The Castle: Introduction by Irving Howe - Franz Kafka

nFrom the author of The Metamorphosis and The Trial, and one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century: Arriving in a village to take up the position of land surveyor for the mysterious lord of a castle, the character known as K. finds himself in a bitter and baffling struggle to contact his new employer and go about his duties. n As the villagers and the Castle officials block his efforts at every turn, K.'s consuming quest-quite possibly a self-imposed one-to penetrate the inaccessible heart of the Castle and take its measure is repeatedly frustrated.

Kafka once suggested that the would-be surveyor in The Castle is driven by a wish to get clear about ultimate things, an unrealizable desire that provided the driving force behind all of Kafka's dazzlingly uncanny fictions. n nEveryman's Library pursues the highest production standards, printing on acid-free cream-colored paper, with full-cloth cases with two-color foil stamping, decorative endpapers, silk ribbon markers, European-style half-round spines, and a full-color illustrated jacket. Contemporary Classics include an introduction, a select bibliography, and a chronology of the author's life and times.n