Book Review – Franz Kafka – The Trial

Tweet

Penguin Books – spoiler alerts Written in 1915 but not published until 1925 after Kafka’s death, in defiance of the author’s wishes for all his stories to be posthumously destroyed, this has got to be one of the most terrifying and gripping novels ever set to paper. It begins when the hero, Josef K (Is this deliberate use of Kafka’s own initial?) is approached one day by the authorities, who inform him quite casually that he is under arrest. K, convinced throughout the book of his innocence, asks understandably enough what he is supposed to have done that is so wrong. His arresting officers refuse to tell him, but neither do they take him away for questioning or incarceration. They allow him to go about his life and business normally, with promises to return from time to time in order to tell him how his trial in absence in going. K, understandably distressed, tries to find out what he stands accused of, but gets absolutely nowhere with his self-investigation. Even the court magistrate presiding over his case will not give him any information. K is merely told that his trial is going badly for him. He stumbles on a dark allegory in which a man spends his entire life trying to convince the guardian of Heaven (the realm of The Law) to let him in. When he points out that in the whole time, he has seen no one else ever enter the doors of The Law, the guard locks the doors to Law (whilst outside them himself) and leaves. Soon after this mysterious story is told, arresting officers visit K once more. He is told that his trial is finally over. He has been found guilty. Again no reason, or crime is stated. If anything, K is guilty of the arrogance and pride of assuming that he or anyone could think of himself or herself as innocent. Finally, K is led away as a prisoner. His guards take him to a rubbish tip and offer him a knife, expecting him to take his own life. Only now is K able to make a defiant stand. He insists that the authorities kill him, forcing the men to take his blood on their hands. They do. The Trial is a gloomy, pessimistic, but compelling study of existential despair at its very best. Youtube The Parable Of The Law read by Orson Welles from his film version of The Trial Arthur Chappell