Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Book Review: The Castle by Franz Kafka (Modern Library No. 388)

The first Franz Kafka book i read was Metamorphosis. It's the book where Franz Kafka is popularly known about and a literary reference of Haruki Murakami, one of my favorite author, his reference to some of his books.

As i stumbled to a sales post in a Facebook page of books for sale somewhen last year, I saw another Franz Kafka title called The Castle. I want to learn more of this author, his writing style and what's the experience of being Kafkasqued, so I bought this title from Books, Brains, Bombs Facebook page.

Franz Kafka's The Castle Book Details:

franz kafka the castle front cover modern library 388 Title: The Castle [ German: Das Schloss ]
Author:
Publisher: Modern Library
Modern Library No. 388 [ ML 388 ]
Edition: Definitive edition with an Homage by Thomas Mann
Publication Date:
Original Language: German
Translated to: English
Translated by: Willa and Edwin Muir
Original Publication: published in German as Das Schloss by Kurt Wolff, S. Fischer Verlag, Munich
Country: Czechoslovakia
Genre: Philosophical Fiction, Dystopian Novel, Political Fiction


franz kafka the castle modern library 388 book register detailsNote: As I've inspected this book, ISBN and other details usually found in modern publications are not present in this title. The only unique book details I've found is shown in the right picture.

I've retrieved the ISBN and other information from a closely similar copy sold by a seller in Amazon.com (see details here):
Modern Library; 1st edition (March 12, 1969)ISBN-10: 0394603885
ISBN-13: 9780394603889
Comparing the details above to the register of my book, It shows that my book was published first at February 1969. A true 1st Edition?