Several of these friends would also go on to become important writers, including Max Brod, Felix Weltsch, Franz Werfel, Oskar Baum, and Ludwig Winder. While studying, Kafka formed a close group of friends, many of whom he met through a literature society that organized talks, readings, and discussions about books and the arts. He Surrounded Himself With Like-Minded People An image of Kafka with Albert Ehrenstein, Otto Pick and Lise Weltch at the Prater leisure park in Vienna in 1913, via the Kafka Museum Through this tension, he explores themes of isolation, brutality, bravery, and transformation.ħ. Kafka achieves the perfect balance between realism and the fantastical, which forces the reader to reassess our perceptions of the world. Written in 1912, ‘The Metamorphosis’ is considered one of the most important works of 20th-century fiction, as it encourages us to explore what being human means. Everything else in the narrative remains completely ordinary: his family are as shocked as we are, the world goes on as usual, and the salesman himself even retains the cognitive powers of a human. In it, he tells of a normal salesman who wakes up one morning to find himself inexplicably turned into a giant insect. One of his most famous short stories, for instance, is ‘The Metamorphosis’. But there is always some significant twist that pulls the rug from under our feet. In each narrative, either the characters, the setting, or the situation is anchored in the real world, which allows us to relate to them. Kafka’s stories take place in worlds that are both familiar and foreign but what makes Kafka’s stories so profound is that they are grounded in reality.

McKnight Kauffer, 1945-1950, via The Smithsonian His Famous Study for The Metamorphosis Study for The Metamorphosis by American book illustrator E. It is thought that the switch may have been inspired by the longer course in law, which gave Kafka extra time to take the classes he was really interested in (German studies and art history) and to write.ĩ. Little did the young Kafka know that he would go on to join their ranks in the canon of world literature.Īt university, Kafka initially began studying chemistry, but soon changed to law.

Among his favorite authors were two of history’s greatest writers: Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Kafka read vociferously from a young age, and by the time he got to university, was exploring texts in Greek, French, Yiddish, Czech, and of course his native German. Franz Kafka Always Had A Passion For Literature Photograph of Franz Kafka as a young man

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