travel Reader - European Travel Books

Hardcover - 01 February, 1996 - Overlook Hardcover
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By: Klaus Wagenbach, Penguin USA Overlook Pr and Shaun Whiteside
ISBN: 0879516445

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About this book

Franz Kafka rarely left his home town of Prague. At 19, he wrote "Prague doesn't let go. This little mother has claws." And though he complained often to his diary that he needed to get away, he spent most of his 41 years (1883-1924) firmly Prague-rooted. Prague is where Kafka wrote The Metamorphosis, The Trial, and The Castle, and where he lived and worked. A fan of Kafka might want to see the houses (nearly all still standing) where Kafka lived and the parks he strolled. Likewise, fans of Prague get an expanded understanding of the city through Kafka's eyes. This erudite and beautifully compiled Travel Reader is not only a guide to the Prague that Kafka knew, but also a guide to the Kafka that Prague knew.

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Reviews by readers

"This little mother has claws."

Franz Kafka spent most of his life in Prague, even though he always felt like a stranger there -- a German-speaking Jew in a predominately Czech Catholic town. Consequently, there are many sites in Prague that are of some interest to fans of Kafka's work. Klaus Wagenbach's little "Travel Reader" highlights most of these sites (e.g., the writer's birthplace, all the Kafka family residences around Old Town Square, Kafka's apartment in the castle, etc.). If you're headed to Prague, you could easily spend half a day retracing Kafka's footsteps with this guide. The book includes a map and numerous photographs of the city as it appeared about 100 years ago so you can contrast today's Prague with the Prague Kafka new. It also includes some short excerpts from Kafka's works, mostly vignettes like the haunting "An Imperial Edict", included next to the sections on the buildings where Kafka lived.

I lived in Prague myself for a month this summer and frequently took this book along with me on my evening jaunts through town. The selections from the writer's work included here helped add personal and emotional meaning to what otherwise might have been just a bunch of buildings. Highly recommended.

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