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Kafka: Sein Leben, seine Welt, sein Werk
A brilliant portrayal of the tormented, inspired writer who gave us the eerie and paranoid Metamorphosis, The Trial, and The Castle. This classic account of Kafka's life reveals how his unique body of work forces us to reconsider all our traditional assumptions about the divide between fiction and fact--and how Kafka used literature as a means of "putting himself on trial." "...a full biography which any Kafka reader will want to keep."--Observer. "Hayman...brings the jackdaw of Prague sharply to life."--The Times.
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1981
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About the author
Ronald Hayman
72 books14 followersRonald Hayman is a critic, dramatist, director and writer best known for his biographies.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 16, 2022
Modern biography. Rather disjointed, and persistently uses German titles of books without even having a simple list to cross-check them. Some areas too brief (Dora squeezed on to a few pages at the end) and the chronology occasionally jumps a little. On the other hand, the lit crit is better, so overall, probably 2.5 stars.
See my Kafka-related bookshelf for other works by and about Kafka: HERE.
See my Kafka-related bookshelf for other works by and about Kafka: HERE.
October 5, 2020
I have once more reached the conclusion of K a Biography of Kafka by Ronald Hayman. The book is a scrupulous analysis of a life lived in places where identities are hard to determine and where there is always a sense of displacement, for Kafka grew up in Prague then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire - a German speaking Czech Jew. Czech nationalism was always bubbling beneath the surface - and suspicion and prejudice were rife directed both at Jews and German speakers. This cauldron of enmities and threatening presences was made more menacing to the sensitive Kafka by his father a strong and dominating personality who found commercial success in running a hardware shop.
These were the dynamics at work in Kafka's fevered imagination. Hayman's book certainly made me wish to turn once more to the haunting stories and novels. The book skilfully interweaves the gestation of the works with the circumstances and conflicts from which they appear to derive. Throughout this life there is a fear of parental disapproval and scorn and a guilt arising from this fear. There are fraught relationships with women characterised by a deep need for company and acceptance in constant terrifying interplay with a struggle for personal and creative freedom. Tumultuous dramas play out in the tempestuous letters to Felice Bauer and later to Milena, a translator of his work, whose personal circumstances (she is married) provide further insurmountable obstacles to add to those self-inflicted torments that suffocate his yearnings for love.
It would be wrong though to view the life purely as some desperate melodrama exploding from the darkness of a damaged psyche for Kafka always attracted friends. He had natural gifts for warmth and playfulness and a capacity for selflessness in his obvious devotion and care for others. This manifests itself in his relationship with his sister Ottla, he appears caring about her future and lives contentedly with her at various times. His working life at the insurance office is characterised by professionalism and innate ability. There is evidence of stability and strength which maybe only illness, family circumstances and the unforgiving tides of history swept from his grasp. Hayman explores all these contradictory impulses and differing perspectives, building a rich and subtle portrait. I remember particularly the tender vignette provided by his office cleaner who tidies his workspace following his retirement - on his desk "the slender glass vase holding two pencils and a penholder, the blue and gold teacup and saucer he used for drinking milk and sometimes tea". This is an intensely human portrait. We can get close to the author, see beyond the disordered consciousness, the fevered brain and encounter the man that might have lived in kinder times - an imagination whose flowering fell early on the stony ground of a cruel fate. The major stories and novels are placed amid the chronology of his short life. We can see them shaped by personal and wider historical circumstances.
The biography itself reads like drama at key moments as in the opening pages, Hayman shows the writing of the story, Das Urteil (The Judgement) - confronting us with the feared father in both art and life, and then again in the closing scenes a tender romance develops between the dying author and Dora Dymant and vividly Hayman shows the tableau at the grave, a prostrate Dora and the figure of Kafka's troubled father turning coldly away from these tears.
This biography is as much a lived experience as a considered exposition of a complex and disturbing life. It is worth much more than a second reading.
These were the dynamics at work in Kafka's fevered imagination. Hayman's book certainly made me wish to turn once more to the haunting stories and novels. The book skilfully interweaves the gestation of the works with the circumstances and conflicts from which they appear to derive. Throughout this life there is a fear of parental disapproval and scorn and a guilt arising from this fear. There are fraught relationships with women characterised by a deep need for company and acceptance in constant terrifying interplay with a struggle for personal and creative freedom. Tumultuous dramas play out in the tempestuous letters to Felice Bauer and later to Milena, a translator of his work, whose personal circumstances (she is married) provide further insurmountable obstacles to add to those self-inflicted torments that suffocate his yearnings for love.
It would be wrong though to view the life purely as some desperate melodrama exploding from the darkness of a damaged psyche for Kafka always attracted friends. He had natural gifts for warmth and playfulness and a capacity for selflessness in his obvious devotion and care for others. This manifests itself in his relationship with his sister Ottla, he appears caring about her future and lives contentedly with her at various times. His working life at the insurance office is characterised by professionalism and innate ability. There is evidence of stability and strength which maybe only illness, family circumstances and the unforgiving tides of history swept from his grasp. Hayman explores all these contradictory impulses and differing perspectives, building a rich and subtle portrait. I remember particularly the tender vignette provided by his office cleaner who tidies his workspace following his retirement - on his desk "the slender glass vase holding two pencils and a penholder, the blue and gold teacup and saucer he used for drinking milk and sometimes tea". This is an intensely human portrait. We can get close to the author, see beyond the disordered consciousness, the fevered brain and encounter the man that might have lived in kinder times - an imagination whose flowering fell early on the stony ground of a cruel fate. The major stories and novels are placed amid the chronology of his short life. We can see them shaped by personal and wider historical circumstances.
The biography itself reads like drama at key moments as in the opening pages, Hayman shows the writing of the story, Das Urteil (The Judgement) - confronting us with the feared father in both art and life, and then again in the closing scenes a tender romance develops between the dying author and Dora Dymant and vividly Hayman shows the tableau at the grave, a prostrate Dora and the figure of Kafka's troubled father turning coldly away from these tears.
This biography is as much a lived experience as a considered exposition of a complex and disturbing life. It is worth much more than a second reading.
November 16, 2024
"A literatura como uma alternativa ao suicídio mas simultaneamente como uma alternativa à própria vida." e "O meu constante desejo, meu caro senhor, é captar um relance de como as coisas eram antes de se mostrarem a mim.". Estas duas citações de certa forma sintetizam a forma como Kafka encarava a literatura e a vida. Por esta ordem, em termos de importância relativa, como é óbvio. A forma de se relacionar com os outros era mais problemática. A empatia que emanava de Franz Kafka ficava muito a dever-se à sua quase completa ausência de auto-estima. Ou melhor: a capacidade empática de F, Kafka era reforçada pela visão depreciativa que tinha de si próprio. Isso podia torná-lo apreciado (além de fazer-se perdoar por chegar invariavelmente atrasado aos encontros...) mas dificultava claramente as suas relações mais íntimas. Embora tenha escrito inúmeras cartas e incontáveis páginas "íntimas", Kafka era um homem fechado, concentrado sobre si própria e com muitas dúvidas sobre aquilo que diariamente descobria em si. Também nisso reside a sua alegada afinidade com o romancista suíço Robert Walser. Sempre me pareceu que, à semelhança do que frequentemente acontece com tantas pessoas, também F. Kafka se foi (re)aproximando da religião à medida que ia envelhecendo e que os seus males de saúde se iam agravando. Estava menos ciente, porém, que Kafka enquanto escritor deve muito e desde muito cedo à tradição religiosa judaica em geral, e aos contos hassídicos em particular. Tudo isso descobri pela leitura desta biografia que entre as muitas que li de Kafka continua a ocupar um lugar preponderante.
July 26, 2014
Began very slow when discussing his early life and relationships. The latter part of the book improved when it began discussing his illness and his writing.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews