The Sons
Encyclopedia
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka was a culturally influential German-language author of short stories and novels. Contemporary critics and academics, including Vladimir Nabokov, regard Kafka as one of the best writers of the 20th century...
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In 1913 Kafka wrote to his publisher Kurt Wolff requesting that three of his stories be placed in a single volume:
"The StokerThe Stoker"The Stoker" is a short story by Franz Kafka. Kafka intended to include the story as the first chapter in a novel he did not complete; the novel was posthumously published under the title Amerika.-Plot :...
, The MetamorphosisThe MetamorphosisThe Metamorphosis is a novella by Franz Kafka, first published in 1915. It is often cited as one of the seminal works of short fiction of the 20th century and is widely studied in colleges and universities across the western world...
, and The JudgmentThe Judgment"The Judgment" is a short story written by Franz Kafka in 1912. It is about the relationship between a man and his father.-Plot summary:...
belong together, both inwardly and outwardly. There is an obvious connection among the three, and, even more important, a secret one, for which reason I would be reluctant to forgo the chance of having them published together in a book, which might be called The Sons."
The volume, published by Schocken Books
Schocken Books
Schocken Books is a publishing company that was established in Berlin with a publishing office in Prague in 1931 by the Schocken Department Store owner Salman Schocken. It published the writings of Martin Buber, Franz Rosenzweig, Franz Kafka and S. Y...
, also includes Kafka's Letter to His Father
Letter to His Father
Letter to His Father is the name usually given to the letter Franz Kafka wrote to his father Hermann in November 1919, indicting him for his emotionally abusive and hypocritical behavior towards him....
, which could be seen as another "son story", in this case located somewhere between fiction and autobiography.